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J. THOMAS SCHARF. 



HISTORY 



OF THE 



CONFEDERATE STATES NAVY 



FROM ITS ORGANIZATION 



TO THE SURRENDER OF ITS LAST VESSEL. 



ITS STUPENDOUS STRUGGLE WITH THE GREAT NAVY OF THE 

UNITED STATES ; THE ENGAGEMENTS FOUGHT IN THE RIVERS 

AND HARBORS OP THE SOUTH, AND UPON THE HIGH SEAS; 

BLOCKADE - RUNNING, FIRST USE OF IRON-CLADS 

AND TORPEDOES, AND PRIVATEER HISTORY. 



BY 

j?'thomas scharf, a. m., ll.d. 

AN OFFICER OF THE LATE CONFEDERATE STATES NAVV, 

Uil/iorof "Chionicles of Baltimore," '^Hislorv of Maryland," "History of Baltiinoif," "History 
of SI. Louis," " History of Western Maryland," " History of Philadelphia," "History of 
Westchester County, N. Y.," etc. Also, Member of Historical Societies of Virginia, 
Georgia, South Carolina, Maryland, Pennsylvania, New York, Wis- 
consin, Minnesota, Philosophical Society of Ohio, etc., etc. 



PROFUSELY ILLUSTRATED. 



>7EW YORK: \.«\ 

R0GE;RS & SHERWOOD 

1887. 



>y'M.B:i- 



San Francisco, Cal.: A. L. Bancroft &■ Co. Washington, I). C: C. D. AldersoK. 

Hartford, Conn.: Ch.arles P. Hatch. Burlington, Iowa: I. K. Skgnkr. 

New Orleans: Armaxd Hawkins. Mobile, Ala.: \Vm. E. Micki.e. 



Copyright, 1886. 
By J. Thomas Schaef, A. M., LL.D. 

All Rights Reserved. 






S i 



THE OFFICERS OF THE NAVY OF THE CONFEDERATE STATES, 

■WHO, IMPELLED BY CONVICTIONS OF DUTY, RESIGNED THEIR COMMISSIONS IN THE NAVY OF THE 

UNITED STATES, AND SACRIFICING AMBITION, PROMOTION AND THE COMFORTS OF AN HONORABLE 

SERVICE. OBEYED THE ORDINANCES OF THE STATES OF WHICH THEY WERE CITIZENS, 

AND WERE COMMISSIONED IN THE NAVY AND ARMY OF THE CONFEDERATE STATES ; 

AND TO THEIE COMRADES, 

WHO FROM CIVIL LIFE BECAME OFFICERS IN THAT SERVICE; AS WELL AS 

TO THE BRAVE SAILORS 

WHO SHARED THE PERILS AND PRIVATIONS OF THAT NAVY, 

THIS BOOK IS DEDICATED, 

AS THE author's TRIBUTE TO CONSCIENTIOUS DUTY_^ELL PERFORMED, TO UNSURPASSED COURAGE 
BRILLIANTLY DISPLAYED; TO PRIVATIONS UNCOMPLAININGLY BORNE, AND TO THEIR SPLENDID EX- 
AMPLE OF CITIZENSHIP IN POVERTY SINCE THE TERMINATION OF THE WAR BETWEEN THE STATES. 
WHILE IT CAN ADD NOTHING TO THEIR HONORABLE RECORD, IT WILL PRESERVE THE STORY 
OF A SERVICE WHICH IS SURPASSED BY THAT OF NO OTHER PEOPLE IN HONORA- 
BLE ACTION, AND IN GLORIOUS ACHIEVEMENTS. WHICH INADEQUATE MEANS 
RENDERED FRDITLSSS, BUT WHICH DEFEAT CANNOT OBLITERATE. 

\ 



PREFACE. 



IT is no exaggeration of the services rendered in the late war 
by the navy of the United States, to say that without its 
aid the armies of the Union would not have been successful; 
that if the United States had been as destitute of a navy 
and of naval resources as the Southern Confederacy was, that 
the Union would have been dissolved; that without Farragut 
and Foote, Grant and Sherman would occupy in history the 
same plane with McDowell and Banks, Burnside and Hooker; 
that when the navy was not co-operating McDowell was hurled 
back on Washington: McClellan was driven from Richmond 
to seek protection under the guns of the navy on James River; 
that Pope was bounced from Cedar Mountain and, ricochetting 
at Manassas, rested like a spent ball under the defences of the 
capital; that in the West the "tin-clad" navy conveyed the 
army to Fort Henry, and was its effective left wing at Donel- 
son; that the Mississippi River from Cairo to its mouth was 
firmly held by the Confederates until Foote from the North 
and Farragut from the South broke its barriers and opened its 
navigation: that Vicksburg and Port Hudson successfully de- 
fied and defeated the land forces, and surrendered as much to 
the navy as to the army; that Sherman would never have un- 
dertaken the '• march to the sea " if the navy had not provided 
protection on the seaboard; that Grant, in the Wilderness, di- 
verted by Lee from his direct march on Richmond, sought the 
friendly help of the navy in his campaign to capture the Con- 
federate capital; that the blockade from the Chesapeake Bay 
to the mouth of the Rio Grande shut the Confederacy out from 
the world, deprived it of supplies, weakened its military and 
naval strength, and compelled exhaustion, by requiring the 



W 



VI PREFACE. 

consumption of everything grown or raised in the country; 
that there was not an act in either army that surpassed in 
magnificent courage the bold defiance by Lieut. Morris, of the 
U. S. Navy, of death alike from shot and drowning, on the deck 
of the sinking Cuinberlaiid. rather than surrender the ship. 

And it was in the school of that navy that Buchanan, Tat- 
nall, Ingraham, Mitchell, Semmes. Wood, Rollins, Tucker, 
Jones, Maffitt, Maury, Wilkinson, Davidson, Pegram, Brown, 
Bulloch. Brooke, and their associates, learned examples of 
heroic seamanship which enabled them to write the story of 
the Confederate Navy in high relief across the page of his- 
tory. 

That story it is the province of this book to tell, but the 
difficulties and embarrassments which have surrounded the 
subject can be known only to the author. Of official records 
there are very few of any kind in existence, and not a com- 
plete set for any department, or of the operations at any port, 
or of any vessel, except that preserved b}" Admiral Semmes of 
the Alabama. To meet that difficulty the author was com- 
pelled to rely mainly on the aid and assistance of Confederate 
naval officers. But while willing and anxious to aid in every 
way, these officers possessed but very few records and M-ere 
unwilling to rely merely on their memory. However, in reply 
to letters sent out by the autlior, much reliable information 
was obtained and valuable suggestions made, which when 
followed up led to the solving of many difficulties and the 
clearing away of much doubt and uncertainty. The "Official 
Records," now being published by the United States Govern- 
ment, have in the published volumes but very little that refers 
to naval affairs. Thus, the author has been compelled to rely 
upon his own unequaled collection of naval material, which 
he has been fifteen years in collecting, on contemporary ac- 
counts of operations, collected and preserved in newspapers, 
private letters, and individual papers, which compared with 
Federal authorities and such official Confederate records as 
escaped destruction, were again in many chapters referred to 
those officers now living who participated in the scenes and 
actions described for their supervision and correction. 

The author's object was the truth, the whole truth as far 
as practicable, and nothing but the truth, in all he wrote. 
Many worthy and deserving officers, who fully and faithfully 
performed their arduous duties, have not received mention in 
the book, solely because the author had not the record which 
would enable him to relate the service rendered; while there 
is abundant authority to establish the truth of all that is told 
in the book, much valuable service has been lost to history by 
the destruction of records 

It is to be hoped that the book will serve to excite surviv- 
ing officers, and the representatives of those deceased, to 
search for and recover lost manuscripts, so that future edi- 



PREFACE. vii 

tions may add to this labor of love, the record of services 
omitted in this. 

Notwithstanding the difficulties which beset the author, 
many facts have been brought to light, doubtful statements 
settled, errors corrected, and character rescued from misrep- 
resentation and falsehood. Histories of the U. S. Navy writ- 
ten during the war, or immediately after its close, have under- 
taken to give accounts and details of Confederate action and 
motive, without the facts, and without knowledge of the cir- 
cumstances of the Confederate side of the question, or of the 
particular action described. Errors, not necessarily inten- 
tional, but unavoidable, have thus been introduced into his- 
tory, which the author of this M^ork has endeavored to correct 
and explain. While vindicating the political views of Confed- 
erate officers, no criticism has been found necessary of those 
whose convictions of dutv impelled them to take tlie ''other 
side." 

If, therefore, in this effort to relate the deeds of daring, 
the instances and examples where ingenuity, enterprise and 
device rose above the embarrassments of restricted and lim- 
ited resources, we have exhibited a partiality or seemed to 
detract from the glory of the parent navy, it must be attrib- 
uted to sympathy with a common suffering, ratlier than a 
purpose to lesson that renown in which every American must 
now participate. Time has deprived prejudice of its rancor, 
politics of its bitterness, and, without changing convictions of 
duty, has united both sections of the Union under the govern- 
ment instituted by our fathers, and under its influence each 
party to the war can now read with profit the deeds of those 
who 

" Gashed with honorable scars, 
Low in glory's lap thev lie, 
Though they fell they fell like stars, 
Streaming sj^lendor through the sky." 

That navy at all times carries in pride, and we hope will 
always bear in triumph, that flag which now belongs alike to 
North and South. If we tell how the stars and bars wrested 
victor}- from the stars and stripes, we shall only exhibit the 
heroism of Americans, and make plain a glory that belongs 
to all the citizens of the Great Republic. 

The author heartily acknowledges the intelligent aid and 
generous encouragement which he has received from his pub- 
lishers ; and he also acknowledges his indebtedness to the pub- 
lishers of Admiral Porter's '• Naval History of the Civil War," 
for the loan of maps and illustrations. 
Baltimore, May 1st, 1887. 



LIST OF ILLUSTRATIONS. 



PAGE 

Alabama, Cbuiser 800 

Albemable, Ram, Diagbam 403 

Atlanta, Cedisee 641 

- Be all. Lloyd J 769 

' Attack on Foets Jackson and St. Philip. . 290 

Bbooke, John M 49 

Browne, Isaac N 312 

B0CHANAN, FrANKUN 152 

-Bulloch, J. D 56 

Cairo, U.S. Ieon-Clad 752 

' ' Chatakd, Fredeeick 104 

Cooke, James W 408 

^ Davis, Jefferson 11 

Florida, Cruiser 792 

- Forrest, French 40 

Fort Hindm an. Plan of 318 

Fort Morgan 685 

Fey, James 344 

Governor Moore, Steamer 285 

Harriet Lane, Steamer 608 

Harbikt Lane, Capture of 605 

HoLLiNS, George N , 243 

Howell, Jefferson Davis 780 

HuGER, Thomas B 288 

Indianola, Iron-Clad 362 

IjiGRAHAM, D.N 680 

Jones, Cap R 184 

Lee, B. E., Blockade Bunneb 468 

Lee, Sidney Smith 712 

Louisl\na, Ram 266 

Maffitt, John T 392 

Malloey, Stephen R 27 

Manassas, K.\M 264 

Manassas, in flames 296 

Maurt, Matthew F 96 

MclNTOSH.C.F 280 

Merrimac (See Virginia) 



page 
Mississippi, below New Orleans 290 

- Mitchell, John K 297 

Mobile Bat, Diagram 552 

Monitor. Profile 172 

-Morris, C.M 88 

Mound Battery 424 

Nashville, sinking U. S. Vessel 633 

Page, Richard L 553 

Parker, William H 176 

Patrick Henry, School Ship 776 

Pensacola Navy- Yard, Destruction of. . . . 615 
Queen of the West, Bam 352 

" Roanoke Island, Plan 388 

RocHELLE, John H 704 

Savannah, Defences of 635 

^ ScHARF, J. Thomas Frontispiece 

Semmes, Raphael 744 

Shenandoah, Cruiser 809 

Smith's Island, Diagram 423 

Stonewall, Ram 784 

Sumter, Cruiser 787 

' Tathall, Josiah 216 

Tennessee, Profile 653 

Tennessee, Diagram 555 

Tennessee, after captuee 574 

Torpedoes 751-764 

Torpedo Boats 759 

Tucker, John R 200 

Turret Ship.. 788 

Virginia, IN dock 154 

Virginia, Profile 172 

Virginia, Sinking Cumberland 160 

Virginia and Monitor in Battle — 168 

Waddell.I.T... 816 

Whittle, William C 300 

Wilkinson, John 464 

-Wood, John Taylok 121 



CONTENTS 



CHAPTER I. 



PAGE. 



27 



53 



94 



Introduction, . . • • • • • • ^^ 

CHAPTER II. . 
Want of Preparation for War, . . . . .15 

CHAPTER III. 
Organization of the Navy, . . , . 

CHAPTER IV. 
Privateers, or Letters of Marque, 

CHAPTER V. 
Virginia Waters, ... ... 

CHAPTER VI. 
Captures in Virginia Waters, ... .111 

CHAPTER VII. 
Hampton Roads, . . . . . • ■ -128 

CHAPTER VIII. 

The First Iron-clad, . . . . • - • l^^^ 

CHAPTER IX. 
The JN^AVAL Battle in Hampton Roads, . . . -157 

CHAPTER X. 

The Virginia (Merrimac) and Monitor, . . . -167 

CHAPTER XI. 
The Mississippi River from Cairo to V^icksburg, . • 239 

CHAPTER XII. 
Building a Navy at New Orleans, 



263 



X CONTENTS. 

CHAPTER XIII. 

PAUE. 

Mississippi River from the (julf to Vicksburg, . . 278 

CHAPTER XIV. 

The Rams ''Arkansas," "Queen of the West," "iNDiAxoiiA," 

AND "Webb," ..... ... 303 

CHAPTER XV. 
North Carolina Waters, . . .... 368 

CHAPTER XVI. 

The Blockade, . ....... 438 

CHAPTER XVII. 

Trans-Mississippi Waters, . . . , .494 

CHAPTER XVIII. 
Alabama Waters, . . . . ... 533 

CHAPTER XIX. 
Florida Waters, . . . . . , .599 

CHAPTER XX. 
Georgia Waters, . . . . • . . , . g2C 

CHAPTER XXI. 

South Carolina Waters, . . . , . .055 

CHAPTER XXII. 
Virginia Waters (continued), . . . , . . 708 

CHAPTER XXIII. 

, The Torpedo Service, . . . . . . .750 

r 

CHAPTER XXIV. 

The Confederate States Marine Corps, . . . .769 

CHAPTER XXV. 
The Confederate States Naval Academy, . . .773 

CHAPTER XXVI. 

The Confederate States Cruisers, , , , . .782 

APPENDIX. 

Names of Commissioned and Warrant Officers, C. S. Navy, . 819 

Index, . . . . . . . . . 821 



CHAPTER I 
INTRODUCTION. 



WHILE it does not enter within the scope of this work 
to discuss the political subjects which, after long years 
of debate, culminated in the late war between the 
States, yet we are confronted at the very threshold of 
our undertaking with the moral question : Whether there was 
either violation of oath, or ingratitude to the United States, in 
resigning commissions in that service, and accepting commis- 
sions under their States, b}- those officers who had been educated 
in the military and naval schools at West Point and Annapolis? 
That question involves in its solution the theories upon 
which the Constitution of the United States was framed. For, 
if it was ordained and established by one people, then the rela- 
tion of citizenship to the United States was wholly outside of 
all relation to the States, and the allegiance of those officers 
was due directly and entirely to the United States. If. on the 
contrary, the Constitution was ordained and established by 
the States, in their sovereign and independent character, then 
allegiance was due primarily to the States, and became due to 
the United States only through the action of the States. If, 
therefore, the States, by their sovereign act, transferred the 
allegiance of their citizens to the United States, that allegiance 
could only be by the act of the State, and remain due only 
so long as the State continued a party to the Constitution of 
the United States. 

Whether the theory of a national, or of a compact, govern- 
ment be the true theory of the Constitution, now and here- 
after, it is not necessary to discuss. The compact theory of 
the United States Constitution, announced in 1800 to all the 
States, and denied bv none, continued to be held by the people 
of the Southern States down to the year 1861. From that 
theory was derived the axiom of political faith, that the State, 
and not the citizen, was the contracting party to the Constitu- 
tion, and that the power, right and duty of continuing with or 
withdrawing' from the Union remained with the State. Hence 



13 THE CONFEDERATE STATES NAVY. 

all Southern men held that the sovereign act of the State was 
obligatory on her citizens, and of such efficacy that disobedi- 
ence by her citizen to the ordinance of secession would have 
been treason to the State, In the political relations of States 
there are questions which the State only can determine ; of 
these that of allegiance is the first and of most importance. At 
the formation of the Constitution of 1789. the States trans- 
mitted the allegiance of their citizens to the United States. 
The act of the State, by which the citizen was bound to obey 
the authority of the United States, did not divest the citizen of 
his duty to obey the State, but made allegiance to the United 
States to be the citizen's duty because the State was one of 
the United States. That act of the State did not create a 
double allegiance — one to the State, and another to the United 
States — but transferred, while the State was a party to the 
United States Constitution, the single allegiance of her citizen 
to the United States through and by virtue of the act of the 
State. 

Under any theory of double allegiance it would have been 
impossible for the citizen to have escaped committing the 
crime of treason. For, if the State should be driven by 
oppression to withdraw from the Constitution of the United 
Slates, her citizen, under this double allegiance, would have 
been bound to the United States. Hence, if the citizens should 
obey their own State, the}^ would be pursued and hunted 
down as traitors to the Federal government; and, if forsaking 
the State to which their allegiance was originally exclusively 
due, they should adhere to the Federal government, they 
would be traitors to their own State and enemies to their fire- 
sides. Such a scheme of government would be a monstrous 
engine of cruelty and oppression, which no man can believe 
the fathers of the Constitution erected to. crush and grind 
their posterity between the upper and the nether inillstones 
of the two governments, and then pronounce it to be a scheme 
"to secure the blessings of liberty to themselves and their 
posterit}'.-' 

With the officers of the army and navy there was no 
party politics — but they held a faith or conviction upon the 
relation of their States to the Federal Union, disconnected 
from all party association, which did not permit them to dis- 
cuss whether their States were acting wisely or prudently — 
but only that their States had acted, and that they were bound 
by the sovereign act of their States. It was their sense of 
duty — their view of citizenship, their conviction of allegiance 
to the State — tliat impelled them to resign their commissions in 
the service of the United States and cast their fortunes with 
their States. 

By ordinance of the Virginia Convention, it Avas "ordained 
that all officers, civil and military, and the people generally of 
this State, be and they are hereby released from any and all 



THE CONFEDERATE STATES NAVY. 13 

oaths which they may have taken to support the Constitu- 
tion of the late confederacy, known as The United States of 
America, and that the said oaths and the said Constitution 
are inoperative and void, and of no effect." 

Thus a political oath, taken by virtue of a command from 
the State, was absolved and released by a like sovereign act 
of the State. 

As to the resignation of those officers. Admiral Semmes 
very justly remarks : 

" It must be admitted, indeed, tliat there was some little nerve re- 
quired on the part of an officer of the ref;u]ar army or navy to elect to 
go with his State. His profession was his only fortune ; he depended 
upon it for the means of subsisting himself and family. If he remained 
where he was, a competency for life, and promotions, and honors, prob- 
ably, awaited him ; if he went with the South, a dark, uncertain future 
was before him ; he could not possibly better his condition, and, if the 
South failed, he would have thrown away the labor of a life-time. The 
struggle was hard in other respects. All professions are clannish. Men 
nmtually cling together who have been bred in a common pursuit, and 
this i-emark is peculiarly applicable to the army and the navy. West 
Point and Annapolis were powerful bonds to knit together the hearts of 
young men. Friendships were there formed which it was difficult to 
sever, especially when strengthened by years of after-associatit>n in com- 
mon toils, counnon pleasures, and common dangers. Naval officers, in 
particular, who had been rocked together in the same storm, and had 
escaped perhaps from the same shipwreck, found it very difficult to draw 
their swords against each other. The flag, too, had a charm which it 
was difficult to resist. It had long been the emblem of the principle that 
all just governments are founded on the consent of the governed, vindi- 
cated against our British ancestors in the War of the Revolution; and it 
was difficult to realize the fact that it no longer represented that principle, 
but had become the emblem of its opposite : that of coercing unwilling 
States to remain under a government which they deemed unjust and 
oppressive." 

Of the same tenor is the testimony borne by Capt. Bulloch 
and Parker, and by the sentiments of affection in every 
Southern officer who resigned from the United States Navy. 
It required no sacrifice and entailed no inconvenience to re- 
main loyal to the Union : but to resign from that service 
involved every consideration which might deter a man not 
actuated by exalted principles. 

There could not, therefore, be any violation of an oath 
which had been taken by command of the State, after the 
State absolved and released her citizen from its obligation and 
commanded his services in her own defence. 

As to ingratitude, in resigning after education in the 
military and naval schools — the same reasons apply with equal 
force. Those schools had been established and maintained by 
the States, in their associated capacity as " The United States 
of America," for the defence only of the States, for outside of 
the States there was nothing to defend. The citizens of the 
States were appointed cadets from the States, maintained by 
the taxes of citizens of the States, and were appointed to the 
army and navy which was designed only to protect and 



14 THE CONFEDERATE STATES NAVY. 

defend the States. It is hardly necessary to say that it nevei 
was within the contemplation of the States, when the schools 
at West Point and Annapolis were established, to conjecture 
or suppose that the graduates would ever be called upon to 
fight against the States — even for the union of the States. 
But in 1861 events had presented to the States that most un- 
expected result — the soldiers and sailors, educated by the 
Federal government in its character of agent of the Sia'. . 
were called upon by that agent to fight against its princi] i ! 
by the servant to make war on the master; by the crejilur.- 
to destroy the creator. In that anomalous condition of the 
relations of the States to the Federal Union, the eleves of 
West Point and Annapolis returned to their States without the 
least ingratitude to the United Ptates, which had lost sight of 
its origin and assumed a mastery where only a service or 
agency was designed.^ 

Such was the firm and honest sense of duty entertaiiipd 
not only by these officers, but taught and inculcated in the 
political literature of the Southern States, and incorporate'! in 
the great principles of government and parties from the election 
of Mr. Jefferson in 1800 to the close of Mr. Buchanan's in iMiO, 
The resolutions of Virginia and Kentucky, in 179S, was tlie 
magna cliarta of political principles not only for the South* rn 
States, but New England, in 1815, drew from them her justil ■ u- 
tion of opposition to the war with Great Britain. That tb ■••(^ 
resolutions had been assailed and the inference of the righ' of 
secession controverted by eminent statesmen and jurists o t 
the North is not denied, but they retained throughout tiu- 
South their great cardinal features of political faith. In ob > - 
ing convictions directly resulting from the teachings of ?[r. 
Jefferson and Mr. Madison, ratified and confirmed by the n. - 
peated elections of both of the authors of those resolutions, 
the officers discharged a duty as binding upon their conscienies 
as was their faith in the Supreme Being. 

1 At the beginning of the war a great deal was ARMY. South. N<.f,h. 

said about the way the bodj' of the officers Generals 2 

who commanded the army and navy was con- Colonels It 

stituted with reference to the North and the jj'^"*^g'"'"*'*^*'^°°*''^ g[ ,:,' 

Soiith. and much speculation was rife as to the Cantains" 151 IH") 

course these gentlemen would pursue in case Lieutenants'. [.'...!.'... !..'.!!'.".*.! 238 2'.':? 

of conflict between the two sections. Mr. 

Seward, in the political campaign of 1860, de- Total 407 5"; ■ 

nounced both services as mere slave-catching N.VVY. 

and slave-keeping institutions, and declared Captains 34 4' 

for the abolition of both when he was speaking Commanders (",2 6 .; 

in the West, where the Navy was particularly Lieutenants 135 19 i 

unmmnlar Surgeons 25 4t 

unpopular. Assistant Surgeons 44 3". 

The imi^ression. in 18G0, seemed prevalent Paymasters 30 3' 

that the majority of the olficers in both branches Chaplains 7 1< 

of the service came from the South, and had Masters 15 2!; 

Southern preiudices, but the armv and navy . '.'^^^'S??^'\:.- l^ ,?] 

. . • li .; ,, • It,, 'n -L.- t Actmg Midshipmen fiO 17f< 

registers give the following tables, from which Boatswains..... 14 27 

it will be seen that there was a majority in Gunners .'.'.'.'. '. 20 2€ 

favor of the Nt)rth in both services — a majority * " 

of 112 in the army, and of 253 in the navy ; Total 460 7)3 



CHAPTER II. 
WANT OF PREPARATION FOR WAR. 



IN the same line of reckless aspersion as that against the 
resigned officers was the charge r»"'ade against the Southern 
States of having, while in the Union, prepared resources of 
arms and collected munitions of war to effect its disso- 
lution. 

In support of that assertion, the Potter Committee of the 
Federal Congress reflected with severity upon the transfer of 
certain arms to the Southern States during the year 1860, prior 
to the election of Mr. Lincoln, and when secession was being 
discussed in the same language which had been used on that 
subject for thirty years before. But the subsequent secession 
of the Southern States gave point and application to the charge 
that Secretary Floyd had prepared the South for war by arm- 
ing the States with United States arms. The raid of John 
Brown into Virginia had put into actual war the continued 
threat of the avowed Abolitionists, who regarded the Consti- 
tution as a "compact with the devil and a league with hell" 
— and who swore to 

" Tear down that flaunting lie ! 
Half-mast the starry flag ! 
Insult no sunny sky 

With hate's polluted rag." 

For defence against those attacks of invasion the peace- 
ful policy of Virginia had rendered her wholly unprepared. 
Northern cupidity availed itself of that excitement and 
vociferously cried to Congress for the manufacture of more 
arms. Pittsburgh manufacturers lobbied a bill through Con- 
gress for the manufacture of cannon to arm the unfinished 
Southern forts. 

The appropriation for casting these cannon was passed 
by Congress, without the knowledge or solicitation of Secre- 
tary Floyd, under the industrious lobbying of Pittsburgh iron- 
founders. The guns were cast in obedience to law, and the 
early shipment of them in advance of the full completion 

(15) 



16 THE CONFEDERATE STATES NAVY, 

of the forts, though not in advance of the readiness of the 
forts to receive their armament, was due more to the fact 
that the Pittsburgh iron-founders were bound bj^ their con- 
tract to deUver them before receiving their pay than to the 
special eagerness of the Secretary to get them off. The Secre- 
tary simply obeyed a mandate of Congress, and the Pittsburgh 
c<jntractors simply obeyed the influences of cupidity. But 
those guns never readied the Southern forts, tlieir shipment 
was stopped in Pittsburgh by Secretary Holt. Much was also 
said about one hundred thousand muskets having been ordered 
to be sold to one Belknap at two and one- half dollars each, as 
being a part of the same scheme to arm the South. But that 
order was made under a standing law and in pursuance of 
numerous reports of competent boards of ordnance officers, 
declaring the Government would do well to get rid of them 
at two dollars. Those muskets never came to the South ; for, 
though offered to and urged upon the Southern States, they 
would not take them. Virginia had previously taken a few 
thousand, Mississippi as many more, and Alabama -a still 
greater number. Probably South Carolina and Georgia took 
also a few thousand; but when a hundred thousand more could 
have been had for a song they paid no attention to the subject. 
The offer to the States was at two dollars ; the offer to Bel- 
knap was not till afterwards, and at two and one-half dollars, 
Belknap's scheme was to sell the muskets in Europe, and not 
to the South, as tJie committee's report insinuated. 

For years prior to 1860 it had been the policy of the Federal 
war department to allow all the rifles and muskets manufac- 
tured at the Federal armories to be deposited in Northern 
arsenals. That at AVatervliet, near Troy, N. Y., contained 
probably one-half of all the arms of improved patterns owned 
by the Federal government. 

The attack of John Brown upon Virginia, and the numer- 
ous efforts of Northern emissaries to excite Southern slaves to 
insurrection, suggested the importance of distributing their 
(juota of these fine guns among the Southern States, Accord- 
ingly, orders were issued in 1860, by Secretary Floyd, to 
transfer the Southern quota of the arms from the Northern 
arsenals. 

On May 30th, 1860, prior to the nomination even of Mr. 
Lincoln, an order was made for the transfer of the quota of 
arms to the Southern arsenals. Under which order the trans- 
fer was as follows : 

Percus'n Muskets. Altered Muskets. Percus'n Rifles. 

Charleston (S. C.) Arsenal, , . 9,280 5,720 2.000 

North Carolina Arsenal, . . . 15,408 9,520 2.000 

Auf?usta (Ga. ) Arsenal, . . . 12,380 7,030 2,000 

Mt. Vernon, Ala 9,280 5,720 2.000 

Baton Roufje, La., . . . 18,82Q 11,420 2,000 
The number of arms transferred to these arsenals under this order 
being 114,868. 



THE CONFEDERATE STATES NAVY. 17 

That transfer of arms was made prior to the nominations 
of political parties in 1860, long anterior to the presidential 
election and entirely without the least expectation of seces- 
sion or war. The safety of persons and property at the South, 
the preservation of order and social life in the slave-holding 
States, had been put in jeopardy by Northern incendiaries, and 
that transfer of arms was justified by what had already taken 
place at Harper's Ferry under John Brown, and by the sym- 
pathy shown to and martyrdom conferred upon that insurrec- 
tionist and incendiary. The portion borne by the Southern 
States in the expenditures of the Federal government entitled 
them to the custody of a fair quota of this sort of public prop- 
erty. They were taken under undisputed legal right ; and 
more than the portion taken belonged to the Southern States 
by right of property fairly paid for. That transfer of arms 
was the act of the Federal government, and not the prepara- 
tion for war by any State. 

But the charge of previous preparation for war was be- 
lieved by many at the North, and has been since the war 
repeatedly asserted by writers who ought to have known bet- 
ter. If those wiio made the assertion had shown that prepar- 
ation for war had been even commenced, that materials of 
war had been collected, that any steps had been taken to 
make successful an attempt to dissolve the Union, there might 
be some probability in the assertion. But the fact is now ap- 
parent and within the reach of all, that, until the organization 
of the Confederate States, there was not a ship owned by any 
State, nor the least effort made to procure one ; that there was 
not a piece of ordnance of any kind; not a yard in which a 
yawl-boat could be built; not a machine shop capable, without 
material alterations, of constructing the simplest piece of 
naval machinery; not a rope-yard, not a percussion-cap 
machine ; only one powder mill, no supply of nitre, or sulphur, 
or lead — not the least preparation of any kind. 

Why was it that there were no preparations ? The answer 
must be found in the conviction of all men, that none could be 
needed — because secession was a peaceful remedy — and war 
would not follow separation from a Union which owed its 
existence to a peaceable secession from an older Union. Hence 
there was no preparation for war — until President Lincoln's 
Proclamation, calling on all the States for 75,000 men to recap- 
ture the forts, etc., held by the seceded States, made war not only 
imminent but actual. It was that proclamation which brought 
the two sections of the Union face to face in war, as independ- 
ent and hostile Republics, but without the least preparation on 
the part of either. The United States was in better condition 
and situation for war than the Confederate States, but not with- 
out less preparation. That government had the small army 
as a nucleus for a larger, and all the ships of the navy — for no 
Southern officer who resigned brought a ship with him to the 



18 THE CONFEDERATE STATES NAVY. 

Confederacy. They did not presume to take upon themselves 
the duty of dividing the navy among the States, notwithstand- 
ing it was the common property of all the States. In the excite- 
ment of the times, it would have been pardonable conduct to 
have brought their ships to the defence of the States; but their 
delicate sense of honor, and a sailor's duty to the government 
whose commission he bore, required that he should divest him- 
self of every selfish motive before he returned his commission 
to the Federal government. In the light of such honorable con- 
duct, the petty malice with which Secretary Welles was actu- 
ated, when he endeavored to stigmatize these officers with 
having ''deserted the service," reacts with more effect against 
the character of the Secretary than against the conduct of these 
officers. 

The forts, arsenals, etc., situated in and attached to the soil 
•of the States, had all been conveyed to the United States, with 
the reservation of the State's right of re-entry and occupa- 
tion, wiien the forts, etc., ceased to be used for the defence of 
the State. The property was held in trust for all the States, as 
a means of defending all, through the avenues of commerce 
in the particular State. Hence, when the State, in which the 
fort, arsenal and dock-yard was situated, withdrew from the 
Union, the purposes of the trust ended, and she resumed her 
right and jurisdiction over the fort. The money expended in 
improving the fort was, of course, to have been returned to 
the United States in the settlement of accounts between the 
seceded States and the United States ;^ and that was one of 
the objects of the diplomatic mission of Messrs. Forsyth and 
Crawford to the government at Washington, in March, 1861. 

Every act of the seceded States had been peaceful, and there 
"was no occasion for war until the authorities at Washington 
put in practice their new scheme or theory invented by Presi- 
dent Lincoln : that he would re-occupy and hold the forts in 
the seceded States. The little garrison at Sumter could not 
have effected the result of the issue between the Confederate 
States and the United States, whether it yielded under the 
pressure of a want of supplies, or was delivered to South 
Carolina under the constitutional view that it belonged to 
that State. But Major Anderson and his little command offered 
an excellent opportunity for the application of the new theory 
to re-occupy and hold the forts, etc. — and, better, it could be so 
managed as to make the Confec^erates States fire the first gun. ^ 

'The Provisional Constitution of the Con- that Dnion, npon the principles of right, justice, 

federate States provided that: equity and good faith." — Stat, at Large, Prov. 

"The government hereby instituted shall Gov't, C. S A., pp. 27, 28. 
take immediate steps for the settlement of all 2 xhe New York Herald of April 5, 1861, said: 
matters between the States forming it and "We have no doubt Mr. Lincoln wants the 
their other late confederates of the United Cabinet at Montgomery to take the initiative 
States, in relation to the public jiroperty and by cajituring the two forts in its waters, for 
public debt at the time of their withdrawal it would give him the opportunity of throw- 
from them: these States hereby declaring it to ing uiwn the .Southern Confederacy the re- 
be their wish and earnest desire to adjust sponsibility of commencing hostilities. But 
everything i^ertaining to the common iirojjerty, the country and posterity will hold him just as 
common liabilities, and common obligations of responsible as if he struck the first blow." 



THE CONFEDERATE STATES NAVY. 19 

It is no part of our purpose to trace the course of that de- 
-vious and disgraceful diplomacy which, in Washington City, 
during March and April, 1861, was running both above and 
below the surface — the Secretary of State promising peace 
and the evacuation of Sumter, and the Secretaries of War 
and Navy preparing military and naval expeditions to force 
the firing of the first gun upon the Confederates. Secretary 
Welles, in the Galaxy for November, 1870, told the story of 
the double and triple negotiations by which the war was in- 
augurated, and a few extracts will fully sustain us in saying 
that war, and not peace, was the object of the Washington 
authorities. Mr. Welles says: 

" Mr. Seward from the commencement doubted not only the practica- 
bility of reinforcing Sumter, but the expediency of any attempt to provision 
the garrison, therein differing from every one of his colleagues, though in 
perfect accord with General Scott. The subject in all its aspects was less 
novel to him than the rest of us, and from some cause his conclusions 
were wholly unlike the others. If not indifferent, he had none of the zeal 
which inspired his colleagues, but seemed to- consider it an unimportant 
or settled question. The insurgents had possession of Fort Moultrie, 
Castle Pinckney, and, in fact, all the defences of Charleston; what bene- 
fit, he asked, covild we derive from retaining this isolated fortress, if it 
were possible to do so ?" 

Mr. Welles was one of those colleagues whose "zeal," not 
born of wisdom, circumvented the patriotic and pacific pur- 
poses of Mr. Seward. Indeed, the Galaxy article on "Fort 
Sumter," when read between the lines, is a covert and insid- 
ious impeachment of Mr. Seward's loyalty to the Republican 
purpose of forcing war upon the South, hence Mr. Welles fur- 
ther says : 

"The Secretary of State was the only member of the Cabinet Avho did 
not cordially concur in these conclusions (to reinforce and provision Fort 
Sumter), and he could not successfully controvert them. He did not, 
however, give his earnest approval, but, in acquiescing, reiterated what he 
had previously urged: that the attempt, if made, would prove a failure; 
that the failure would strengthen the secessionists and weaken the gov- 
ernment; that in the attitude of parties it would be received as the com- 
mencement of hostilities, would foreclose all measures of reconciliation, 
and place the Administration in a wrong and false position." 

Mr. Welles, writing in the spirit of a partisan rather than 
in that of a statesman, admits that the " political necessities " 
demanded the attempt to reinforce Sumter. The subsequent 
events demonstrated the wisdom of Seward; and Mr. Welles, 
in attempting to impeach the party fidelity of Mr. Seward, 
demonstrates the efforts of the latter to keep faith with his 
plighted w^ord to the Governor of South Carolina, that the 
situation at Sumter should not be changed. The Galaxy ar- 
ticle, notwithstanding it uncovers much that was hidden and 
unknown of the doings about Sumter, also discloses that the 
opening of the war by the South was the object for which all 
but Seward, and, perhaps, Mr. Lincoln, were playing in their 
desperate game prior to the assault upon Fort Sumter. 



20 THE CONFEDERATE STATES NAVY. ^ 

The object of Mr. Lincoln and his party was accomplished: 
the first gun was fired by the Confederates. In the excitement 
which followed, men did not remember that between nations 
the aggressor is not he who first uses force, but he who first 
makes force necessary. The scheme, or rather the trick, suc- 
ceeded, by which* the North was to be aroused and angered 
into war. The "blood-letting" policy avowed by Mr. Z. Chand- 
ler^ had been successfully shifted to the South, and yet had 
been the means of arousing the North. The " Peace Conven- 
tion" had "ended in thin smoke,'' as Mr. Chandler desired, by 
having delegates of the " stiff-backed " sort sent to Washington 
to defeat every effort at peace and reunion. 

The recital of the facts, as they existed at the South in 1861, 
establishes beyond controversy that no preparation for war 
had been made by any Southern State prior to secession — that 
not one of the States desired war — that there ought not to 
have been war — and that there would not have been war, 
except to " save the Republican party from rupture." The 
facts of the times'^ and the acts of men cannot be covered 
up from the search and exposure of the historian, who, when 
he comes to write the causes of the terrible war of 1861-5, 
must discover and expose those who, to secure themselves in 
the possession of political place, deliberately played with the 
excited passions and feelings of the hour, to involve the coun- 
try in war, and dissolved the Union, so that its reconquest 
would perpetuate their party ascendancy, or that the loss of 
the Southern States would deprive their political opponents of 
the great bulk of their strength, and thus secure for them- 
selves the possession of power in either the reconstructed 
Union or in the dismembered and divided Northern part. 

The State of South Carolina adopted her Ordinance of 
Secession on Dec. 20th, 1860. Major Anderson complicated 
the difficulties of a peaceful arrangement by evacuating Fort 
Moultrie and occupying Fort Sumter on Dec. 25th; but his act 
was not without material aid to South Carolina, for he left 
behind him all the guns of Fort Moultrie. This was the first 
supply of munition of war obtained by South Carolina. It is 
no part of the purpose of this Avork to discuss whether Major 
Anderson did wrong in abandoning Fort Moultrie — the fact 
gives the information of how South Carolina was able to 
girdle Sumter with her batteries and compel its surrender. 
After Major Anderson occupied Sumter, the South Carolina 
authorities occupied both Fort Moultrie and Castle Pinckney, 
Fort Johnson, and the United States arsenal in Charleston. 

In pursuance of her purpose and in preparation for the de- 
fence of her soil, the Governor of South Carolina, on the 30th 
December, 1860, informed Commander T, T. Hunter. United 
States Lighthouse Inspector at Charleston, that he could depart 
the State, but prohibited him from removing any property of 

1 Letter to Gov. Austin Blair, Feb. 11, 18G1. "- Z. Cliamller, Feb. 11, 1S61. 



THE CONFEDERATE STATES NAVY. 21 

the United States from the buoy-shed. On the 1st of Januar}^ 
the Governor forbade the removal of vessels belonging to the 
lighthouse establishment from Charleston, but the Inspector 
(Commander Hunter) was allowed to leave by land. On the 
8th, the removal of the light-vessel at Rattlesiiake Shoals, off 
the harbor of Charleston, was reported to the Lighthouse 
Board, and the board was informed that the three tenders in 
the harbor of Charleston had been seized by the authorities of 
South Carolina. 

The information of the removal of buoys and a light-ship at 
Rattlesnake Shoals, on Morris Island, and at the entrance of 
Charleston Harbor, was made public, January 2G, 18G1, by 
Raphael Semmes, then the Secretary to the U. S. Lighthouse 
Board. 

The U. S. revenue cutter Wm. Aiken was lying at Charles- 
ton and was a first-class boat of ninety tons; she was ready 
for service and was armed with one forty-two pounder pivot 
gun, and her crew, on a war footing, numbered thirty men. 
She was seized by the State authorities, and with the steam 
cutter Gray, purchased by the authorities, were the first ships 
in the navy of South Carolina. 

Mississippi passed her Ordinance of Secession on January 
9, 1861, and made provisions for a State army, and appointed 
Hon. Jefferson Davis her Major General to command lier armj', 
and authorized such measures as were practicable to obtain 
the arms necessary for it. The State had few serviceable 
weapons, and no establishment for their manufacture or re- 
pair. Her authorities seized the fort on Ship Island, and 
the U. S. Hospital on the Mississippi River. 

Florida seceded on January 10. 1861, and on the 12th the 
navy-yard, Forts Barrancas, McRea, and Marion, and the 
arsenal at St. Augustine, were seized. It is said that the 
Chatahoochee arsenal contained 500,000 rounds of musket 
cartridges, 300,000 rifie cartridges, and 50,000 pounds of gun- 
powder. The coast survey schooner F. W. Dana was also 
taken possession of. 

Alabama seceded on January 11, 1861, and took posses- 
sion of Fort Morgan, containing about 5,000 shot and shell, 
also Mt. Vernon arsenal, containing 20,000 stand of arms, 1,500 
barrels of powder (150,000 pounds), some pieces of cannon and 
a large amount of munitions of war. The revenue cutter 
Leivis Cass, and the tender Alert, belonging to the lighthouse 
establishment, were seized at Mobile by order of the command- 
ing officer of the State troops at Fort Morgan. On the 21st, 
T. Sanford, Collector of the Customs at Mobile, notified Com- 
mander Handy that he, " in the name of the sovereign State 
of Alabama, takes possession of the several lighthouses within 
the State, and all appurtenances pertaining to the same." Mr. 
Sanford had resigned his commission as U. S. Collector on the 
12th of the same month. 



22 THE CONFEDERATE STATES NAVY. 

On the 1st of February. Commander Handy transmitted 
to Washington a copy of a letter addressed to R. T. Chapman, 
late of the U. S. navy, by T. Sandford, Collector, appointing 
him Lighthouse Inspector in place of Commander Handy, to 
whom the appointment was tendered by the authorities of 
Alabama, but wlio refused to accept it. 

Georgia seceded on Jan. 18, 1861, and seized Forts Pulaski 
and Jackson, and the arsenal at Augusta, containing two 
twelve-pounders, two cannons, 22,000 muskets and rifles, and 
large stores of powder, balls, grape, etc., and U. S. steamer Ida. 

On the 6th of February, the keeper of the St. Simon's light, 
near Darien, Ga., reported that his light had been obscured by 
a party of persons claiming authority from the State; but the 
light was not extinguished. 

On the 8th, Capt. W. H. Whiting, of the United States 
Engineers, reported that possession had been taken of his office, 
furniture, etc., in Savannah, by the authorities of the State. 

Louisiana seceded on Jan. 26, 1861, and seized Forts Jack- 
son and St. Philip, on the Mississippi, and Fort Pike, on Lake 
Ponchartrain, and the arsenal at Baton Rouge. The latter 
contained 50,000 small arms, 4 howitzers, 20 pieces of heavy 
ordnance, 2 batteries, 300 barrels of powder. At Bellville 
iron- works the armament of the revenue cutter Leivis Cass 
was stored, and that was also obtained by the State. 

On Jan. 14, 1861, the United States barracks below New 
Orleans, which was being used as a hospital, was taken pos- 
session of by the Louisiana authorities. But this seizure, 
though, in one sense, of a military character, was rather an 
embarrassment than an aid to war, since all it contained was 
216 invalids and convalescent patients. The removal of the 
sick patients was requested by Capt. C. M. Bradford, which 
request being reported by Collector F. H. Hatch to Secretary 
of the Treasury, John A. Dix, the latter telegraphed Jan. 27, 
1861, to " reiTionstrate with the Governor against the inhuman- 
ity of turning the sick out of the hospital," and that telegraph 
was followed by a letter, which, with many variations on the 
duty of humanity, protested against the request of Capt. 
Bradford. All of which was needless, as the Governor had 
before their receipt ordered the sick to be left unmolested, and 
Collector Hatch was informed that his protest was unnecessary, 
as " the authorities would never have exercised the least inhu- 
manity towards these patients ; for, if the barracks had been 
required for the use of the troops Louisiana has been compelled 
to raise for her protection and defence, her charity hospital — 
justly the glory and pride of her munificence, into whose portals 
the afflicted of all nations can enter without money and without 
price — would have amply provided for their wants. In closing 
this communication, I am constrained to observe, in reply to 
the remark in your letter of the 28th, that you ' fear no public 
property is likely to be respected'; that, in compliance with 



THE CONFEDERATE STATES NAVY. 23 

the ordinance of the Convention of the people of Louisiana, 
the State took possession of the public property, in trust, to 
prevent any abuse of the same by the Federal government, 
which, it was believed, would pervert that which the Consti- 
tion intended for defence to the purposes of destruction. Tliis 
property she will be ready to render a just and true account of 
at the proper time." 

The Treasurer of the branch mint at New Orleans was 
ex-officio Assistant Treasurer of the United States. It appears 
from the report of Secretary of the Treasury, John A. Dix, 
that, on the 21st January, 1861, there were in the hands of the 
Treasurer of the branch mint at New Orleans, the following 
sums : 

As Treasurer of the Mint, $389,267 46 

As Assistant Treasurer to the credit of the Treasurer 

of the United States, 265,445 14 

As Assistant Treasurer to the credit of disbursing 
officers, 225,374 80 

Total, $880,087 40 

On January 21, 18G1, Secretary Dix drew a draft for $350,000 
on the Assistant Treasurer at New Orleans in favor of Adams' 
Express Company, which was not paid on presentation be- 
cause there were not sufficient funds in hand to pay the draft, 
and the Assistant Treasurer declined paying any part until 
he could pay the whole. This reply Mr. Dix regarded as eva- 
sive and designed to create delay, in order that the action of 
the Louisiana Convention might prevent the transfer of any 
part of the property of the United States beyond the power of 
the Convention. Whether so intended or not, the delay had 
that effect, for the State authorities seized the mint and its 
contents on January 31. 

The Custom House at New Orleans and its contents were 
seized by the State authorities on the 31st of January, 1861, 
and Collector Hatch retained the position under the State. 
Under the revenue system of the United States, goods in bond 
were permitted to pass the port of entry, and the customs' duty 
could be paid at the interior Custom House. To continue that 
system would have deprived Louisiana, then a sovereign State, 
of her right to collect revenue from imports at her chief port of 
entry. Hence the collector at New Orleans refused to pass goods 
in bond, for transportation to port of delivery in States of the 
United States, without the duty being paid at New Orleans. 
This would have subjected importers in St. Louis. Louisville, 
and other river ports to the hardships of paying double duty 
— first to Louisiana, and second to the United States. This was 
practically a fatal blow at the free navigation of the Missis- 
sippi River, as well as a means of supplying revenue to Louisi- 
ana. Such action on the part of the State rose above its rela- 
tions to the ports above New Orleans, and took the importance 
of an international question. The free navigation of the 



24 THE CONFEDERATE STATES NAVY. 

Mississippi River was recognized as a natural right, and, when 
Lousiana ratified the Confederate Constitution, tliat right 
of free navigation was accorded by Act of Congress, Febru- 
ary 25, 1861 — which declared and established the free Naviga- 
tion of the Mississippi River "to the citizens of any State 
upon its borders, or upon the borders of any of its navigable 
tributaries, of all ships, boats, or vessels, without any duty 
or hindrance, except light-money, pilotage, and like charges."^ 

The U. S. revenue cutter, which was lying at New Orleans 
for repairs, was seized by the State authorities. The U. S. 
revenue cutter Robert McClelland, under command of Capt. 
J. G. Brushwood of the revenue service, was ordered from the 
lower Mississippi to New Orleans by Collector Hatch and 
seized by the State authorities. To prevent that seizure, Secre- 
tary Dix, on January 19, 18G1, ordered W. Hemphill Jones to 
proceed to New Orleans and take possession of the McClelland, 
Capt. Brushwood refused to recognize Mr. Jones' authority, 
which refusal being communicated to Secretary Dix, he ordered, 
by telegraph, Lieut. Caldwell to arrest Capt. Brushwood,assume 
command of the cutter, if Brushwood interfered to treat him 
as a mutineer, and '" if any one attempted to haul down the 
American flag, shoot him on the spot I" This spirited order 
came too late — the State authorities already had possession of 
the cutter. 

Texas seceded on February 1, 18G1, and seized Forts Chad- 
bourne and Belknap, and General Twiggs surrendered govern- 
ment stores valued at $1,300,000, consisting of $55,000 in specie, 
35,000 stand of arms, 20 pieces of mounted artillery, 44 pieces 
dismounted, with ammunition, horses, wagons, forage, etc., 
etc. In Galveston Bay, the revenue cutter Dodge was seized, 
and Fort Brown surrendered. 

Arkansas seceded May 6, and the arsenal at Little Rock, 
containing 9,000 small arms, 40 cannon, and some ammunition, 
was taken possession of. 

The following is a list of the seizures of vessels made by 
the States as they seceded from the Union, and which formed 
the nucleus of the Confederate States navy : 

Name of Vessel. Number of Guns. Styles of Guns. Crew. 

McClellan .... 5 4 side guns and 1 pivot . o5 

Lewis Cass ... 1 68-iJOunder ... 45 

Aiken 1 43-pounder . . . .45 

Wasliington ... 1 42-pounder ... 45 

Dodge 1 Pivot — 

And, in addition to the above, the following : 

Name. Class. Guns. How obtained. 

James Gray . Propeller . . .1 Purchased at Charleston. 

Bonita . Brig ... 1 Captured Slaver. 

Nina . . Steam gunboat . 1 

Everglade . Steamer . . — 

Fulton . . U. S. War Steamer . 3 Seized at Pensacola. 

1 Stat, at Large, Prov. Gov't, C. S. A., pp. 36-38. 



THE CONFEDERATE STATES NAVY. 25 

The gun on the James Gray was a forty-two-pounder 
columbiad, and those on the Fulton thirty-two-pounders. 

RECAPITULATION^ 

Vessels . . . ... . . ... 10 

Number of Guns . 15 

The weight of metal these fifteen guns carried was com- 
paratively light, only one being a sixty-eight-pounder, three 
forty-two-pounders, and the rest of still less calibre. 

The Fulton had 'been wrecked off Pensacola, and was of 
very little account, but was repaired and rebuilt by the Con- 
federate government. ' 

The seceded States met, by delegates, at Montgomery, on 
the 4tliof February, 1861, and adopted the Provisional Constitu- 
tion of the Confederate States of America. On that day the Con- 
federacy had neither army or navy, and the States which com- 
posed it had only such munitions of war as every State in the 
United States had at all times— namely, their volunteer soldiery 
— badly armed, poorly drilled, and in very limited numbers. 
The evidence of preparation nowhere existed, but the peaceful 
condition of public affairs plainly told that no purpose of disso- 
lution had been long maintained, but that it was the sudden 
appearance of a long-dreaded danger that had driven them to 
the last alternative in a federative union — Secession ; and 
that the States expected it to be peaceful, but that Mr. Lincoln 
and his advisers had outwitted and overreached all the pre- 
cautions of peace taken at the South, and, by deftly and 
cunningly drawing the fire of the Charleston batteries, had 
inaugurated war. The latent spirit of devotion to the Union, 
which the echoes of the guns at Charleston aroused into such 

1 At the breaking out of the war the United Pittsburgh, Pa., Allegheny. .. .Receiving-ship at 
States owned ten navy-yards, viz. : — Kittery, Baltimore. 
Me.; Portsmoiith, N. H.'; Charle-stown, Mass.; Charlestown, Mass., Inde- 
Brooklyn, N. Y.; Philadelphia, Pa; Washing- pendeuce Pacific receiving- 
ton. D.C.; Norfolk, Va.; Pensacola, Fla.; Mare ship. 

Island, Cal.; Sackett's Harbor, N. Y. Boston, Mass., Princeton PhiladeliJhia re- 

The following hst shows the number and rate ceiving-ship. 

of vessels built at each of these yards before Charlestown, Mass., Warren... Panama receiv- 

1861: ing-ship. 

^ ~= Charlestown.Mass., Falmouth, Aspinwall reeeiv- 

•k^.s t.; K i . ing-shii). 

Yard. « "^ e S ^ » :^ ^ -^ »o ^^ ^^^ secession of Virginia and Florida the 

.£..S .2^ 1^ -2^ ? ^ ii 25 [g Federal government lost the Norfolk and Peu- 

g"^C ^ K!p c? ^ sacola navy-yards ; but, owing to the rigid 

T, , ,, ' * * blockade, they were of little service to the 

±|ortsmoutn....— __._—._-- Confederacy. The Norfolk navv-vard was one 

^r^Ti ''^■■" 1 1 T 1 T T 10 of the oldest and perhaps the most valuable 

Philadelnhia ' 2 9 ^ d o i^ in the United States. From its stocks were 

Washiiwtm 1 ^ o ~ t ? « launched two ships-of-the-line. one frigate, 

Xmfnik o 1 IT 7 1 1Q four sloops-of- war, one brig, four screw steam- 

PpiisflnnVa o o ers and one side-wheel steamer, besides doing 

MarBT=i7,Vi''~~ — — — -i — ^ a vast amount of refitting and rebuilding of 
i^aTll-ctf't h'"~ — — — — 1 1 vessels. The Pensacola yard had only turned 
vin,. 1 out two vessels— the Pensacola, a second-class 
■*■ ~ ~ ~ ~ '■ screw steamer of 2,158 tons. Her hull w^a 



Kittery 12 3—219 



bviilt there, but she was completed at the 



STOKE-SHIPS, KECEIVING-SHIP.S, ETC. Washington navy-yard. The other vessel built 

Purchased vessels 9 ^t Pensacola was the Seminole, a third-class 

screw steamer of 801 tons. It will thus be seen 
BUILT AT OTHER pLACE.s. ^jj^t tlie Northern navy -yards had always built 

Erie, Pa., steamer Michigan, then on the Lakes, the largest number of vessels. 



26 THE CONFEDERATE STATES NAVY, 

terrible force and proportion, stopped not to consider the trick 
by which the war had been begun. It only saw the flag of the 
Union in the smoke of battle, and, whether right or wrong, 
rushed to its defence. But neither that expression of loyalty 
to the Union, nor the extraordinary efforts in its defence, nor 
the triumphs of its army and navy, will be able to cover up 
and conceal from the reprehension of history the shameful 
subterfuge of provisioning Sumter as a start to war; but his- 
tory will separate the glory of the people's defence from thet 
shame of the politician's trick. 




r 



\ 



n 



-M 



HON. STEPHEN RUSSELL MALLORY, 

BECRETAET OF THE NAVY OF THE CONFEDERATE STATES. 



CHAPTER III. 
ORGANIZATION OF THE NAVY. 



DELEGATES from the seceded States met at Montgomery, 
Alabama, in February, 1861, and on March 11th unani- 
mously adopted the " Constitution for the Provisional 
Government of the Confederate States of America."' 
This Constitution, and the one afterwards adopted as the per- 
manent Constitution of the Confederate States, empowered 
Congress *'to provide and maintain a navy," and made the 
President the Commander-in-Chief of the Army and Navy. 

The first statute enacted by the Confederate Congress 
continued in force all the laws of the United States not incon- 
sistent with the Constitution of the Confederate States, until 
altered or repealed by Congress. By that legislation, law and 
order were maintained in the midst of a total change of for- 
eign and domestic relations, the public business continued 
without interruption, and private intercourse experienced no 
shock. All officers connected with the customs revenue were 
continued in office, and the existing postal arrangements 
were left undisturbed. Thus the people in the Confederate 
States passed into their new relations without the least inter- 
ruption of their business affairs. 

Before either of tlie Cabinet departments were constituted 
bylaw, Congress, on February l-lth, passed a resolution author- 
izing "the Committee on Naval Affairs to procure the attend- 
ance at Montgomery of all such persons versed in naval 
affairs as they may deem advisable to consult with." C. M. 
Conrad, the Chairman of the Committee, immediately upon 
the passage of the resolution, addressed telegrams to a num- 
ber of United States navy officers whose sympathies were with 
the South, requesting tliem to repair to Montgomery at their 
earliest convenience. Among those who received a telegram 
from the chairman of the committee was Commander 
Raphael Semmes, who was still at his post, in Washington, 
performing his duties at the Lighthouse Board. Commander 
Semmes immediately tendered his resignation, which was 

(27) 



28 THE CONFEDERATE STATES NAVY. 

accepted on the 15th, and on the 18th he arrived at Mont- 
gomery, where a number of navy officers had preceded him. 
On the following day he attended a joint session of the mili- 
tary and naval committees, which discussed the military and 
naval resources of the country, and devised such means of 
defence as was within their reach to enable the Confederacy 
to meet the most pressing exigencies of the situation. But 
few naval officers of any rank had as yet withdrawn from 
the old service: Rousseau, Tatnall. Hollins, Ingraham and 
Randolph were all the captains, and Farrand, Brent, Semmes 
and Hartstene were all the commanders. Of those who were 
present before the committees, besides Semmes, was Rousseau, 
Ingraham, and Randolph, of the old navy. As the result of 
tlie deliberations of the committee, Congress, on the 20th, 
passed an act to ''provide munitions of war," by purchase 
and manufacture. Jefferson Davis having been inaugurated 
President on the 18th of February,- on the 21st dispatched 
Commander Semmes to the United States, and at the same 
time sent Caleb Huse to Europe to purchase arms and mu- 
nitions of war. ' 

On the same day, ''the act to establish the Navy Depart- 
ment " was passed, providing for a Secretary of the Navy, a 
chief clerk, and such other clerks as may be authorized by 
law.'^ 

The Secretary of the Navy, under the President, was to 
have charge of all matters and things connected with the 
navy. Bureaus of ordnance and hydrography, of orders and 
details, of medicine and surgery, of provisions and clothing, 
were also provided; and the Secretary of the Navy was required 
to prepare and publish regulations for the general government 
of the navy, and all laws of the United States relating to the 
navy and its officers, and not inconsistent with this act, were 
enacted as laws for the government of the Confederate navy. 

1 The letter of instruction to Com. Semmes social interconrse, at their private residences, 

was written by Mr. Davis, who then was with- Com. Semmes found them ready to help on the 

out Cabinet officers or even a private secretary, cause of the Confederate States with their "aid 

and is full, precise, and much in detail, exhibit- and comfort," and in a much more etficient 

ing a minute acquaintance with bureau duties, manner tlian was charged against Secretary of 

with the resources of the North, and with the War, Floyd, who merely sent to the Southern 

men there who would furnish the supplies States the proper c|Uota of their arms, 

needed. Com. Semmes found " the people every- While in New York, on that mission, Com. 

where not only willing but anxious to contract " Semmes received from Secretary Mallory, who 

with him, and he purchased large quantities of had been appointed to the Navy Department, a 

percussion-caps in the city of New York, and letter of date March 13th, directing him to select 

si-nt them by express without any disguise to and purchase two steamers of strength and light 

Montgomery. He made contracts for batteries draft. But Com. Semmes could find none. The 

of light artillery, powder and other munitions, month of March was closing, and as the new 

and succeeded in getting large quantities of the Federal Administration became fixed in their 

liowder shipiDed, and it was agreed between ijositions the hopes of peace departed and the 

the contractors and Com. Semmes that when clouds of war began to thicken; yet, curiou.sly 

tlie telegraph was used certain sign or agreed enough, the New York and Savannah steamers 

words should be substituted for those of military continued to run, " carrying the Federal flag at 

import— to avoid suspicion. He made a con- the peak and the Confederate flag at the fore," 

tract for the removal to the South of a complete in one of which steamers, on the last day of 

set of machinery for rifling cannon, and with March, Com. Semmes embarked, and arrived in 

the requisite workmen to put it in operatidn. Montgomery on the 4th of April, 1861. 

"Some of these men," says Com. Semmes, - The act of March 8tli established the clerical 

" who would thus have sold body and soul to force of the Navy Deparlnieut to consist of a 

me for a sufficient consideration, occupied high chief clerk, a corresponding clerk, and three 

social position and were men of wealth." In other clerks, and a messenger. 



THE CONFEDERATE STATES NAVY. 



29 



The act of March 16th authorized the President to appoint four 
captains, four commanders, thirty lieutenants, five surgeons, 
five assistant surgeons, six paymasters, and two chief engi- 
neers, and to employ as many masters, midshipmen, engineers, 
naval constructors, boatswains, gunners, carpenters, sailmak- 
ers, and other warrant and petty officers and seamen, as he 
may deem necessary, not to^ exceed in the aggregate three 
thousand. The act also made provision for a marine corps, to 
consist of one major, one quartermaster, one paymaster, one 
adjutant, one sergeant-major, one quartermaster-sergeant, 
and six companies, each company to consist of one captain, 
one first and one second lieutenant, four sergeants, four cor- 
porals, one hundred men and ten musicians, with pay and 
allowance the same as in the infantry. 

Under the law passed February 31st, the President imixiedi- 
ately called to the Navy Department, as Secretary of the Navy,. 
Hon. Stephen Russell Mallory, of Florida. ' 

Secretary Mallory immediately organized his department 
by assigning Capt. Franklin Buchanan to the Bureau of 
Orders and Detail ; Commander George Minor to that of 



1 Mr. Mallory was born in the Island of Trini- 
dad, near the coast ofVeneznehi, in the year 1813. 
He was the second son of Charles Mallory, and 
Ellen his wife, who at the time of his birth were 
living in or near the town of Port of Spain, in 
Trinidad. Charles Mallory, liis father, was from 
the town of Beading, Conn., a civil engineer by 
profession, and for some years before the birth 
of Stephen had been engaged as a civil engineer 
on some public work at Port of Spain. 

Ellen Russell, the mother of Stephen Russell 
Mallory, was born at Carrick-on-Suir, County 
Waterford, Ireland. When about thirteen years 
of age she was adojited by two bachelor uncles, 
her mother's brothers, who were planters in 
Trinidad, and taken by them to their home in 
that island, where she met Charle.s Mallory, and 
was married to him when she was not more 
than sixteen years of age. Charles and Ellen 
Mallory had but two children — John, who was 
born about 1811, and Stejihen. John died wlien 
he was about fourteen years old, at Key West. 

When Stephen was about a year old liis parents 
left Trinidad and came to the United States. 
Charles Mallory's health was feeble, and after 
trying the climate of Havana for a short time, 
he removed to Key West about 1820, when the 
island was inhabited by onlj' a few fishermen. 
He died of consumption at Key West about two 
years afterwards, leaving his widow and the two 
boys. Befoi'e settling at Key West, or going to 
Havana, Mr. and Mrs. Mallory visited Mobile, 
Ala., and while there concluded to place the 
youngest boy, Stephen, at a school on the east- 
ern shore of Mobile Bay, at a place that was 
known as "the village." Steiahen, who could 
not have been more than six or seven years old, 
remained there for six months or a year, and 
then went over to Key West, where his parents 
were then living. He remained at Key West 
until he was about fourteen years of age, when 
his mother, who was then a widow and had lost 
the oldest boy John, sent him to the Moravian 
School for boys at Nazareth, Pa. He was at that 
school about three years, and returned to Key 
West when about sixteen or seventeen. This was 
all the schooling he ever had. 



When about nineteen years of age he received 
the aijjjointment of Inspector of Customs at Key 
AVest, which he held for several years, and was 
subsequently appointed Collector of Customs at 
Key West. While Inspector of Customs he stud- 
ied law with Judge William Marvin, at that time 
Judge of the United States District Court at Key 
West, and was admitted to the Bar about 1839. 
During the Indian war in Florida he volunteered 
and served for those years in active operations 
against the Seminoles. 

In 1838 he married Angela Moreno, daughter 
of Francisco Moreno of Pensacola, Fla.; she is 
still (1886) alive. After leaving the ofhce of Col- 
lector of Customs at Key West, and having at- 
tained a high reputation as a skillful practitioner 
of the law, and enjoying a large and lucrative 
practice, in 1850 he was selected as a delegate to 
the great commercial convention which met at 
Nashville; but, though heartily favoring its pur- 
pose, was compelled b,y other engagements to 
decline the honor. In 1851 he was elected by 
the Florida Legislature to the United States 
Senate for six years, his opponent being Hon. 
David L. Yulee. Mr. Mallory was at Key West 
at the time, and did not even know that he was a 
candidate for the office. Mr. Yulee contested his 
election before the United States Senate, having 
as his attorney the late Edwin M. Stanton, after- 
wards the Federal Secretary of War; but failed 
to make good his contest. The Senate unani- 
mously awarded the position to Mr. Mallory, and 
he took his seat in December following. At the 
expiration of his term as Senator, Mr. Mallory 
was again elected by the Florida Legislature to 
succeed himself in 1857, and continued to rep- 
resent Florida in the Senate until the secession 
of his State in 1861. when he resigned his seat 
and at once took an open and active part with the 
States of the South. He returned to his home at 
Pensacola, to which place he had removed from 
Key West in 1858. Dui-ing most of his service in 
the Senate he was Chairman of the Committee 
on Naval Affairs, a position his familiarity with 
marine matters qualifled him to fill. He was 
also a member nf the Committee on Claims. As. 
a speaker he never gained a high reputation in 



30 



THE CONFEDERATE STATES NAVY, 



Ordnance and Hydrography; James A. Semple, paymaster, 
to that of Provisions and Clothing, and W. A. W. Spotswood, 
surgeon, to that of Medicine and Surgery. Capt. Raphael 
Semmes was, upon his return to Montgomery, appointed to 
the Lighthouse Board, which had been made a bureau of the 
Treasury Department. Edward M. Tidball was appointed 
Chief Clerk of the Navy Department, March 13, 1861. 

The appointment of Mr. Mallory has been criticised with 
great severity, but no single good reason has been shown as 
to his incompetency or unfitness; his loyalty to the Confeder- 
acy was by innuendo impeached, but the malice which invented 
the aspersion was too apparent to give it probability. He 
could not command success, but he deserved it by faithful and 
diligent labor, and by intelligent and discreet effort. 

When a Senator of the United States, he had been Chairman 
of the Naval Committee, where the information derived from 
his previous employment at Key West soon enalbled him to 
obtain a thorough knowledge of the organization, equipment 
and general disciplinary rules of the U. S. navy. He found 
himself at the head of a naval department on the eve of a great 
war, without a ship or any of the essentials of a navy; he 
had not only to organize and administer, but to build the 



tlie Senate. He was not a showy orator, but 
occasionally delivered speeches showing careful 
preparation and a clear knowledge of the sub- 
ject treated. His vote was always for the South 
on every question, and he could be counted upon 
to support any measure his more able leaders 
proposed. In 1858 Mr. Buchanan tendered him 
the appointment of Minister to Spain, which he 
declined. On the secession of Florida he was 
appointed Chief Justice of the Admiralty Court 
of the State, but declined the high honor. 

Dui'ing the time he was at his home he took an 
.acti.'e part in all matters relating to the defence 
of his State, and on January 28, 1861, sent the 
following warning letter to the United States 
authorities through the " Hon. John Slidell, or 
Hon. K. M. T. Hunter, or Governor Bigler": 
" We hear the Brooklyn is coming with reinforce- 
ments for Fort Pickens. No attack on its gar- 
rison is contemplated, but, on the contrary, we 
•desire te keep the peace, and if the present status 
be preserved we will guarantee that no attack 
will be made upon it; Isut if reinforcements be 
attempted, resistance and a bloodj' conflict seem 
inevitable. Should the Goverment thus attempt 
to augment its force — when no possible call for 
it exists, when we are i>resei'ving a peaceful 
policy — an assault may be made on the fort at a 
•moment's warning. AH preparation are made. 
Our whole force — 1,700 strong — will regard it as 
a hostile act. Imijress this upon the President, 
and urge that the inevitable consequence of re- 
inforcements under present circumstances is 
instant war, as peace will be isreserved if no i-e- 
inforcements be attempted. If the President 
wants an assurance of all I say fi-om Colonel 
Chase, commanding the forces, I will transmit 
it at once. / am determined to stave offivar if pos- 
sible." — Official Records, Series 1, Vol. II., p. 354. 
Biit that not being possible, he accepted the port- 
folio of Secretary of the Confederate Navy of 
President Davis and held it continuously through 
the war. He was a gentleman of excellent sense, 
unpretending manners, and probably conducted 



his department as successfully as was possible 
with the limited naval resources of the South. 

Mr. Mallory left Richmond in company with 
Mr. Davis on the abandonment of that city by 
the Confederate Government, and accompanied 
the President to Washington, Ga., where they 
sei^arated, Mr. Mallory going to La Grange, Ga., 
where his family was then living. He was in 
La Grange about a week, when he and Hon. 
Benjamin Hill, who was also there, were arrested, 
taken to Atlanta, and thence carried to Fort 
Lafayette in New York Harbor. He was arrested 
on May 20, 1865, and his devoted wife in a letter 
written at the time thus describes the event : 

" Night before last, athalf-iJast twelve o'clock, 
we were aroused from sleep by a heavy knock at 
the door, and a threat of breaking it open' fol- 
lowed before any one had time to answer. When 
a light was procured the servant opened the 
door, and some twenty armed men entered to 
arrest my husband; at tlje same time another 
party went to Senator Hill's house, at which Mr. 
Mallory was staying, and there arrested him. 
Mr. Mallory was hurried off like a malefactor, 
without being given even enough time to put on 
proper clothing. They would not listen to the 
tears and entreaties of his wife and children to 
let him remain with them only until daylight. 
I sent Buddie to Atlanta as soon as it was day- 
light with clothing and money." 

Mr Mallory was confined in Fort Lafayette ten 
months, being released on parole in March, 1866. 

He returned to Pensacola in July, 1866, still 
under parole, and resumed the practice of law, 
and successfully continued it until his death, 
November 9, 1873. 

Mr. Mallory was a hard student all his life, 
and though hie three years at Nazareth were 
about all the real schooling he ever bad, he, 
nevertheless, at the age of thirty-five, was able to 
speak French and Spanish correctly and fluently. 
His mother lived to see him in the United States 
Senate, she dying at Key West about the vear 
1855, 



THE CONFEDERATE STATES NAVY. 31 

ships and boats, provide as best he could their ordnance, and 
create a naval force in a country which in a few days was 
shut out from the world by an almost impenetrable blockade, 
and which possessed within its limits resources only in the 
rude, crude and unmailufactured state. The timber for his 
ships stood in the forest, and when cut and laid was green and 
soft ; the iron required was in the mines, and there were 
neither furnaces nor workshops; the hemp required for the 
ropes had to be sown, grown, reaped, and then there were no 
rope-walks. The Southern States had never produced a suffi- 
ciency of iron for the use of their people in time of peace, and 
now that war was greatly to multiply the uses of that in- 
dispensable metal, the price rose from $35 to $1,300 per ton; 
and yet neither money nor industry could supply the demand 
which the navy, the army, the fast- wearing rails and engines 
of the railroads, and all the other necessities a great war re- 
quired. 

With not a rolling-mill capable of turning out a 2|-inch 
iron plate, nor a workshop able to complete a marine engine, 
and with a pressing need to build, equip and maintain ships- 
of-war, the embarrassments and difficulties which Mr. Mallory 
encountered may be estimated. When the Confederate gov- 
ernment was formed in February, 1861, Virginia had not se- 
ceded, and the Tredegar Iron Works and Belona Foundry, at 
Richmond, were not accessible to the use of the Confederate 
States navy, and the Pensacola navy-yard with its dock-yard 
was not a yard of construction, but merely for shelter and 
repair. 

From the 21st of February to the 15th of April there was not 
time enough, with all the appliances of a first-class manufac- 
turing people, to organize a navy and build and equip its ships; 
and yet that was what the Confederate Navy Department had 
before it. When the navy-yard at Norfolk fell into the hands 
of Virginia, it was burnt ar . damaged, yet was of inestimable 
service to the Confederate navy, after being transferred to the 
Confederate States. The administration of Mr. Mallory is not 
to be judged and condemned by its failure, but it will excite sur- 
prise and win admiration for what was accomplished with the 
means and resources at his command. The efforts made and 
the results accomplished will be best understood and appreci- 
ated in connection with the operations of attack and defence; 
but we shall, for the benefit of a clearer understanding of the 
merits and demerits of the Navy Department, briefly review 
the administrative acts in connection with the organization 
of personnel and material in advance of those movements of 
offensive and defensive action. 

At the time of the organization of the Confederate gov- 
ernment, its treasury was not only absolutely empty, but the 
legislation and agency for collecting the necessary means of 
support had to be adopted and applied. Under even the most 



32 



THE CONFEDERATE STATES NAVY. 



favorable circumstances, time and experience would be neces- 
sary before the supply of money could be collected and on hand 
to meet expenses which had already begun. But this difficulty 
was aggravated and increased beyond calculation in the face 
of an impending conflict with the United States. In this 
emergency, early in March, 18G1, the Convention of the State 
of Louisiana, by ordinance, transferred to the Confederate 
States the "Bullion Fund," then in the hands of A. J. Guirot, 
State Depositary, and which was seized in the U. S. Mint, 
amounting to $389,267.46, and the further sum of $147,519.66, 
the amount collected from customs between the 31st January 
and March 1. 1861. 

The total expenditures of the Confederate government from 
February, 1861 to August, 1863. a period of eighteen months, 
were $347,273,958.58; the receipts were $303,483,096.60. Of the 
expenditures the navy used $14,605,777.86.^ 

The resignations of naval officers fronj the U. S. nav}^ fol- 
lowed the secession of the State of which they were citizens. 
South Carolina being the first State that severed her connec- 
tion with the United States, the first resignation came from her 
officers, and as each of the other States withdrew from the 
Union, their officers, following the sense of duty of their alle- 
giance, resigned their commissions, until by June 3, 1861, 
about one-fifth of the officers of the United States navy had 
resigned. A publication of that date gave a list of all the resig- 
nations, with the entire number of officers in the service, as- 
follows: 



Captains . 

Commanders 

Lieutenants . . . 

Surg:eons 

Passed Assistant tSuri?eo/ 

Assistant t^urgeons 

Paymasters . 

Chaplains . 

Profs. Mathematics 

Masters 



Whole 
Number. 

93 

127 

/851 

69 

43 

m 

64 

24 

12 
45 



Southernen 
Resigned. 

16 
34 
76 
11 
10 

7 
10 

1 

1 



Southerners 
Remaining. 

22 
30 
75 
20 
11 
11 
17 

5 

6 
10 



1 The aggregate appnipnationa fcu'each depart- 
fueut of the Cdiifederate goverumeiit early iu 
March, 1861, was : 

Legislative $55,740 

Executive 33,050 

Department of State 44,200 

Treasury Department 70,800 

War Department 59,000 

Navv Department 17,300 

Post Office Department 44,900 

Judiciary G3,200 

Mint and independent treasury 80,000 

Foreign intercourse 100.000 

Lighthouses 150,000 

Expenses of collecting revenue 545,000 

Executive mansion 5,000 

Miscellaneous 200,000 

Total $1,463,190 



The Act of March 15 appropriated 

1. For pay of officers of the navy $131,750 

2. For pay of marine corps 175,512 

3. For provisions and clothing 133,860 

4. For ijay of warrant and petty 

officers, etc 168,000 

5. For expenditure for coal 235,000 

(i. Probable cost of 10 gunboats 1,100,000 

7. For completing and equipping 

steamer Fulton, at Pensacola. . . 25,000 

8. For pay of officei-s, etc , at Pensa- 

cola navy-yard 54,363 

9. For compensation of ex-clerk iu 

Navy Department 6,000 

Total $2,028,685- 



THE CONFEDERATE STATES NAVY. 33 





Whole 


Southerners 


Southerners 




Number. 


Resigned. 


Remaining. 


Midshipmen . 


. 55 


5 


15 


Acting Midshipmen . 


267 


106 


22 


Gunners .... 


47 


2 


9 


Carpenters . 


45 


1 


19 


Sailmakers 


. 40 


3 


11 


Marine Corps. 








Captains 


13 


3 


3 


First Lieutenants . 


. 20 


6 


4 


Second Lieutenants . 


20 


5 


7 


Cliief Engineers 


. 28 


4 


4 


First Assistants . 


43 


6 


17 


Second Assistants . 


. 29 


1 


9 


Third Assistants 


92 


7 


23 



1,563 321 350 

Commander Henry J. Hartstene. in command of the gun- 
boat Pawnee, appreliending that he might be ordered to Charles- 
ton, asked to be relieved, and then resigned. Lieut. Thomas 
P. Pelot and Lieut. J. R. Hamilton resigned immediately after 
ascertaining that South Carolina had seceded. Lieut. Haral- 
ton addressed the "Southern officers of the U. S. navy" a 
warm appeal, under date of Jan. 14, 1861, to resign and ac- 
cept commissions from their States. His earnest appeal to 
the officers, "'to bring with you every ship and man you 
can, that we may use them against the oppressors of our 
liberties," received no response, and not a United States vessel 
was delivered up by a Southern officer. 

After the secession of the States those officers were scat- 
tered throughout the States, some in shore batteries, others de- 
vising means of defence, procuring ordnance supplies, and in 
one way and another doing all in their power to aid in the 
defence of their States. These officers, were transferred 
by their States to the Confederate States for appointment in 
the navy, and to the same rank they held in the navy of the 
United States. Thus, atits very beginning, the new government 
found itself embarrassed with a wealth of officers, while it was 
poor beyond description in every other essential of a navy. 

To provide for the officers who had resigned from the 
U. S. navy, the Confederate navy, as provided for by the act of 
February 21, 1861, was increased by the Amendatory Act of 
April 21, 1862, and made to consist of 

" Four admirals, 10 captains, 31 commanders, 100 first lieutenants, 25 
second lieutenants, 20 masters, in line of promotion; 12 paym.asters, 40 
assistant paymasters, 22 surgeons, 15 past assistant surgeons, 30 assistant 
surgeons, 1 engineer-in-chief, and 12 engineers. 

" That all the admirals, 4 of the captains, 5 of the commanders, 22 of 
the first lieutenants and 5 of the second lieutenants shaU be appointed 
solely for gallant or meritorious conduct during the war. The appoint- 
ments shall be made from the grade immediately below the one to be filled 
apd without reference to the rank of the officer in such grade, and the 
service for which the appointment shall be conferred shall be specified in 
the conmiission: Provided, that all officers below the grade of second- 
lieutenant may be pi'omoted more than one grade for the same service. 



34 THE CONFEDERATE STATES NAVY. 

" That the warrant officers shall be as follows : 20 passed midshipmen, 
106 acting inidsliipmen, 50 first assistant engineers, 150 second assistant 
engineers, 150 third assistant engineers, 10 boatswains, 20 gunners, 6 sail- 
makers, and 20 carpenters. 

"That the annual pay of the additional grades created by this act 
shall be as follows : — Admiral, $6,000; second lieutenant, for service afloat, 
$1,200; wlien on leave or other duty, $1,000; master in the line of promo- 
tion, $1,000 for service afloat; when on leave or other duty, $900; past mid- 
shipman, $900 for service afloat; when on leave or other duty, $800. 

"That the annual pay of assistant paymasters shall hereafter be, 
when on service afloat, $1,200; on other duty, $1,100." 

By the latter act the following was established as the pay 
table of the officers of the navy : 

Pay 
Grades. per annum. 

Admiral $6,000 

Captains — 

When commanding squadrons 5,000 

All others at duty on sea 4,200 

On other duty 3,600 

On leave or waiting orders 3,000 

Commanders — 
On duty at sea first five years after date of commission . 2,825 
On duty at sea second five years after date of commission . 3,150 
On other duty first five years after date of commission . 2,662 
On otlier duty second five years after date of commission . 2,825 
All other commanders 2,250 

Lieutenants Commanding — at sea 2,550 

First Lieutenants — 

On duty at sea 1,500 

After seven years' sea service in the navy .... 1,700 
After nine years' sea service in the navy .... 1,900 
After eleven years' sea service in tlie navy .... 2,100 
After thirteen years' sea service in the navy . . . 2,250 

On other duty 1,500 

After seven years' sea service in the navy .... 1,600 
After nine years' gea service in the navy .... 1,700 
After eleven years' sea service in the navy . . . . 1,800 
After thirteen years' sea service in the navy .... 1,875 

On leave or waiting orders 1,300 

After seven years' sea service in the navy . . . .1 266 

After nine years' service in the navy 1,333 

After eleven years' sea service in the navy .... 1,400 
After thirteen years' sea service in the navy . . 1,450 

Second Lieutenants — 

Duty afloat 1,200 

When on leave or other duty 1,000 

Fleet Surgeons 3,300 

Surgeons — on duty at sea — 
For first five years after date of commission as surgeon . 2,200 
For second five years after date of commission as surgeon . 2,400 
For tliird five years after date of commission as sui-geon . 2,600 
For fourth five years after date of commission as surgeon . 2,800 
For twenty years and upwards after date of commission . 3,000 

On other duty — 
For first five years after date of commission as surgeon . 2.000 
For second five years after date of commission as surgeon . 2,200 
For tliird five years after date of commission as surgeon . 2,400 
For fourth five years after date of commission as surgeon . 2,600 
For twenty years and upwards after date of commission . 2.800 



THE CONFEDERATE STATES NAVY. 35 

The loss and destruction of naval records render it impos- 
sible to follow the changes and details that took place in the 
Confederate Navy Department, In the earlier days of the war 
many assignments were made hurriedly and for immediate 
necessity which the imperfect records do not explain or con- 
secutively follow, and officers are found discharging duties 
at stations for which no orders are now obtainable. 

The difficulty is further increased by the simultaneousness 
of the preparations for war in every part of the country, and 
at every port, in every river, and along the whole coast. 
The States, after secession, ordered the officers who resigned 
from the U. S. navy to different places within their limits, 
and they remained at those posts after the formation of the 
Confederate government until ordered elsewhere. Thus, 
Soutli Carolina, before the formation of the Confederate gov- 
ernment, preparing for the capture of Fort Sumter, had as- 
signed Capt. Hartstene to the command of her naval forces 
in Charleston harbor, where, on the 8th of January, the first 
gun in the war was fired at the Star of the West on her ill-ad- 
vised attempt to reinforce Sumter. 

General Beauregard. after the formation of the Confederate 
government, assumed command of the Confederate forces be- 
leaguering Fort Sumter, and in erecting the batteries which 
surrounded the fort was aided by Confederate naval officers. 
In his report of April 27, 18(31, he mentions "the naval de- 
partment, especially Capt. Hartstene, as perfectly indefati- 
gable in guarding the entrance into the harbor''; and the same 
officer as having had charge of the arrangements with the 
United States fleet off the harbor for the transportation of 
Major Anderson's command to some port of the United 
States; Captains Hamilton, Hallonquist, and Lieut. Valentine 
for the rapidity and accuracy of their mortar practice; and 
Surgeon A. M. Lynah, C. S. navy, for intelligent professional 
arrangements in anticipation of the casualties of battle. 

Hon. G. V. Fox, afterwards Assistant Secretary of the 
U. S. Navy Department, while in New York arranging for 
the expedition, which, under his direction, was designed to 
relieve Sumter, encountered the agents of the State of South 
Carolina negotiating to purchase two tugs; and writing to 
Mr. Blair, under date of March 1, 1861, Mr. Fox mentions 
"Hartstene, now a captain in the Confederate States navy, 
who thinks he has prevented an attack upon Sumter so far, 
but says it will soon be done and will be a very sanguinary 
affair. Paul Hamilton commands the floating battery now 
launched. They have four tugs, which do not amount ta 
much compared to one of these powerful New York ones.'^ 
When Mr. Fox visited Charleston, March 21, he was carried 
down to Fort Sumter under the escort of Capt. Hartstene, who 
commanded the little fleet of three steamboats which kept 
watch and ward over the outer harbor of Charleston, lighting 



36 THE CONFEDERATE STATES NAVY. 

the entrance with floating lightwood fires, and directing the 
motion of the Drumniond hghts whenever the alarm of " the 
boats are coming " migiit be signalled. 

The States which jjrovided the personnel of the navy, also, 
under the resolution of the Confederate Congress of March 
15, 18G1, in reference to property cajDtured from the United 
States, turned over the ships seized by them at the time of 
their secession. This bare nucleus of a navy. Congress, on 
March 15, 1861, authorized the President to increase by con- 
struction or purchase of ten steam gunboats for coast de- 
fences, whereof five were to be of a tonnage not exceeding 
seven hundred and fifty tons, and five of one thousand tons. 
In consequence of the resolution of the same date, the States 
turned over to the Confederate government the forts, arsenals, 
nav3^-yards, dock-yards and other property formerly belong- 
ing to the United States. This transfer placed at the disposal 
of the Navy Department the navy - yard at Pensacqla, 
^Florida, which having been a yard mainly for shelter and re- 
pairs, was but indifferently adapted to building purposes, and, 
lying in an exposed position, was of no immediate aid to the 
Navy Department. 

The efforts of the Confederate Navy Department in organiz- 
ing the naval stations were directed in March, 1861, to New 
Orleans, whither a commission, composed of Commander L. 
Rousseau, Commander E. Farrand and Lieut. Robert T. Chap- 
ma,n, was sent on the 17th of that month to purchase or con- 
tract for constructing the new gunboats authorized by 
'Congress. Under their administration at New Orleans, the 
Siwiter, the first Confederate cruiser, was dispatched to sea 
from that city on April 18, 1861. 

Commander L. Rousseau, thus appointed to the command of 
Ihe New Orleans naval station, was chiefly engaged in the ex- 
amination of river craft for conversion into gunboats, and col- 
lecting such material as the city and adjacent country afforded 
suitable to naval purposes. He continued in command until 
July 31st, when he was relieved by Capt. George N. HoUins. 

Capt. Duncan N. Ingraham, C. S. navy, in charge of naval 
affairs in the waters of Alabama, was ordered, May 20, 1861, 
to ascertain the practicability of obtaining wrought-iron plates 
•of from two to three inches in thickness; and whether, if such 
plates could be furnished according to a given form, dimen- 
sion and weight, what would be the price per pound, together 
with the best means of forwarding them to New Orleans. 
Capt. Ingraham reported that neither the Tennessee Iron 
Works nor the Messrs. Hillman & Co., on the Cumberland 
River, in Kentucky, would undertake work for the Confeder- 
ate States in the then condition of the country in which their 
works were located, and that Messrs. Wood & Co. were not 
prepared to roll heavy work under any circumstances. He 
also ascertained that the mills at Atlanta, Georgia, could not 



THE CONFEDERATE STATES NAVY. 37 

roll such iron as was needed, as it would involve an entire 
change in their mill, which they declined to make at tliat time; 
but afterwards, in November, 1861, the Atlanta mills were 
changed and became a mill for rolling iron plates for vessels- 
of-war. 

On iSTovember 16, 1861, Capt. Ingraham was assigned to 
duty in Charleston harbor, and ordered to superintend the 
preparation and armament of the batteries for its defence, as- 
sign to duty the naval officers at his disposal as ordnance offi- 
cers at the batteries, and to execute all orders relating to the 
naval operations in the harbor which he might receive from 
Flag-officer Tatnall. 

Capt. Victor M. Randolph, late of the United States navy, 
was appointed by the State of Florida to the command of 
the navy-yard at Pensacola, and assisted Colonel Wm. H. 
Chase, then in command of the State forces around Pensacola, 
in the reduction of that navy-yard; Commander Ebenezer Far- 
rand and Lieut. Francis B. Renshaw were also officers of the 
United States navy, and on duty at the Pensacola navy-yard. 
Capt. Farrand continued to command the navy-yard until its 
evacuation and destruction by order of Gen. Braxton Bragg, 
March 11, 1863. The Navy Department entered into contracts 
with Ollinger & Bruce, November 4, 1861, and with P. G. 
Howard, October 29. 1861, for the construction of two gun- 
boats at the head of Pensacola Bay, thirty-five miles from Fort 
Pickens; which, under the supervision of Commander Far- 
rand, were well and strongly built, and their destruction was 
condemned by Commander Farrand as unnecessary. He con- 
sidered that they could have been removed up Escambia River, 
out of reach of the enemy's gunboats, and there completed, 
where they would have rendered important service in any at- 
tack by the enemy on Pensacola. It Avas the action of the 
commander. General Samuel Jones, under positive orders of 
General Bragg, and not the Navy Department,or its executive 
officer. Commander Farrand, that thus destroyed two valuable 
gunboats. It is not true, as Admiral Porter says, that "' Pen- 
sacola was evacuated by the Confederates . . . on a scare, 
they thinking that Farragut's fleet was on its way to take it " 
— but the evacuation was rendered necessary, in General 
Bragg's opinion, because "'our fate may depend on two weeks 
in the valley of the Mississippi." The letter from which we 
extract that remark was written March 1. 1862, and ordered 
the troops from Pensacola to the valley of the Mississippi after 
all the guns and other military and naval stores had been re- 
moved. Among the troops defending Pensacola was Capt. 
Thorn's company of marines, which were transferred to Vir- 
ginia November 29tli, at which date General Bragg renewed a 
request made " ,as early as last spring, and frequently since, for 
some young naval officers, but without success," notwithstand- 
ing he had "'two steam, gunboats commanded by landsmen." 



38 THE CONFEDERATE STATES NAVY. 

Commander Tatnall resigned his commission in the United 
States navy on February 21, 18G1, and was appointed senior 
flag-officer in the navy at Georgia. February 28th, and com- 
missioned a captain in the Confederate Navy in Marcli, 18G1. 
The Navy Department immediately assigned Capt. Tatnall to 
the command of the naval defence of the waters of Georgia 
and South Carolina, with directions to improvise as best he 
could a squadron, to be composed of such light steamers and 
river craft as he might be able to secure. Contracts for the 
building of four gunboats at Savannah, Ga., and of two at 
Saffold, in that State, were made by the Navy Department dur- 
ing the first year of the war. 

The Proclamation of President Lincoln, April 15, 1861, 
calling upon Virginia and the other States for 75,000 troops to 
enable the United States authorities to repossess and hold the 
forts, etc., seized by the seceded States, had no nncertain signi- 
fication in Virginia. There it was understood and accepted as 
the declaration of war on the part of the United States. Vir- 
ginia could be no neutral in that war and had no desire to 
occupy any such position. It was apparent that her territory 
would become the Flanders of the war, and that between her 
northern and southern boundaries Avould be fought those 
great battles upon the results of which would depend the fate 
and fortune of the Confederate States. 

Among the first acts of the State Convention after the 
adoption of the Ordinance of Secession, on April 17, 1861, was 
Ordinance No. 9, passed on the same day, by which the Gover- 
nor of the State, after being authorized and required to call 
for volunteers, was also directed to " immediately invite all 
efficient and worthy Virginians and residents of Virginia in the 
army and navy of the United States to retire therefrom, and 
to enter the service of Virginia, assigning them to such rank 
as will not reverse the relative rank held by them in the United 
States service, and will at least be equivalent thereto." 

By the same Ordinance the Governor was ordered to "re- 
pel invasion and see that in all things the commonwealth take 
no detriment," and to that end an appropriation of $100,000 
was made. 

An invitation was also extended by the Convention to all 
Virginia officers in the Revenue service and Coast Survey of 
the United States to enter the service of the State, and the 
Governor was authorized to make proper provision for them. 

A commander-in-chief of the military and naval forces 
of the State, with the rank of Major General, was authorized 
by Ordinance of April 19, 18G1, who should, when appointed, 
take rank over all other military and naval officers of the 
State without regard to date of commission. 

The oath to support the Constitution of the United States, 
which had been taken by citizens of Virginia while the State 



THE CONFEDERATE STATES NAVY. 39 

was a member of tlmt confederacy, was declared inoperative 
and void, and of no effect, and the statutory provisions of the 
State wliich heretofore gave efficacy to that oath were repealed. 

Having thus disrobed herself of the constitution and 
union of the United States. Virginia prepared as best she 
€ould to meet the responsibilities of her acts. A provisional 
army was created, and on April 27th an Ordinance establish- 
ing the navy of Virginia was passed, to consist of 2,000 sea- 
men and marines, with their proper officers. The officers 
were to be those of the U. S. navy who had or who might 
thereafter avail themselves of the invitation extended by 
Ordinance No. D, of April 17th. The Governor was directed 
to prescribe the pay, rations, and allowances, which were to 
be the same in all respects as those then in the U. S. navy; 
Virginians on the retired list of the U. S. navy were to be 
provided for by the Governor, and to perform such duties as 
they were able to discharge; the rules for the government of 
the U. S. navy were directed to be revised by a Board of 
officers to be ordered by the Governor, and made applicable to 
the navy of Virginia; the term of enlistment for seamen was 
fixed at three years, and for marines at five years; a medical 
department was directed to be organized by the Governor, to 
which none but surgeons and assistant surgeons late of the 
U. S. navy were to be appointed. 

An Auditing Board for all claims and expenditures for the 
army and navy was appointed, consisting of George W. 
Munford, John R. Tucker, and Jonathan M. Bennett. 

On the 22d of April, 1861, Robert E. Lee, late a colonel in 
the U. S. cavalry, was appointed by Governor Letcher and 
confirmed by the convention to be Commander-in-chief of the 
army and navy of Virginia, and immediately entered upon 
the duties of his position. 

Two days after that appointment, on April 24th, a conven- 
tion between Virginia and the Confederate States of America 
was entered into, which provided that : Until the union be- 
tween the State and the Confederacy was fully completed the 
whole military and naval operations, offensive and defensive, 
of the State, in the impending conflict with the United States, 
shall be under the chief control and direction of the President 
of the Confederate States, and that, after the completion of 
said union, the State would turn over to the Confederate 
States all the public property, naval stores and munitions of 
war then in her possession, acquired from the United States, 
and that whatever expenditures of money the State might in- 
cur would be met and provided for by the Confederate States. 
The Constitution of the Confederate States was ratified and 
ordained, and proclaimed binding on the people of Virginia 
by Ordnance No. 56, adopted June 19, 1861. 

In the interval between April 17th and June 19th the 
States seized the Gosport navy-yard, Harper's Ferry, two 



40 THE CONFEDERATE STATES NAVY. 

steamers at Richmond, and began to fortify the Potomac, 
Rappahannock, York and James Rivers with batteries, under 
the command and direction of her naval officers. 

Commodore French Forrest, having resigned his commis- 
sion in the U. S. navy, was appointed in the Virginia navy, 
and assigned to duty as flag-officer at the Norfolk navy-yard 
immediately upon its evacuation by the United States authori- 
ties; at the same time Capt. Arthur Sinclair, also of the old 
navy, was appointed to the same rank in the navy of Virginia, 
and assigned to the command of Fort Norfolk; Robert B. 
Pegram and Catesby Ap R. Jones were appointed on April 18, 
1861, captains in the Virginia navy, and James H. Rochelle, a 
lieutenant. These officers were immediately ordered to Nor- 
folk, under the following order addressetl to Capt. Pegram : 
"You will immediately proceed to Norfolk and there assume 
command of the naval station, with authority to organize naval 
defences, enroll and enlist seamen and marines, and tem- 
porarily to appoint war officers, and do and perform whatever 
may be necessary to preserve and protect the property of the 
Commonwealth and the citizens of Virginia." This order was 
of date April 18th, but was superseded in a few days by that 
assigning Flag-officer Forrest to the command of the naval 
station at Norfolk. 

Lieut. John M. Brooke, of the C. S. navy, was assigned 
to duty, as aide-de-camp, at the headquarters of Major Gen. 
Robert E. Lee, then commanding the army of Virginia, and 
Commander M. F. Maury w^as attached to the Advisory Council 
of the State of Virginia; Wm. L. Maury and Wm. Taylor Smith, 
lieutenants in the Virginia navy, were assigned to duty under 
Gen. Philip St. George Cocke, commanding on the line of 
the Potomac, and were engaged in erecting batteries of that 
river; Capt. William C. Whittle, of the navy, was assigned 
to duty at Gloucester Point. Capt. Thos. J. Page while in 
the Virginia navy was aide-de-camp to Governor Letcher. 
Capt. Wm. F. Lynch was assigned to duty on the Potomac 
River. Commander A. B. Fairfax was ordnance officer at 
the Norfolk navy-yard, and Lieut. H. H. Lewis was on 
duty on the Rappahannock. Capt. J. Wilkinson was assigned 
to the duty of constructing Fort Powhatan on the James 
River. 

The naval school established by Secretary Mallory at 
Richmond, under the superintendence of Lieut. Wm. H. 
Parker, proved of great benefit to the service. The exigencies 
of defence required not only trained officers, but men capable 
of training others. The naval academy educated and trained 
a large number of the younger officers of the service, some of 
whom subsequently acquired great distinction. 

The number of experienced seamen in the Southern States 
prior to the war was very limited, and these were entirely 
absorbed by the Conscript Law of February 17, 1864, placing 




\K.'^^'-'' 



CAPTAIN FRENCH FORREST. 

CONFEDERATE STATES NAVY. 



^ 



/ 



/ 



/ 



f 



THE CONFEDERATE STATES NAVY. 41 

in the military service all white men residents of the Confed- 
erate States between the ages of seventeen and fifty; notwith- 
standing the law of May 1, 18G3, provided for the transfer of 
all seamen and ordinary seamen from the army to the navy, 
in practice this law was almost entirely disregarded — the 
only favorable response that was made to numerous calls 
made on the army for seamen, under this law, was to an 
order from the War Department of March 23, 1864, which 
directed the transfer to the navy of 1,200 men, under which 
900 men were transferred from all the armies on the 
east of the Mississippi River. The law of October 2, 1862, 
gave the right of election to all persons enrolled, or about 
to be enrolled, at any time before being assigned to any 
company, who should prefer the navy or marine corps, to 
be enlisted in that service, but this availed very little to the 
navy; and notwithstanding naval officers were sent to the dif- 
ferent conscript camps to. facilitate recruiting for the navy, a 
favorable result was not attained; hence, recruiting for the 
navy was barely sufficient to supply the deficiencies occasioned 
by deaths, discharges and desertions. In 1864 the whole num- 
ber of enlisted men in the navy was 3,674. 

The United States naval register of 1861 shows a navy of OO- 
vessels, of which number 21 are designated as unserviceable, 
27 available but not in commission, and 42 in commission; 
there were distributed to the home squadron 12 vessels of 187 
guns; Mediterranean, 3 vessels, 37 guns; coast of Brazil, 2 ves- 
sels, 53 guns; East Indies, 3 vessels, 42 guns; while those in 
the Pacific aggregated the 42 vessels in commission, which 
mounted 555 guns, and with over 7,000 men. With the ves- 
sels not then in commission, but which were immediately put 
in commission, Admiral Porter enumerates as the "old navy," 
76 vessels, mounting 1,783 guns. Mr.Welles, the United States 
Secretar}^ of the iSTavy, took immediate steps for the purchase 
of 136 vessels, which were altered and commissioned, and 
mounted with 518 guns ; and also began the construction in 
different yards, both of the government and of private parties,. 
52 vessels to carry 256 guns, which, by December of 1861, 
composed a navy of 264 vessels, carrying 2,557 guns, manned 
by 22,000 seamen, and of an aggregate tonnage of 218,016 tons. 

Prof. Soley enumerates five distinct measures which were 
immediately adopted by the Administration at Washington 
to increase the naval force: 

First. To buy everything afloat that could be made of ser- 
vice — a measure which was impossible for Mr. Mallory to 
imitate, because in the Confederacy there was nothing afloat 
to buy, and no money with which to purchase. 

Second. The United States immediately began, and pushed 
with unexampled energy, the construction of eight sloops-of- 
war. This was another measure impossible to Mr. Mallory, 



42 THE CONFEDERATE STATES NAVY. 

who had neither ship-yards nor sliip-carpenters, neither the 
means of building nor the power to buy. 

Third. To contract with private parties for the construc- 
tion of heavily armed iron -plated screw gunboats; these 
" ninety-day gunboats "' were for service at sea. Nine of these 
gunboats passed the forts below New Orleans with Admiral 
Farragut. 

Fourth. For service in narrow waters, twelve paddle- 
wheel steamers — " double -ender'' — and twenty-seven of a 
larger class; some of which were of iron, were contracted for 
and built with the greatest dispatch. 

Fifth. The iron-clads. 

In addition to these five types of vessels, there was also 
an '-' immense river fleet, composed of river steamboat rams, 
iron-clads, tin-clads, and mortar boats"; and lastly, under the 
sting of the Alabama, the Florida, and other " commerce- 
destroyers." the Federal government undertook the construc- 
tion of a class of war-vessels, — " large wooden steamers, with 
fine lines, excessively long and sharp and narrow, of light 
draft for their size, in which every quality was sacrificed to 
speed" — their main purpose was to destroy the "commerce- 
destroyers." as well as, under other circumstances, '"to do a 
little commerce-destroying themselves." The Appendix to 
Prof. Soley's "Blockade and Cruisers" shows 126 wooden 
vessels constructed between 18G1 and 1865, mounting 1.307 
guns, and 74 iron-clads. mounting 213 guns — a total of 200 ves- 
sels, mounting 1,520 guns. 

Against that naval force. Prof. Soley says: 

" The Confederate States had at its disposal a small number of trained 
officers, . . . some of these, like Buchanan, Semmes, Brown, Maffltt, and 
Brooke, were men of extraordinary professional qualities ; but, except its 
officers, the Confederate government had nothing in the shape of a navy. 
It had not a single ship-of-war. It had no abundant fleet of merchant- 
vessels in its ports from which to draw reserves. It had no seamen, for 
its people were not given to seafaring pursuits. Its only ship-yards were 
Norfolk and Pensacola. Norfolk, with its immense sui)plies of ordnance 
and equipment, was, indeed, valuable ; but though the 300 Dahl- 
gren guns captured in the yard were a permanent acquisition, the 
yard itself was lost when the war was one-fourth over. The South was 
without any large foi-ce of skilled mechanics; and such as it had were 
early summoned to the army. There were only three rolling mills in the 
country, two of which were in Tennessee ; and the third, at Alabama, 
was unfitted for heavy work. There were hardly any machine shops that 
were prei)ared to supply the best kind of workmanship, and in the begin- 
ning the only foundry capable of casting heavy guns was the Tredegar 
Iron Works, which, under the direction of Commander Brooke, was em- 
ployed to its fullest capacity. Worst of all, there was no raw materials, 
except the timber that was "standing in the forests. Under these circum- 
stances, no general i)lan of naval policy on a large scale could be carried 
out, and the conflict on the Southern side became a species of partisan, 
desultory warfare. " 

Without assenting to the conclusion of Prof. Soley. it must 
be admitted that his picture of Confederate naval prospects 
at the beginning of the war is not overdrawn or too highly 



THE CONFEDERATE STATES NAVY. 43 

■colored. Not dismayed by the unpromising prospects before 
him. Secretary Mallory obtained the passage of the secret acts 
of Congress of May 10, 18G1, which authorized the dispatch of 
Naval Agent James D. Bulloch to England, where he arrived 
on June 4, 18G1. But, anticipating legislation on March 13th, 
an officer was sent to New York to examine and ascertain 
whether vessels could be purchased there suitable for war 
purposes; and, if he could, to procure them. On the 19th of 
March, an engineer officer was dispatched to New York, 
Pliiladelphia and Baltimore in search of suitable vessels for 
naval purposes, and his report was that but one vessel of the 
character desired could be found in any Northern city, and 
that was the steamer Caroline, of Philadelphia. There iiego- 
tiations Avere rendered abortive by the outbreak in Baltimore 
on the passage of Massachusetts troops through that city, and 
the agents returned to Montgomiery. The agents in Canada 
reported, oth of June, that the U. S. government had secured 
every available steamer in Canadian waters. 

The subject of iron-clad ships was brought by the Navy De- 
partment to the attention of the naval committee by letter of 
May S, 1861, in which Mr. Mallory, after reviewing the his- 
tory of iron-clad ships in England and France, continued: 

"I regard the possession of an iron-armored siiip as a matter of the 
first necessity. Such a vessel at this time could traverse the entire coast 
of the United States, prevent all blockades, and encounter, with a fair 
prospect of success, their entire navy. 

"If to cope with them upon the sea, we follow their example and 
build wooden ships, we shall have to construct several at one time, for 
one or two ships will fall an easy prey to her comparatively numerous 
steam frigates. But inequality of numbers may be compensated by in- 
vulnerability, and thus not only does economy but naval success dictate 
the wisdom and expediency of fighting iron against wood without regard 
to first cost. . . . Should the committee deem it expedient to begin 
at once the construction of such a ship, not a moment should be lost. 
An agent of the department will leave for England in a day or two charged 
with the duty of purchasing vessels, and by him the first step in the 
measure may be taken." 

The recommendation of that letter was embodied in a law, 
and the Merrimac was expected to be the kind of vessel therein 
suggested. The report of the Secretary of the Navy, July 18, 
1861, says: 

" The iri^aXe Merrimac has been raised and docked at an expense of 
S6,000, and the necessary repairs to hull and machinery to place her in 
her former condition is estimated by experts at $450,000. The vessel 
would then be in the river, and by the blockade of the enemy's fleets and 
batteries rendered comparatively useless. It has, therefore, been deter- 
mined to shield her completely with three-inch iron, placed at such angles 
iis to render her ball-proof, to complete her at the earliest moment, to arm 
her with the heaviest ordnance, and to send her at once against the en- 
emy's fleet. It is believed that thus prepared she will be able to contend 
successfully against the heaviest of the enemy's ships, and to drive them 
from Hampton Roads and the ports of Virginia. The cost of this work 
is estimated by the constructor and engineer in charge at SI 72,523, and, as 
time is of the iirst consequence in this enterprise, I have not hesitated to 
commence the work, and to ask Congress for the necessary appropriation." 



44 THE CONFEDERATE STATES NAVY. 

Lieut. James H. North was sent abroad in May to procure- 
iron-clad ships, if possible; but finding it impracticable to pur- 
chase in Europe, the department commenced the construction 
of such vessels in the waters of the South. It was recognized 
by Secretary Mallory in his report of November 20, 1861, that 
" iron-clad steamships capable of resisting the crushing weight 
of projectiles from heavy ordnance must at- an early day 
constitute the principal part of the fighting vessels of all naval 
powers"; and to secure iron for covering, construction and 
ordnance of naval vessels, the department, as soon as Virginia 
entered the Confederacy, contracted with Joseph R. Anderson 
& Co. and the Messrs. Deane for a supply of all classes of 
iron, including ordnance and projectile, as far as those shops 
could supply. 

At various dates from June 28th, 18G1, to Dec. 1st, 1862, 
Secretary Mallory entered into thirty-two contracts, for the 
construction of forty gunboats, floating batteries and vessels- 
of-war, with parties in various cities, from Norfolk to New 
Orleans and Memphis. In addition to these, the depart- 
ment had vessels under construction superintended by its own 
officers. This did not include the vessels under contract and 
construction in foreign countries. 

These contracts were with John Hughes & Co., Myers & 
Co., Hitch & Farrow. David S. Johnston, Frederick G. How- 
ard, Ollinger & Bruce, H. F. Willink, Jr., Gilbert Elliott, 
William A. Graves, N. Nash, Krenson & Hawkes, F. M. 
Jones, Wm. O. Safford, Lindsey & Silverton, Henry D. Bas- 
sett, Porter & Watson, I. E. Montgomery and A. Anderson, 
Howard & Ellis, Thomas Moore and John Smoker, for the 
immediate construction of fort3^-two gunboats and floating 
batteries. Many of these vessels were constructed and deliv- 
ered, and performed valuable service in the Confederate 
navy. 

The building of these gunboats was hindered by a variety 
of causes, and in many instances their completion prevented 
by tlie enemy capturing the localities where the boats were 
being built. Sucii failures could not have been prevented by 
the Navy Department, and the wonder is. not that greater suc- 
cess did not attend Secretary Mallory's efforts, but that so 
much was done with such limited means, and in spite of the 
active "and unremitting advances of a powerful enemy. 

The preparation in 1861 of an iron-clad fleet of gunboats 
at St. Louis by the U. S. government attracted the atten- 
tion of the Navy Department at Richmond, and immediate 
steps were taken to have reliable mechanics sent to St. Louis 
and employed on those boats who would obtain accurate infor- 
mation of their strength and fighting character and the prog- 
ress made toward their completion. These reports, with an 
accurate plan and description of the Benton, were made to 
Mr. Mallory. In consequence of which, it was deemed of more 



THE CONFEDERATE STATES NAVY. 45 

immediate importance to defend New Orleans against an at- 
tack from above rather than from the Gulf. 

To this end the Act of Congress of August 30th was 
passed, authorizing and directing the "preparation immedi- 
diately of floating defences best adapted to defend the Miss- 
issippi River against a descent of iron-plated steam gun- 
boats." Under this act contracts were made. August 24, 
18G1, at Memphis, for the construction of the Tennessee and 
the Arkansas, both to be completed by December 24, 1861. 
The enemy's fleet, building at St. Louis, threatened the Cum- 
berland and Tennessee Rivers, and the country through which 
these rivers flowed equally with that along the banks of the 
Mississippi. The Legislature of Tennessee, apprehending an 
invasion along the line of one or perhaps both of those rivers, 
called the attention of Congress, by joint resolution of date 
June 24, 1861, to their unprotected condition; and efforts to 
purchase and adapt to defensive purposes the river steam- 
boats Helman, .Jas. Johnson, J. Woods, and B. M. Bunyon, 
lying at Nashville, were immediately undertaken, and were 
in such progress that, on November S, Gen. C. F. Smith, U. S. 
army, commanding at Paducah, called the attention of the 
authorities at Washington to the fact that, " some eight miles 
above Fort Henry, the enemy has been for many weeks 
endeavoring to convert river steamers into iron-clad gunboats. 
This fort is an obstacle to our gunboats proceeding to look 
after such work." The construction of the gunboat Eastport, 
on the Tennessee River, was commenced, but not being com- 
pleted wiien the forts fell was destroyed by the orders of 
Gen. A. S. Johnston. 

Near the end of the first year of the war, on March 4th, 
1862, Mr. Mallory, in response to a resolution of the House of 
Representatives, urged that the immediate procurement of 
" fifty light-draft and powerful steam-propellers, plated with 
five-inch hard iron, armed and equipped for service in our 
own waters, four iron or steel-clad single deck, ten -gun frig- 
ates of about two thousand tons, and ten clipper propellers 
with superior marine engines, both classes of ships designed 
for deep-sea cruising, three thousand tons of first-class boiler 
plate iron, and one thousand tons of rod, bolt and bar iron "; 
and under the head of munitions of war the Secretary enumer- 
ated as necessary for immediate use, " two thousand pieces of 
heavy ordnance, ranging in calibre from six to eleven inches, 
and in weight from six thousand to fourteen thousand pounds, 
two thousand tons of cannon powder, one thousand tons of 
musket powder for filling projectiles and pyrotechny, four 
thousand navy rifles, and four thousand navy revolvers, and 
four thousand navy cutlasses, with their equipment and am- 
munition." There were required, he further urged, "three 
thousand instructed seamen, four thousand ordinary seamen 
and landsmen, and two thousand first-rate mechanics," and 



46 THE CONFEDERATE STATES NAVY. 

he requested that five millions of dollars be immediately 
placed in Europe. 

A joint select committee of the two Houses of Congress 
was raised on the 27th of August, 18G2, to investigate the ad- 
ministration of the Navy Department. New Orleans had fallen, 
and the great gunboats Louisiana and Mississippi, of which 
so much was expected and had been promised, had been 
burned, without delivering any seriously damaging blow at 
the enemy. Norfolk had been captured, and with her fall the 
great navy-yard at Gosport had returned to the control of the 
United States, and the pride of the Confederate navy, the 
Virginia, while riding triumphant in Hampton Roads, bad 
been destroyed by the match in Confederate hands. Dis- 
appointment and disaster made men unjust in their review of 
causes, and a scapegoat was attempted to be made of the 
Secretary of the Navy. His department was charged with 
incompetent management, with wastefulness of means, with 
partiality and favoritism, and with the responsibility for the 
loss of New Orleans and Norfolk— for the unnecessary de- 
struction of the Mississippi and the Virginia. 

In their report the committee state that they inquired into 
everything relating to tlie materials and the operations of 
the navy of the Confederate States ; the means and resources 
for building a navy ; the efforts to purchase or build vessels 
and to obtain ordnance stores ; the naval defences of the 
Mississippi River, and especially of New Orleans, of the Cum- 
berland, Tennessee and James Rivers, and of the city of 
Norfolk. 

Before the war but seven steam war- vessels had been built 
in the States forming the Confederacy, and the engines of onl}^ 
two of these had been contracted for in these States. All 
the labor or materials requisite to complete and equip a war- 
vessel could not be commanded at any one point of the Con- 
federacy. 

In justification of the Secretary of the Navy, the commit- 
tee state that he had invited contracts for building gunboats 
wherever they could be soonest and best built and most advan- 
tageously employed, and that his contracts were judicious and 
seemed to have been properly enforced. In relation to the de- 
struction of the Mississippi at New Orleans, the committee say, 
the contractors— Messrs. Tift — undertook her construction 
without pecuniary reward, and prosecuted the work on her 
with industry and dispatch, and that neither they nor the 
Secretary were censurable for the incompleteness of that vessel 
when the enemy reached New Orleans, or for her destruction. 

With reference to what the department had accomplished 
since its organization, the committee state that it erected a 
powder mill which supplies all the powder required by our 
navy; two engine-boiler and machine shops, and five ordnance 
workshops. It has established eighteen yards for building 



THE CONFEDERATE STATES NAVY. 47 

war-vessels, and a rope-walk, making-^ll cordage, from a rope 
yarn to a nine-inch cable, and capabft^^^of^ turning out 8,000 
yds. per month. 

Of vessels not iron-clad the Department has purchased and other- 
wise acquired and conveited to war-vessels 44 

Has built and completed as war-vessels 13 

Has partially constructed and destroyed, to save from the enemy ... 10 

And has now under construction. . . . 9 

Of iron-clad vessels it has completed and has now in commission . . .13 

Has completed and destroyed, or lost by capture . 4 

Has in progress of construction, and in various stages of forwardness . 33 

It had also one iron-clad floating battery, presented to 
the Confederate States by the ladies of Georgia, and one iron- 
clad ram, partially completed and turned over to the Confed- 
eracy by the State of Alabama. 

In spite of all embarrassments and difficulties, the navy 
had afloat in November, 18G1, the Sumtei% the Dixie, the 
Jeff. Davis, the Goixion. the Merrimac, the Petrel, the Evei^- 
glade, the Savannah (captured), the Webb, the McClelland, the 
McRae, the Yorktown, the Pati^ick Henry, the Resolute, the 
Sallie, the Bonita, the James Grey, the Calhoun, the Ivy, the 
Dodge, the Lady Davis, the Lewis Cass, the Washington, the 
Nina, the Jackson, the Tuscarora, the Pickens, the Bradford, 
the Nelms, the Coffee, the Nashville, the Manassas, the George 
Page, the Judith (destroyed), and several other vessels. The 
personnel of the navy then consisted of — Captains, 9; Com- 
manders, 25; Lieutenants, 24; Midshipmen, 6; Surgeons, 7; 
Paymasters, 8; Chief Engineer, 1; First Assistant Engineer, 
1: Navy Agents. 2; Colonel of Marines, 1; Lieut. Colonel of 
Marines, 1; Major of Marines, 1; Captains of Marines, 2; Sec- 
ond Lieutenants of Marines, 3. — Total, 87. 

"Notwithstanding the military reverses of 1861 and 1862, 
by which so many important points were taken possession of by 
the enemy, the Navy Department, in May of 1863, had twenty- 
three gunboats in progress of construction, twenty of wiiich 
were of iron and three of wood. The report of Naval Con- 
structor John L. Porter, of November 1, 1862, shows that an 
iron-clad steamer had just been launched at Richmond, and 
that at the same place an iron -clad ram was then on the 
stocks, and four torpedo-boats under construction. At Hali- 
fax, N. C, a gunboat of light draft for use in the waters of 
the Sound would be ready in two months; at Edward's Ferry, 
on the Roanoke River, a wooden gunboat of light draft, for 
operations on that river, was approaching completion, and at 
the same place an iron -clad gunboat for Albemarle Sound was 
awaiting her machinery. At Wilmington, N. C, there was 
being built an iron-clad steainer, of such draft of water as 
would enable her to go out and in at all stages of the tide; 
the machinery of this steamer was being completed at Colum- 
bus, Ga., under the supervision of Chief Engineer J. H.Warner, 



48 THE CONFEDERATE STATES NAVY. 

C S. navy. At Pedee River Bridge, a wooden gunboat had 
just been completed with two propellers, the engines of 
which were built at the naval works at Richmond, and that 
there was also on the stocks at the same place a small side- 
wheel steamer for transportation purposes on the Pedee River, 
as well as a torpedo-boat. At Charleston, an iron-clad steamer 
was nearly completed, with citadel armor-plated, with iron 
six inches thick, and mounting six guns; also two first-class 
steamers, for which there was no iron available at that time. 
At Savannah, an iron-clad was ready for launching, whose 
engines were also built by Chief Engineer Warner at Colum- 
bus, and another iron-clad was also ready for her armament. 
At Columbus, Ga., a double propeller iron-clad steamer 
awaited the rising of the river for launching, and the steamer 
ChattaJiOochee had just been thoroughly overhauled and re- 
paired. At Mobile, a large iron-clad side-wheel steamer, built 
by Montgomery & Anderson, and two light-draft, double pro- 
peller, iron-clad steamers, by Porter & Watson, on the Tom- 
bigbee River, awaited iron for plating. 

" It will be seen," says Mr. Porter, "that everything has been done to 
get up an iron-clad fleet of vessels which could possibly be done under 
the circumstances; but in consequence of the loss of our iron and coal 
regions, with the rolling mill at Atlanta, our supply of iron has been very 
limited. The mills at Richmond are capable of rolling any quantity, but 
the material is not on hand ; and the amount now necessary to complete 
vessels already built would be equal to four thousand two hundred and 
thirty tons, as follows : 

Tons. 

At Richmond, for two vessels 575 

" Wilmington, for onevessel. - 150 

" Charleston, for tAvo vessels 800 

" Savannah, for two " 750 

" Columbus, for onevessel 280 

'• Mobile, for three vessels 1,250 

On Tombigbee, for three vessels 425 

Total 4,230" 

Before the war there was no powder stored in any South- 
ern States, except such small quantities of sporting powder as 
was usual in a country whose people were engaged in field 
sports. But of powder for military and naval purposes, that 
captured at the Norfolk navy-yard, and some obtained in the 
arsenals in the Southern States, amounting in all to about 
60,000 pounds, was the only supply on hand. 

•*I earnestly beg," Governor F. W. Pickens, of South 
Carolina, wrote, on September 1. 1861. *''if possible, that you 
will order me, if you have it at Norfolk. 40,000 pounds of can- 
non powder. I loaned the Governor of North Carolina 25,000 
pounds, and also the Governor of Florida, for Fernandina and 
Saint Augustine, 5,000 pounds, besides what I sent to Mem- 
phis, Tenn. If I could be sure of getting 40,000 pounds as a 
reserve for Charleston, I would immediately order a full 



i 




COMMANDER JOHN M. BROOKE, 

CONFEDEEATE STATES NAVY. 



THE CONFEDERATE STATES NAVY. 49 

supply of cannon powder for about 100 guns I have now on our 
coast below Charleston. As it is, I fear to drain Charleston 
entirely. I bought for the State, last December and January, 
about 300,000 pounds from Hazard's Mills in Connecticut, but 
I have distributed all of it but about 40,000 pounds." About 
the same time, General John B. Grayson wrote: "Assure as 
the sun rises, unless cannon powder, etc., be sent to Florida 
in the next thirty days, she will fall into the hands of the 
North. Nothing human can prevent it. There are not 
4,000 pounds of powder at every post combined." At Fort 
Pulaski, in September, 18G1, the powder in the magazine was 
''about 45,000 pounds" — on which the navy held an order for 
1,800 pounds. The Governor of Florida was writing also : 
" No powder or fuses — we need guns of larger calibre and am- 
munition — Florida wants arms. She has never received a 
musket from the Confederate States." The same demand 
for powder and arms came up to Richmond from every centre 
of military operations. 

The stock of percussion-caps amounted to less than half a 
million, if that amount was available, and there was not a ' 
machine for making them in all the Southern States. Major *^ 
Gorgas, in his monograph, says : 

"We began in April, 1861, without an arsenal, laboratory or powder 
mill of any capacity, and with no foundry or rolling-mill except at Rich- 
mond, and before the close of 18G3, within a little over two years, we sup- 
plied them. During the harassments of war, while holding our own in 
the field defiantly and successfully against a powerful enemy; crippled 
by a depreciated currency; throttled with a blockade that deprived us of 
nearly all the means of getting matei-ial or workmen; obliged to send al- 
most every able-bodied man to the field ; unable to use slave-labor, with 
which we were abundantly supplied, except in the most unskilled depart- 
ments of production ; hampered by want of transportation even of the 
commonest supplies of food; with no stock on hand even of articles such 
as steel, copper, leather, iron, which we must liave to build up our estab- 
lishments — against all these obstacles, in spite of all these deficiencies, 
we persevered at home, as determinedly as did our troops on the field 
against a more tangible opposition ; and in that short period created, al- 
most literally out of the ground, foundries and rolling mills at Selma, 
Richmond, Atlanta and Macon, smelting works at Petersburg, chemical 
works at Charlotte, North Carolina; a powder-mill far superior to any in 
the United States, and unsurpassed by any across the ocean, and a chain 
of arsenals, armories and laboratories, equal in their capacity and im- 
provements to the best of those in the United States, stretching link by 
link from Virginia to Alabama." w 

The work of preparing for the manufacture of ordnance, 
ordnance stores and naval supplies was greatly advanced by 
the Bureau of Ordnance and Hydrography under Commander 
George Minor, C. S. navy, Lieut. Robert D. Minor, C. S. navy, 
and Commander John M. Brooke, whose banded guns, manu- 
factured under his supervision at the Tredegar Works in 
Richmond, proved so remarkably efficient throughout all the 
conflicts of the war. The Ordnance Bureau at Richmond sent 
to New Orleans from May, 18G1, to May, 1863, 220 heavy guns. 



50 THE CONFEDERATE STATES NAVY. 

The Bureau of Ordnance and Hydrography later in the 
war was transferred to Commander John M. Brooke, and in its 
various departments and different stations became the most 
valuable branch of the navy. The ordnance works at Rich- 
mond, Va., under Lieut. R. D. Minor and R. B. Wright, sup- 
plied nearly all the equipments of the vessels in James River 
and at Wilmington, as well as the carriages for the heavy 
navy guns in batteries on shore. Tlie employes enrolled in 
a naval battalion were frequently called from their work to 
the field, thus interrupting and delaying work far more valu- 
able than any field service it was possible for them to render. 
At Charlotte, N. C. , the naval ordnance works, under the super- 
intendence of Chief Engineer H, A. Ramsay, became one of 
the most important and valuable aids to the naval service. 
It was the only establishment where heavy forging could be 
done; and there the shaftings for steamers and the wrought- 
iron projectiles were forged and finished; gun-carriages, 
blocks, and ordnance equipments of nearly every description,, 
including the productions of an ordnance laboratory, were 
manufactured in great quantities and with great regularity, 
because its operations were less liable to interruption by calls 
upon its workmen for service in the fields. At Selma, Com- 
mander Catesby Ap. R. Jones superintended the various 
branches of the foundry employed chiefly in the manufacture 
of guns specially adapted for service against iron-clads. 
Forty-seven of these guns were supplied from these works to 
the defences of Mobile, and twelve were in batteries at 
Charleston and Wilmington. The naval powder mills at 
Columbia, under the superintendence of P. B. Gareschi, be- 
came in time capable of fully supplying the demands of the 
navy, and the powder there manufactured was of an excellent 
quality. 

Lieut. D. P. McCorkle, in charge of the ordnance works at 
Atlanta, finding his plant threatened by the movements of 
the enemy, transferred the whole machinery and stores to 
Augusta, and set to work in temporary buildings to manufac- 
ture shot, shells, gun-carriages for Charleston, Savannah and 
Mobile. 

The great and pressing demands for ordnance and ord- 
nance stores for the defences of the country, at every point, 
rendered it impossible for the Navy Department at Richmona 
to comply promptly with requisitions made upon the Bureau 
of Ordnance from every assailed point in the Confederacy. 
To meet the urgent demands of the navy at New Orleans, a 
laboratory was established on a large scale in that city for 
the preparation of fuses, primers, fireworks, etc., and to 
authorize the casting of heavy cannon, the construction of 
gun-carriages, and the manufacture of projectiles and ord- 
nance equipments of all kinds. The laboratory was first under 
the direction of Lieut. Beverley Kennon, C. S. navy, and 



THE CONFEDERATE STATES NAVY. ol 

afterwards under Lieut. John R. Eggleston, and then of Acting- 
Master W. A. Robins. General Lovel had ah-eady set up a 
powder mill and was manufacturing an excellent powder, which 
he supplied to both the army and navy as far as it was possible, 
but the constant and ever-recurring urgent demands upon his 
mills were greatly beyond their possible supply. By Decem- 
ber 5, two powder mills were in running order and turning 
out two tons of powder per day, and contracts for two hun- 
dred tons of saltpetre, promised to relieve the pressing needs 
of the defences of the city from the danger of a short supply. 
But the explosion of one of the mills on December 28, just 
as the ships of the enemy were assembling at Ship Island, 
caused great anxiety. Contracts for powder at 83 cts. per 
pound were ordered and entered into; and on Jan. 13,1803, the 
supply at New Orleans was reported at 116,750 pounds. On 
Jan. 22, 1862, the price of powder under contracts had risen to 
$1.14 per pound, with an advance of two-thirds of the price 
before its manufacture began. 

In addition to this want of ordnance stores, the navy was 
further embarrassed in its supply of coal — the incursions of 
the army at some points contiguous to the coal supply was 
to a great extent the cause of this; so that, in the last year of 
the war, the mines at Richmond, in North Carolina and in 
Alabama, were the only sources of supply, but deficiencies of 
transportation increased the difficulty of obtaining coal from 
those mines for distant points on the seaboard. 

The navy erected at Petersburg rope-walks, which proved 
adequate to all the demands of the navy and supplied also 
the army, the coal mines, the railroads and the canal compa- 
nies. Cotton, manufactured with tar, was found to be a valu- 
able substitute for hemp cordage. 

Thus, the Confederate States, which, in 1801, were totally 
destitute of every appliance, of all machinery, of all tools and 
mechanics, for the manufacture of naval ordnance of any 
kind, while fighting a multitudinous enemy over a vast terri- 
tory, and surrounded by the navy of the enemy which closed 
every port, was able to erect at Richmond, Atlanta, Augusta, 
Selma, New Orleans, Charlotte, Columbia, Petersburg, Co- 
lumbus, those extensive works which, before the war closed, 
supplied her navy and batteries with all the ordnance they re- 
quired. These various works developed into usefulness as 
the war progressed, notwithstanding its exacting demands 
upon the country for every man capable of bearing arms. 
Their efficiency was frequently retarded by the calls to arms 
which took the workmen from the shop to the field, and at all 
times the comparatively small number of mechanics available 
for work at these stations was a matter of serious embarrass- 
ment. 

If the United States surprised the nations of the world by 
the development of its war power during that war, a careful 



52 THE CONFEDERATE STATES NAVY. 

examination of what was accomplished in the Confederate 
States will be found to have greatly exceeded the results in the 
United States when the conditions and circumstances of the 
two parties to the war are considered and contrasted. If, 
while fighting each other and each party destroying every- 
thing that could not be removed, these grand results were 
respectively accomplished — what limit shall be set to the ca- 
pabilities of such a people united and excited by the same de- 
termination in their defence of their common country ? 



CHAPTER IV. 



PRIVATEERS, OR LETTERS OF MARQUE. 



AS we have seen, the surrender of Fort Sumter on the 13th 
of April, 1861, was the initial act of the war between the 
States, On the 15th the President of the United States 
issued a proclamation, calling out troops to the 
number of 75,000. President Davis, on the 17th, published a 
counter - proclamation, inviting applications for letters of 
marque and reprisal to be granted under the seal of the Con- 
federate States, against ships and property of the United 
States and their citizens. ^ 

Doubting the constitutional power of the executive to 
grant letters of marque to private armed ships. President 
Davis, with characteristic regard for law, determined not to 
commission privateers until duly authorized by Congress. 
That body assembled in special session on April 29, in obedience 



1 After appropriately recognizing the condi- 
tion of public affairs, and inviting energetic 
preparation for immediate hostilities, he said: 

" Now, therefore, I, Jefferson Davis, President 
of the Confederate States of America, do issue 
this, my proclamation, inviting all those who 
may desire, by service in private armed vessels 
on the high seas, to aid this government in re- 
sisting so wanton and wicked an aggression, to 
njake application for commissions or letters of 
marque and reprisal, to be issued under the seal 
of these Confederate States; and I do further 
notify aU persons applying for letters of marque 
to make a statement in writing, giving the name 
and suitable description of the character, ton- 
nage, and force of the vessel, name of the i^lace 
of residence of each owner concerned therein 
and the intended number of crew, and to sign 
each statement, and deliver the same to the 
Secretary of State or Collector of the Port of 
Entry of these Confederate States, to be by him 
transmitted to the Secretary of State, and do 
further notify all applicants aforesaid, before 
any commission or letter of marque is issued to 
any vessel, or the owner or the owners thereof, 
and the commander for the time being, they will 
be required to give bond to the Confederate 
States, with at least two responsible sureties 
not interested in such vessel, in the penal sum 
of $5,000; or if such vessel be provided with 



more than 150 men, then in the penal sum of 
$10,000, with the condition that the owners, 
officers, and crew who shall be employed on 
board such commissioned vessel, shall observe 
the laws of these Confederate States, and the 
•instructions given them for the regulation of 
their conduct, and shall satisfy all damages 
done contrary to the tenor thereof by such 
vessel during her commission, and deliver up 
the same when revoked by the President of the 
Confederate States. And 1 do further specially 
enjoin on all x^ersons holding offices, civil and 
miUtary, under the authority of the Confederate 
States, that they be vigilant and zealoiis in the 
discharge of the duties incident thereto; and I 
do, moreover, exhort the good people of these 
(jonfedei-ate States, as they love their country — 
as they prize the blessings of free government — 
as they feel the wrongs of the past, and these 
now threatened in an aggravated form by those 
whose enmity is more implacable because un- 
provoked — tliey exert themselves in preserving 
order, in promoting concord, in maintaining the 
authority and efficacy of the laws, and in siip- 
porting, invigorating aU the measures which 
may be adopted for a common defence, and by 
which, under the blessings of Divine Provi- 
dence, we may hope for a speedy, just, and 
honorable peace. ' 



(53) 



54 THE CONFEDERATE STATES NAVY. 

to a proclamation of the President, in which he advised legis- 
lation for the employment of privateers. On the Gth of May 
Congress passed an act, entitled, "An act recognizing the 
existence of war between the United States and the Confeder- 
ate States, and concerning letters of marque, prizes, and 
prize goods." The first section of this act was as follows : 

" The Congress of the Confederate States of America do enact that 
the President of the Confederate States is hereby authorized to use the 
"whole land and naval force of the Confederate States to meet the "war 
thus commenced, and to issae to private vessels commissions or letters of 
marque and general reprisal, in such form as he shall think proper, under 
the seal of the Confederate States, against the vessels, goods, and effects 
of the United States, and of the citizens or inhabitants of the States and 
territories thereof ; provided, however, that property of the enemy (unless 
it be contraband, of -war) laden on board a neutral vessel, shall not be 
subject to seizure under this act ; and provided further, that vessels of the 
citizens or inhabitants of the United States now in the ports of the Con- 
federate States, except such as have been since the 5th of April last, or 
may hereafter be, in the service of the Government of the United States, 
shall be allowed thirty days after the publication of this act to leave said 
ports and reach their destination ; and such vessels and their cargoes, 
excepting articles contraband of war, shall not be subject ta capture under 
this act during said period, unless they shall have previously reached the 
destination for which they were bound on leaving said ports." 

The act then proceeded to lay down in detail regulations 
as to the conditions on which letters of marque should be 
granted to private vessels, and the conduct and behavior of 
the officers and crews of such vessels, and the disposal of such 
prizes made by them, similar to the regulations which have 
been ordinarily prescribed and enforced with respect to priva- 
teers in the United States, and by the maritime powers of 
Europe. 

The fourth and seventh sections were as follows : 

" That, before any commission or letters of marque and reprisal shall 
be issued as aforesaid, the owner or owners of the ship or vessel for which 
the same shall be requested, and the commander thereof for the time 
being, shall give bond to the Confederate States, with at least two respon- 
sible surieties not interested in such vessel, in the penal sum of $5,000, or, 
if such vessel be provided with more than 150 men, then in the penal sum 
of S10,000, with condition that the owners, officers, and crew who shall be 
employed on board such commissioned vessel shall and will observe the 
laws of the Confederate States, and the instructions which shall be given 
them according to law for the regulation of their conduct, and will satisfy 
all damages and injuries which shall be done or committed contraiy to 
the tenor thereof by such vessel during her commission, and to deliver up 
the same when revoked by the President of the Confederate States. 

" That before breaking bulk of any vessel which shall be captured as 
aforesaid, or disposal or conversion thereof, or of any articles which shall 
be found on board the same, such captured vessel, goods, or effects, shall 
be brought into some port of the Confederate States, or of a nation or 
State in amity with the Confederate States, and shall be proceeded 
against before a competent tribunal ; and after condemnation and forfeit- 
ure thereof, shall belong to the owners, officers, and crew of the vessel cap- 
turing the same, and be distributed as before provided ; and in the case 
of all captured vessels, goods, and effects which shall be brought within 
the jurisdiction of the Confederate States, the district courts of the 



THE CONFEDERATE STATES NAVY. 55 

Confederate States shall have exclusive original eognizancet^ereof, as the 
civil causes of admiralty and maritime jurisdiction ; and the said^c^urts, 
or the courts being courts of the Confederate States into whicli^ucTi cases 
shall be removed, in which they shall be finally decided, shall and may 
decree restitution in whole or part, when the capture shall have been 
made without just cause. And, if made without probable cause, may 
order and decree damages and costs to the party injured, for which the 
owners and commanders of the vessels making such captures, and also 
the vessels, shall be liable." 

A further act, entitled, ''An act regulating the sale of 
prizes and the distribution thereof," was likewise passed by 
the Congress of the Confederate States on the 14th of May, 
1861. 

Meanwhile, on the 19th of April, the President of the United 
States issued a further proclamation, in which, after referring 
to the proposed issue of letters of marque, declared that he had 
deemed it advisable to set on foot a blockade of the ports 
within the States of South Carolina, Georgia, Alabama, Florida, 
Mississippi, Louisiana and Texas, in pursuance of the laws of 
the United States and the law of nations in such cases 
provided. By another proclamation, dated the 27th of April, 
the blockade was so extended as to include the Southern ports 
as far north as Virginia. 

The blockade declared by the foregoing proclamations was 
actually instituted, as to the ports within the State of Virginia, 
on the 30th of April ;^ and was extended to the principal ports on 
the sea-board of the Confederate States before the end of May. 
The Federal cruisers soon began to make prizes of neutral 
ships for alleged breach of blockade, and they were condemned 
with very short shrift by the United States prize-courts. 

On the 3rd of May, 1861, the proclamation of the blockade 
was published in the London newspapers; on the 10th of May 
copies of the proclamation of blockade, and of the counter- 
proclamation of President Davis, were received by Lord Rus- 
sell from the British Minister at Washington, and finally the 
blockade was officially communicated to Lord Russell by the 
United States Minister on the 11th of May. 

On the 6th of May, Lord Russell stated in the House of 
Commons, that, after consultation with the law officers, the 
government had come to the conclusion that the Southern Con- 
federacy must be treated as belligerents; and, on the 14th, 
Her Majesty's Proclamation of Neutrality was issued, which 

1 The following is an oflBcial copy of the notice 1861, for an eiHcient blockade of the ports of 

of blockade served on Captain Russell of the Virginia and North Carolina, and warn all per- 

steamer Lnuisiana. of the Chesapeake Bay line sons interested that I have a sufifieieut naval 

of steamers, running between Baltimore and force here for the puriaose of carrying out that 

Norfolk : proclamation. 

" United States Flag-ship CMmfieWand, ) "^11 vessels passing the capes of Virginia, 

" Off Fortress Monroe, coming from a distance and ignorant of the 

" Virginia, April 30, 1861. ) proclamation, will be warned ofl, and those 

_ ,, , . '■ passing Fortress Monroe will be required to 

' To all whom it may concern : anchor under the guns of the fort and subject 

" I hereby call attention to the proclamation themselves to an examination, 

of his Excellency Abraham Lincoln President " G. J. Prendergrast, 

<of the United States, under date of April 27, "Flag-Officer, Commanding Home Squadron."' 



56 



THE CONFEDERATE STATES NAVY. 



acknowledged the existence of a civil war, and thereby recog- 
nized the Confederate States as belligerents. The example of 
Great Britain was soon followed by the chief maritime powers 
in the following order: France, June 10th; Netherlands, June 
IGth; Spain, June 17th; Brazil, August 1st. The reniaining 
powers issued ''notifications " at various dates, prohibiting the 
entry of privateers or prizes into their ports, and defining the 
conditions under which the public vessels of both parties 
should be permitted to enter and receive supplies, and draw- 
ing no distinction between them as belligerents. ^ 

Mr. Seward could not bring himself to a dignified acquies- 
cence in the common verdict of the great maritime powers of 
Europe. He indulged in repeated and petulant complaints, 
and urged with vehement earnestness that all the world should 
be subservient to his will, and should re-fashion the code of 
public law to suit his policy.^ He wished to practice all the 
rights which a state of war confers upon a belligerent, but 
begged to be excused from performing the duties which attach 
in equal degree to that condition. 

Notwitlistanding the English government considered the 
privateers of the Confederate States as the lawfully commis- 



1 The Secret Service of the Confederate States in 
Europe, by James D. Bulloch, Naval representa- 
tive of the Confederate States in Europe during 
the Civil War. — Vol. II., p. 294. Commander 
Bulloch's account of the piirchasing, building, 
and equipment of the Confederate cruisers 
abroad is straightforward, sincere, and adorned 
by the graces of style. It is probably the ablest 
book from the Southern side yet written. 

2 He affirmed that the so-called government 
at Richmond merely represented ' a discon 
tented faction." Writing to Mr. Dayton on the 
30th of May, 1861, he says : " The United States 
cannot for "a moment allow the French govern- 
ment to rest under the delusive belief that they 
^^•ill be content to have the Confederate States 
recognized as a belligerent power by States with 
which this nation is at amity. No concert of 
action among foreign States so recognizing the 
insurgents can reconcile the United States to 
such a proceeding, whatever may be the con- 
sequences of resistance." — Geneva Arbitration. 
United States Appendix, Vol. I., p. 192, quoted by 
Sir A. Cockburn, p. 82; Bulloch, Vol. II., p. 294. 

The views of the British government were ex- 
pressed in a dispatch to Lord Lyons, her 
Majesty's Minister at Washington, dated June 
21, 1801. Lord Kussell, in tlic (lispatch referred 
to, mentions that Mr. Adams liad complained of 
the Queen's proclamation of neutrality as having 
been hasty and premature, and then adds : "I 
said (to Mr. Adams i, in the first place, that our 
position was of necessity neutral; that we could 
not take part either for the North against the 
South, or for the South against the North. To 
this he willingly assented, and said that the 
United States expected no assistance from us to 
enable their government to finish the war. I 
rejoined that if such was the case, as I sup- 
posed, it would not have been right either 
towards our admirals and naval commanders, 
nor towards our merchants and mercantile 
marine, to leave them withoTit positive and 
public orders ; that the exercise of belligerent 
rights of search and capture by a band of ad- 



venturers chistered in some small island in the- 
Greek Archipelago or in the Atlantic would 
subject them to the penalty of piracy; but we 
could not treat 5,000,000 of men, who had de- 
clared their indeisendence, like a band of 
marauders or filibusters. If we had done so. we 
should have done more than the United States 
themselves. Their troops had taken prisoners 
many of the adherents of the Confederacy; but 
I could not iierceive from the newspajiers that 
in any case they had brought these i^risoners to 
trial for high treason, or shot them as rebels." 

The policy of the Bi-itish government was 
more fully explained and justified in a letter 
from Lord Russell to Mr. Adams, dated Jlay 4, 
1865. He says : "What was the first act of the 
President of the United States ? He proclaimed 
on the 19th of AprQ. 1861, the blockade of the 
ports of seven States of the Union. Biit he 
could lawfully interrupt the trade of neutrals to 
the Southern States upon one ground only, 
namely, that the Southern States were carrying 
on war against the government of the United 
States ; in other words, that they were belliger- 
ents. Her Majesty's government, on hearing of 
these events, had only two courses to juirsue, 
namely, that of acknowledging the blockade 
and proclaiming the neutrality of her Maje.sty, 
or that of refusing to acknowledge the blockade, 
and insisting upon the rights of her Majesty's 
subjects to trade with the ports of the South. 
Her Majesty's government imrsued the former 
course as at once the most just and the most 
friendly to the United States. * * * So much aa 
to the step which you say your government can 
never regard ' as otherwise than precipitate ' of 
acknowledging the Southern States as belliger- 
ents. It was, on the contrary, your own govern- 
ment which, in assuming the belligerent right 
of blockade, recogui/.iMl the Southern States as 
belligerents. Had tlicy not l>een l>elli^'<-rents,the 
armed ships of the United States would have had 
no right to stop a single British ship upon the 
high seas." — United States Documents, Vol. I., pp. 
214, 215, quoted by Sir A. Cockburn, pp. 80, 82,83. 




CAPTAIN JAMES D. BULLOCH, 
CONFEDERATE STATES NAVY AGENT IN ENGLAND. 



/ 






THE CONFEDERATE STATES NAVY. 57 

sioned vessels of a belligerent nation, and did not take Mr. 
Lincoln's view of the " artificial crisis" in America, yet it did 
not suffer the privateers of the Confederacy to refit and sell 
their prizes in the English ports. 

On the 1st June, 18G1, Her Britannic Majesty's govern- 
ment issued orders by which the armed ships of both belliger- 
ents, whether public ships-of-war or privateers, were inter- 
dicted from carrying prizes made by them into the ports, har- 
bors, roadsteads, or waters of the United Kingdom, or of any 
of Her Majesty's colonies or possessions abroad. 

The government of the Confederate States remonstrated 
warmly against these orders, as practically unequal in their 
operation, and unduly disadvantageous to the belligerent 
whose ports were blockaded. The Secretary of State of the 
United States expressed his satisfaction with them, as likely 
to " prove a death-blow to Southern privateering." These orders 
were strictly enforced throughout the whole period of the war, 
and no armed vessel was suffered to bring prizes into any 
British port. The foreign powers admitted the legality of the 
blockade, and as a necessary and legitimate consequence they 
acknowledged the Confederate States as belligerents, and threw 
open their ports to both parties on the same conditions and 
under precisely similar restrictions. '"What Mr. Seward 
wanted," truthfully says Commander Bulloch, " was that Eu- 
rope should permit the United States to remain in the enjoy- 
ment of every privilege guaranteed by treaties of peace, free 
and unrestricted access to tlie ports, the right to buy arms and 
transport them unmolested across the sea, to engage men and 
forward them to the battle-fields in Virginia without question, 
and, at the same time, that the whole world should tolerate a 
total suppression of trade with eleven great provinces, and 
suffer the United States to seize ships on the high seas, and 
hale them before prize-courts, unless they were protected by 
the certificate of an American Consul.'" 

The European Powers having acknowledged the existence 
of a de facto government at Montgomery, and afterward at 

1 The Supreme Court of the United States, Washington, engaged in war with eleven other 

through Justice Grier, gave the following judg- great States, adhering to a common authority at 

ment of a prize case brought before it : " To Richmond. This was the actual condition of 

legitimatize the capture of a neutral vessel or affairs. All the special pleading of the politicians 

property on the high seas, a war must exist at Washington, all the finesse of diplomatic 

c/e/acto, and the neutral must have a knowledge reasoning, could not alter the facts. Foreign 

or notice of the intention of one of the parties powers perceived the actual state of affairs, and 

beUigerent to use this mode of coercion against the proclamations of neutrality, and the regula- 

a port, city, or territory in possession of the tions specifying the conditions" upon which their 

other. * * * The proclamation of the blockade ports might" be used, were framed in accordance 

is itself official and conclusive evidence to the with the fact that there was a state of war be- 

court that a state of war existed which de- tween two sepai-ate powers, and although one 

manded and authorized a recourse to such a could glory in the full-fledged title of •• a 

measure under the circumstances peculiar to government rfe>)r," and the other was shackled 

the case. The correspondence of Lord Lyons with the more restrictive appellation of "a 

with the Secretary of State admits the fact and government de facto," yet in regard to belliger- 

concludes the question." ent rights and duties they were placed on pre- 

The European powers, acting iipon this de- cisely the same footing by the common consent 

cision, acknowledged the Confederate States as and common action of' the whole civilized 

belligerents. They saw eighteen or more great y/orld.— Bulloch, Vol. I., p. 303. 
States, acknowledging a central government at 



.58 



THE CONFEDERATE STATES NAVY, 



Hichmond, by eleven great States, with a population of more 
than six millions of people, that acknowledgment carried with 
it the concession of all belligerent rights. Privateering being 
one of these rights, the right of the Confederate government to 
issue letters marque to private vessels to enable them to cap- 
ture those of the enemy, was as well established by the code 
of international law as any other vested in a belligerent for its 
protection and defence. All governments have resorted to 
privateering whenever they found it available against a mari- 
time foe. The United States always regarded the right as 
unquestionable, and never surrendered it, though Great Brit- 
ain, France, Austria, Prussia, Russia, Sardinia, and Turkey 
agreed among themselves to do so in 185G by the treaty of 
Paris. ^ 

When the circular invitation of the Powers was sent to 
the United States government in 1856, Secretary of State 
Wm. L. Marcy, in his letter, dated July 2Sth, to the foreign 
Plenipotentiaries, proposed to amend the rules by the addition 
of a new article, excepting private property at sea from cap- 
ture. No action was taken on the proposal, and the negotia- 
tions were suspended until Mr. Lincoln's accession to office. '^ 



1 The followiug is the language of the terms of 
the treaty : 

"1. Privateering is and remains abolished. 

2. The neutral flag covers enemy's goods with 
the exception of contraband of war. 

3. Neutral goods, with the exceiJtion of con- 
traband of war, are not liable to capture under 
the enemy's flag. 

i. Blockades iu order to be binding must be _ 
ellective — that is to say, maintaiued by a force 
^sufficient really to prevent access to the coast of 
the enemy. 

The governments of the undersigned Plenipo- 
tentiaries engage to bring the present declara- 
tion to the knowledge of the States which have 
not taken part in the Congress of Paris, and to 
invite them to accede to it. 

Convinced that the maxims which they now 
proclaim cannot but be received with gratitude 
by the whole world, the undersigned Plenipo- 
teutaries doubt not that the eft'(,)rts of their gov- 
■ernments to obtain the general adoption thereof 
will be crowned with full success. 

The present declaration is not and shall not 
be binding except between those powers who 
have acceded or shall accede to it. 

Done at Paris, the 16th of April, 1856." 

2 In his letter to the foreign powers Mr. Marcy 
strongly defended pi'ivateeriug. He said, among 
other things, that: 

" In regard to the right to emi^loy privateers, 
which is declared to be abolished by the flrst 
principle put forth in the 'Declaration,' there 
was, if possible, less uncertainty. The right to 
resort to privateers is as clear as the right to use 
public armed ships, and as incontestable as any 
other riglit appertaining to belligerents. The 
policy of that law has been occasionally ques- 
tioned — not, however, by the best authorities ; 
but the law itself has been universally admitted, 
and most nations have not hesitated to avail 
themselves of it ; it is as well sustained by prac- 
tice and public opinion as any other to be found 
in the maritime code. 



"There is scarcely any rule of international 
law which particular nations in their treaties 
have not occasionally suspended or modified in 
regard to its apislication to themselves. Two 
treaties only can be found in which the con- 
tracting parties have agreed to abstain from the 
employment of iirivateers in case of war be- 
tween them. The flrst was a treaty between the 
King of Sweden and .the States General of the 
United Provinces, in 1G75. Shortly after it was 
concluded, the parties were involved in war. and 
the stipulation concerning privateers was en- 
tirely disregarded by both. The second was the 
treaty of 1785, between the United States and the 
King of Pnissia. When this treaty was renewed in 
1799, the clause stipulating not to resort to priva- 
teering was omitted. For the last half-century 
there has been noarrangement.bytreatyorother- 
wise, to abolish the right until the recent proceed- 
ings of the Plenipotentiaries at Paris. * * * 

" In a work of nuich repute, published in 
France almost simultaneously with the proceed- 
ings of the Congress at Paris, it is declared that 
' The issuing of letters of marque, therefore, is a 
constantly customary belligerent act. Privateers 
are bona fide war vessels, manned by volunteers, 
to whom, by way of reward, the Sovereign re- 
signs such ijrizes as they make, in the same man- 
ner as he sometimes assigns to the land forces a 
Ijortion of the war contributions levied on the 
conquered enemy." — Pisloye et Duverdy, des 
Prises Maritimes. * * * 

" No nation which has a due sense of self-re- 
spect will allow any other, belligerent or neutral, 
to determine the character of the force which it 
may deem proper to use in prosecuting hostili- 
ties; nor will it act wisely if it voluntarily sur- 
renders the right to resort to any means, sanc- 
tioned by international law, which under any 
circumstances may be advantageously used for 
defence or aggression. * * * The importance 
of privateers to the community of nations, ex- 
cepting only those of great naval strength, is not 
only vindicated by history, but sustained by 
high authority . The following passage in the 



THE CONFEDERATE STATES NAVY. 



59 



About a week after President Davis' proclamation was 
issued, announcing his purpose of issuing letters of marque, 
Mr. Seward instructed the Minister of the United States at 
London to re-open negotiations, and offered to accede uncon- 
ditionally to the Paris Declaration. This proposal seemed to 
point too strongly to an effort to treat President Davis, Lee 
and Stonewall Jackson as common brawlers or " rebels," and 
the "piratical rovers" as unworthy of shelter or assistance, 
and fit only to be pursued and destroyed as a common enemy 
and a common pest, which the British government refused. ^ 
As the United States were thus debarred from any present 
advantage to be derived from the adoption of the rule, the 
whole question was dropped, and both belligerents were kept 
under the same restrictions. ' 

The right, therefore, of President Davis to issue '' letters 
of marque " was not questioned by any of the European 



treatise on maritime prizes, to which I have be- 
fore referred, deserves particular attention : 

" Privateers are especially useful to those jiow- 
•ers whose navy is inferior to that of their ene- 
mies. Belligerents, with jiowerful and exten- 
sive naval armaments, may cruise upon the seas 
with their national navies; but should those 
'States, whose naval forces are of less power 
.and extent, be left to their own resources, they 
could not hold out in a maritime war; whilst 
by the equipment of privateers they may suc- 
ceed in inflicting upon the enemy an injury 
■equivalent to that which they themselves sus- 
tain. Hence, governments have frequently 
been known, by every possible appliance, to fa- 
vor privateering armaments. It has even oc- 
curred that sovereigns, not merely satisfied with 
issuing letters of mai'que, have also taken, as it 
were, an interest in the ai-mament. Thus did 
Xouis XIV. frequently lend out his shij^s, and 
sometimes reserve for himself a share in the 
prizes." * * * 

" History throws much light upon this sub- 
ject. France, at an early period, was without a 
navy, and iu her wars with Great Britain and 
Spain, both then naval powers, she resorted with 
signal good effect to privateering, not only for 
protection, but successful aggression. She ob- 
tained many privateers from Holland, and by 
"this force gained decided advantages on the 
ocean over her enemy. Whilst in that condi- 
tion, France could hardly have been expected 
to originate or concur in a proposition to abolish 
privateering. The condition of many of the 
smaller States of the world is now, in relation to 
naval powers, not much unlike that of France 
in the middle of the sixteenth century. At a 
later period during the reign of Louis XIV.. sev- 
eral expeditions were fitted out by him, com- 
posed wholly of imvateers, which were most 
effectually employed in prosecuting hostilities 
with naval powers. * * * 

" The ocean is the common property of all 
nations, and instead of yielding to a measure 
which will be likely to secure to a few— pos- 
sibly to one — an ascendancy over it each should 
pertinaciously retain all means it possesses to 
•defend the common heritage." 

1 Sir Admiral Cockburn said: "Men refused 
to see in the leaders of the South the • rebels ' 
and the ' pirates ' held up by the United States 
to public reprobation." 



"Whatever the cause in which they are ex- 
hibited, devotion and courage will ever find re- 
spect, and they did so in this instance. Men 
could not see in the united people of these vast 
provinces, thus risking all in the cause of na- 
tionality and independence, the common case 
of rebels disturbing peace and order on account 
of imaginary grievances, or actuated by the de- 
sire to overthrow a government in order to i-ise 
upon its ruins. They gave credit to the states- 
men and warriors of the South — their cause 
may be right or wrong— for the higher motives 
which ennoble political action, and all the oppro- 
brious terms which might be heaped ujion the 
cause in which he fell could not persuade the 
world that the earth beneath which Stonewall 
Jackson rests does not cover the remains of a 
patriot and a hero." — Geneva Arbiirat'n, p. 72, 114. 

2 The President of the United States was him- 
self at one time an avowed secessionist or revo- 
lutionist. In a speech delivered in the House 
of Representatives on the 12th of January, 1848, 
Mr. Lincoln, then an honorable member from 
Illinois, used this language: 

' ' Any people anywhere being inclined and 
having the power have a right to rise up and 
shake off the existing governmeut and form a 
new one that suits them better. This is a most 
valuable, sacred right — a right which, we be- 
lieve, is to liberate the world. Nor is tliis right 
confined to cases in which the whole peojple of 
an existing government may choose to exercise 
it. Any portion of such people that can may 
revolutionize and make their ovvn of so much 
of the territory as they inhabit. More than this: 
a majority of any portion of such people may 
revolutionize, putting down a minority inter- 
mingled with or near about them, who may op- 
pose their movements. It is a quality of revo- 
lutions not to go by old lines or old laws, but to 
break up both and make new ones." — Appendix, 
Congressional Globe, 1st Sessirm., SOtli Congress, p. 
94. See also on this subject, opinion of Alexan- 
der Hamilton, Bancroft's History of the United 
States, pp. 213 and 232; also to language of John 
Adams in same work. Also Rawle mi the Consti- 
tution, p. 292. Appendix to the Virginia edition 
of Black-stone's Commentaries bv St. George Tucker 
in 1802, pp. 73, 74; Dwight's History of Con- 
necticut, pp. 435, 43f3, 437; 8th Mass. Beports, SiG; 
Schnrt's History of Maryland, Vol. III., pp. 338 
to 340, etc. 



60 THE CONFEDERATE STATES NAVY. 

powers, and he was justified in liis course by the acts of the 
de facto government of the revolted colonies in 1770, and by 
the more formally recognized government at Washington, in 
1812-15. and 18G1-5. 

In July, 1861, the U. S. House of Representatives passed 
a resolution authorizing the Secretary of the Treasury to em- 
ploy a sufficient force to protect the commerce of the United 
States from the Confederate privateers. The object of this 
act was to send out privateers to capture those of the Confed- 
eracy that were annoying U. S. commerce. 

In October following, Secretary Welles wrote the follow- 
ing letter in relation to granting letters of marque: 

" Navy Department, Washington, Oct. 1, 1861. 
" In relation to the communication of R. B. Forbes, Esq. — a copy of 
which was sent by you to this department on the 16th ultimo, inquiring- 
whether letters of marque cannot be furnished for the propeller Pe»i6voA:e, 
which is about to be dispatched to China — I have the honor to state that 
it appears to me that there are objections to, and no authority for, grant- 
ing letters of marque in the present contest. I am not aware that Con- 
gress, which has the exclusive power of granting letters of marque and 
reprisal, has authorized such letters to be issued against the insurgents; 
and were there such authorization, I am not prepared to advise its exer- 
cise, because it would, in my view, be a recognition of the assumption of 
the insurgents that they are a distinct and independent nationality. Un- 
der the act of Augusts, 1861, 'supplementary to an act entitled an act 
to protect the commerce of the United States and to punish the crime of 
piracy,' the President is authorized to instruct the commanders of ' armed 
vessels sailing under the authority of any letters of marque and reprisal 
granted by the Congress of the United States, or the commanders of any 
other suitable vessels, to subdue, seize, take, and, if on the high seas, to 
send into any port of the United States any vessel or boat, built, jnir- 
ehased, fitted out or held,' etc. This allusion to letters of marque does 
not authorize such letters to be issued, nor do I find any other act contaui- 
ing such authorization. But the same act, in the second section, as above 
quoted, gives the President power to authorize the ' commanders of any 
suitable vessels to subdue, seize,' etc. Under this clause, letters permis- 
sive, under proper restrictions and guards against abuse, might be granted 
to the propeller Pembroke, so as to meet the views expressed by Mr. 
Forbes. This would seem to be lawful and perhaps not liable to the ob- 
jections of granting letters of marque against our own citizens, and that, 
too, without law or authority from the only constituted power that can 
grant it. I have the honor to transmit herewith a copy of a letter from 
Messrs. J. M. Forbes & Co., and others, addressed to this department, on 
thesame subject." Gideon Welles.'' 

With the view of destroying Confederate privateers, the 
United States Congress, in March, 1863, passed a bill author- 
izing the President to issue letters of marque. 

"By this measure," the New York Herald, of March, 8th, 1863, said, 
"Mr. Lincoln will have power to cause the ocean to swarm with our 
' militia of the seas ' * * * The American republic is not guided by 
the policy of European powers. It is not bound by the declaration of 
the Congress of Paris, for the simple reason that it did not agree to it. At 
the time, Mr. Marcy, on the part of the United States, offered to agree to 
the proposition to abolish privateering if the European Powers would 
agree to abolish all captures on the sea of private property, except 



THE CONFEDERATE STATES NAVY. Gl 

contraband of war— thus extending to the ocean the rule that prevails in 
modern times exempting private property from capture on the land. 
England and France objected, particularly England, by whose influence 
the offer was rejected. Again, since our civil war began, Mr. Seward pro- 
posed to England and France to adopt the proposition in the declaration 
of Paris, to abolish privateering, j^rovided they would agree to treat it as 
piracy all over the world, like the African slave trade. But, though no 
nation could be aggrieved by the establishment of this rule, and although 
all the minor powers of Europe had agreed to the proposition of the 
Paris Conference— even those in the interior, who had not a single ship 
on the sea — yet the Western Powers refused the overture of the American 
government, on the ground that it was then too late." 

The Royal Gazette of England, on July 21, 1863, comment- 
ing upon the act passed by the U. S. Congress, authorizing 
the issuing of letters of marque, said: 

" The U. S. Congress, in its last session, authorized the President, if 
he deemed it proper, to issue letters of marque. His having not done so, 
in view of the destruction of property by the Alabama and the Florkla, 
is severely censured by a writer in one of the late New York papers. This 
writer suggests that a reward of |500,000 be given to any letter of marque 
that should capture and bring into any of the ports of the United States 
any Confederate privateer, or $250,000 for the sinking or otherwise de- 
stroying of such a privateer. The writer concludes by observing that the 
' almighty dollar might then be the means of bringing privateering to an 
end.' 

"We can hardly understand why such a measure should be adopted. 
When patriotism is not sufficient to induce men to serve their country, is 
it probable that the dollar'will? Will the dollar inspire courage to a man 
when the sight of his lowered flag fails to do so ? And, besides, are there 
not enough U. S. ships-of-war skimming the seas after the Alabama and 
the Florida, the only two known Confederate privateers, and are these 
Federal vessels not commanded by admirals and officers that the Union 
boasts of ? The issuing by the Washington government of letters of 
marque would be, indeed, an acknowledgment of the inefficiency of their 
navy compared to the two or three comparatively small vessels-of-war 
owned by the Confederacy, and of the incapacity of the men at the 
head of their fleet." 

If the precedents established by the United States were 
just and lawful acts of war, then similar acts done by authority 
of the de facto government of the Confederate States in 1861-5 
were not "criminal" and " nefarious." 

The license or "letters of marque," issued by a belligerent 
government to a private armed ship, to capture the ships and 
goods of the enemy at sea, had its origin in the Middle Ages, 
when princes issued to their subjects licenses to cross the 
march or frontier of a neighboring power in order to make 
reprisals for an injury. It was extended to the high seas in 
the fourteenth century. But the practice was not general 
till the end of the sixteenth century. The first instance in 
which the aid of privateers was deemed important in war was 
in the struggle between Spain and her revolted provinces of 
the Netherlands. The Prince of Orange, the leader of the 
revolt, issued letters of marque against Spain in 1570, and his 
privateers became terrible. Ever since that time the use of 



62 THE CONFEDERATE STATES NAVY. 

privateers has been legalized in Europe, unless where parties 
agree by treaty to abolish it as against each other. The 
French were the first, on a large scale, to send out those 
scourges of the sea. The British imitated their example, and 
their illustrious naval commander, Drake, was a privateers- 
man. At the close of the French war with England, by the 
peace of Amiens, the latter nation had 30,000 French sailors 
in prison. In our Revolutionary war with England, the 
American privateer played a very important part. 

On May 20, 1775, articles of confederation and perpetual 
union were entered into by the delegates of the several colo- 
nies of New Hampshire, Massachusetts, etc. A resolution was 
at the same time passed, that after the expiration of six 
months (from July 30, 1775) all the ports of the said colonies 
were declared to be thenceforth open to the ships of every State 
in Europe that would admit and protect the commerce of the 
colonies. * 

Although by the above articles the colonists usurped the^ 
rights of sovereignty with regard to peace and war, the enter- 
ing into alliances, the appointment of civil and military 
officers, etc., still their connection with Great Britain was 
maintained, and no de facto independent government was 
established. 

On June 12, 1775, General Gage issued a proclamation, by 
which a pardon was offered in the King's name to all those 
who should forthwith lay down their arms, threatening the 
treatment of rebels and traitors to all those who did not accept 
the proffered pardon. This proclamation was looked upon as 
the preliminary to immediate action, and on the 17th June 
hostilities commenced between the colonists and royal troops 
in the neighborhood of Charlestown. In July, 1775, the confed- 
eracy assumed the appellation of the Thirteen United Colonies, 
and General Washington was appointed to the command of 
the army of the confederation. Hostilities were carried, not 
only in "^ the colonies, but Canada was also invaded by the 
colonial forces. 

The first act of the Congress for the formation of a navy 
was promulgated on October 13, 1775, when two vessels were 
ordered to be armed, and on the 30th of the same month two 
more armed vessels were ordered to be fitted for sea. On 
November 25, 1775, resolutions were passed, directing seizures 
and capture under commissions obtained from the Congress, 
together with the condemnation of British vessels employed 
in a hostile manner^ against the colonies: the mode of trial 
and of condemnation was pointed out, and the shares of the 
prizes were apportioned. On November, 28, 1775, Congress 
adopted rules for the regulation of the navy of the United 
Colonies. On the 13th December, a report was sanctioned for 

1 The trade of the British colonists iu America at this period was carried on solely by British, 
and colonial shipiiiug. 



THE CONFEDERATE STATES NAVY. 65 

fitting out a naval armament, to consist in the whole of thir- 
teen ships. On the 32d December, officers were appointed to 
command the armed vessels. On January 6, 1776, a regula- 
tion was adopted relative to the division of prizes and prize- 
money taken by armed vessels. On March 23, 1786, resolutions 
were adopted authorizing the fitting out of private armed ves- 
sels to cruise against the enemies of the United Colonies. On 
April 2d, 1776, the form of a commission for private armed 
vessels was agreed upon, and on the 3d April instructions to 
the commanders of private armed vessels were considered and 
adopted. They authorized the capture, of all ships and other 
vessels belonging to the inhabitants of Great Britain on the 
high seas, or between high-water and low-water marks, except 
vessels bringing persons who intended to reside and settle in 
the United Colonies. 

The whole of these laws were promulgated previously to- 
the final Declaration of Independence issued on July 4, 1776. 
In the meantime, the different powers of Europe, notwith- 
standing the declarations of neutrality in the conflict between 
Great Britain and her colonies, more particularly France, 
Spain, and Holland, almost openly expressed their sympathy 
with the cause of the colonists, and aided them with arms 
and money, and allowed the fitting out of ships, the repairs 
and armaments, of privateers in their ports, even previous 
to the receipt of the Declaration of Independence of the colo- 
nies, passed on July 4, 1776 ; the letter from the American 
Committee of Secret Correspondence to Mr. Silas Deane, their 
agent in Paris, inclosing the Declaration of Independencij , 
with instructions to make it known to the powers or Europe, 
not being received until ISTovember 7, 1776. 

The exploits of Paul Jones by land and sea, making raids- 
upon the British coasts, and sometimes capturing English 
ships-of-war, are more like romance than reality. The deeds- 
of Captain Reed, of the General Armstrong, are well known. 
The letters of marque issued by the Continental Congress were 
held to be valid two years before the new government was 
recognized by any foreign power; and during the first year 
the American privateers captured 530 British vessels and their 
cargoes, valued at $5,000,000, During the Revolutionary war 
this country had 1,500 privateers on the ocean, having 15,000 
guns. 

In 1781, according to the Salem (Massachusetts) Gazette, 
privateering was the principal business of the town. In Mr. 
Niles' volume, containing "principles and acts of the Revolu- 
tion," will be found, at p. 376, a " list of privateers fitted out 
and chiefly owned in Salem and Beverly, from March 1 to 
November 1, 1781," embracing 26 ships, with 476 guns and 
2,645 men ; 16 brigs, with 206 guns and 870 men ; 8 schooners, 
with 50 guns and 235 men ; 2 sloops, with 14 guns and 70 men;, 
and 7 shallops, with 120 men. 



64 THE CONFEDERATE STATES NAVY. 

Massachusetts has taken the lead in several operations in 
this country. She and some of the otlier New England States 
took the leading part in the slave trade; she also took the lead 
in the early part of this century in secession, or nullification. ' 
Before the Declaration of Independence, and of course long 
before the formation of the present Constitution, as early, 
indeed, as the lOtli of November, 1775, the State of Massachu- 
setts passed a law to authorize the fitting-out of privateers and 
to establish a court for the trial and condemnation of prizes. ^ 
That law preceded by fifteen days the action of the old Con- 
tinental Congress upon the same subject; for it was on the 
2oth of November, 1775, that the Congress passed a law author- 
izing privateering. Massachusetts was two weeks ahead of 
Congress, and she passed a law to institute and encourage 
privateering. Massachusetts did not stand alone in this 
act, her lead was followed by other States; by Pennsylvania, 
Maryland and other commonwealths. The Continental Con- 
gress encouraged the practice. 

The records of the Council of Maryland show that up to 
April 1, 1777, licenses to privateers were issued by the Council 
of Safety, and that these vessels were so active that their prizes 
captured and sent into the Chesapeake realized over $1,000,000. 
From April 1, 1777, to March 14, 1783, a period of six years, the 
privateers which sailed out of the Chesapeake, furnished with 
letters of marque and reprisal; numbered 248, carrying in all 
1,810 guns and 640 swivels. We find in the list of owners 
of these vessels and their commanders some of the very best 
people in the State, and the ancestors of a number of those 
who were distinguished on the Union side during the late war 
between the States. We need only refer to the names of John 
Rodgers. David Porter, Alexander Murray, Joshua Barney, 
Robert Morris (the great financier of Philadelphia, the friend 
of Washington and Franklin), Robert Purviance, Alexander 
McKim, James Calhoun, the first Mayor of Baltimore, and 
William Patterson, the father of Madame Bonaparte. 

In 1703, when the war broke out between France and Great 
Britain, Baltimore sent to sea some forty or fifty privateers 

1 On the 1st of August, 1812, Governor Strong, it, for, in point of fact, she never furnished her 

of Massachusetts, addressed a letter to the three quota, or even a solitary militiaman, we believe, 

judges of Massachusetts, in which, amongst under the i-equisition which was made upon her 

other things, he propounded to the judges this by tlie President. What was this but secession, or 

question : " Whether it was for the President of revolution, or practical nullification in the most 

the United States, or for the States themselves, ultra shape ? We all know how persistently the 

respectively, to determine the Constitutional conscription and imi)ressment scheme of Presi- 

exigency upon which the militia of the States dent Monroe, for raising an army in 1815, was 

were liable to be ordered out into the service of resisted and opposed by five of the New England 

the Federal government?" The reply of the States; how it first led to a legislative protest and 

judges was, " That that right was vested solely resolutions on the part of Connecticut, strongly 

in the commanders-in-chief of the militia of the tinctured with secession and nullification; and 

several States." This question, it is true, was how it afterwards led to that celebrated conclave 

never formally adjudicated by the judges, but called the Hartford Convention, which met on 

this was their answer to the question; audit the 15th of December, 1815, and whose members 

was as much as to say (so far as the Governor, were nothing more or less than a set of nullifiers 

and the judges at least could say so) that if the or secessionists under the cloak of federahsm. 
President enforced, or attempted to enforce, this 

right that was claimed for him, the State of - Hildreth's History of the United States, Vol. 

Massachusetts would resist it: and she did resist III., p. 101, 



THE CONFEDERATE STATES NAYY. 65 

under the French flag to cruise against British commerce. 
A great number of these Yessels were afloat within three 
months, not only equipped, armed and fitted out in port, 
but they were owned, officered and manned by citizens of 
Baltimore. These Yessels were in the French and Spanish 
service even after the British cruisers blockaded every French 
and Spanish port from Antwerp to Genoa, and they made cap- 
tures while the war continued. The records of the Supreme 
Court of the United States abound with admiralty appeals in 
cases of this kind during the French war, the British owners 
trying to recover their vessels captured by American privateers 
sailing under the French flag. 

In the war of 1813 the number of British ships captured 
by American privateers was immense. In less than five 
months after the declaration of war Baltimore sent to sea 
forty-two armed vessels, carrying 330 guns, and manned by 
3,000 men. The Rossie, in forty -five days, took prizes valued 
at $1,289,000. The next cruise of this vessel, from July to 
November, yielded $1,500,000. The Rolla in a brief cruise took 
seven vessels, 150 men and $3,500,000. The Amelia, in eighty- 
five days, took $1,000,000. The Harpy, in twenty days, took 
$500,000. The damage done by these vessels to British com- 
merce is hard to exaggerate. In three years the American 
privateers captured over 3,000 vessels, of which nearly one- 
third were taken by the Baltimore letters of marque. 

The whole number of privateers and private-armed ships 
that were commissioned as cruising vessels, and all others ac- 
tively engaged in commerce during our war with Great 
Britain in the years 1813, 1813, and 1814, were 350 sail. They 
belonged to the different ports in the United States as follows: 

From Baltimore, 58 ; from New York, 55; from Salem, 40; 
from Boston, 33 ; from Philadelphia, 14 ; from Portsmouth, 
N. H., 11; from Charleston, 10; from Marblehead, 4; from 
Bristol, R. I., 4; from Portland, 3; from Newburyport, 3; from 
Norfolk, 3; from Newbern, N. C, 3; from New Orleans, 3; from 
New London, 1 ; from Newport, R. I.,l; from Providence, 
R. I., 1; from Barnstable, Mass., 1; from Fair Haven, Mass.,1; 
from Gloucester, Mass., 1 ; from Washington City, 1 ; from 
Wilmington, N. C, 1; from other places belonging to Eastern 
ports, 3. Total, 350. 

When the South American war of independence occurred, 
the United States furnished a great many privateers to nearly 
a,ll the new States. The commodore of the Columbian navy was 
a Baltimorean, and the same city fitted out privateersmen for 
Venezuela, Chili, Buenos Ayres, Peru, and several other States, 
which preyed both upon Spanish and Portuguese commerce. 
The Portuguese Minister, in 1816, complained to President 
Monroe that twenty-six of these vessels had been fitted out 
and armed in Baltimore alone, and in 1819 they were reported 
to have captured fifty Portuguese vessels. 



66 THE CONFEDERATE STATES NAVY. 

The British, in the Revolutionary war, spoke of the Chesa- 
peake Bay as "a nest of pirates," and the Spanish Minister at 
Washington in 1817, Don Luis de Onis, wrote to Mr. Monroe 
that " it is notorious that * * * whole squadrons of pirates 
have been fitted out " from Baltimore and New Orleans. He 
complained that the privateer Swift, which, sailing under the 
flag of Buenos Ayres, had just captured the Spanish polacca 
Pastora, *' is now in Baltimore River, and her captain, James 
Barnes, who has so scandalously violated the law of nations, 
the neutrality of this government and the existing treaty, has 
had the effrontery to make a regular entry of his vessel at the 
Custoin House of Baltimore, declaring his cargo to consist of 
bales and packages, containing silks, laces, and other valu- 
able articles — all, as you may suppose, plundered from the 
Spaniards. " ' 

In 1861, when the Southern Confederacy recognized priva- 
teering as a legitimate instrument of warfare, the North 
called it piracy, as the British did in the war of 1770 and 1812. 
But President Davis, having the example of his revolutionary 
ancestors before him for fitting up and sending forth armed 
vessels to prey upon the commerce of the enemies of his 
country, soon availed himself of the opportunity. Simulta- 
neous with the issuing of the proclamation of Mr. Lincoln, 
blockading the Southern ports, the Collectors of the various 
ports were directed by the U. S. Secretary of the Treasury to 
refuse clearances to any vessels bound for ports in the States 
which had seceded or which might afterwards secede. Ac- 
cordingly, the lines of steamers, from New York and Balti- 
more to Charleston and Savannah and New Orleans, dis- 
continued tlieir trips, and those steamers which remained in 
New York were immediately chartered by the Federal gov- 
ernment to carry troops. The Nashville, being at Charleston, 
was seized by the authorities there; the Star of the West^ 
at Indianola, with provisions on board for the troops in Texas, 
was also seized by the armed steamer Matagorde, at New Or- 
leans. The Yorktown and Jamestotvn steamers were seized 
by Governor Letcher, at Richmond. Besides these steamships, 
a half-dozen revenue cutters and a number of schooners were 
seized in the South and converted into war-vessels. These 
seizures created considerable commotion in mercantile circles 
North, where the most of them were owned. In the mean- 
while, the authorities at the North seized all tlie vessels and 
other property, belonging to the citizens of the South, in their 
respective ports. 

In retaliation for the seizure of Southern property by the 
United States, the citizens of Mobile seized the brig Belle of 
the Bay, lying in that port, loaded with rice from Boston. 
Another party seized the schooners Daniel Townsend, the Stag 

1 This reads like some of the letters of U. S. the cruises of the Alabama and other Confed- 
Minister Adams to Lord Riissell in regard to erate men-of-war. 



THE CONFEDERATE STATES NAVY. G7 

and Anna Smith, loaded with assorted cargoes. The State 
Artillery Continentals chartered the steamer Gunnison, and 
captured the E. L. Gamble, and anchored her under the guns 
of Fort Morgan; but she was afterwards released. The Mont- 
gomery (Alabama) 3Iailof the 29th of May, said : "We learn 
that there are now quite a number of privateers in the service 
of the Confederate government cruising off ihe Gulf and 
Atlantic coast, all well armed and manned — dispatches hav- 
ing been received in the city showing that hundreds of others 
are fitting out at various points for the same purpose."^ 

Shortly after the secession of South Carolina, the State 
appropriated $150,000 to establish a sea-coast police under the 
direction of Governor F. W. Pickens, with authority to pur- 
chase three screw-propellers. The Governor established a 
State navy similar to that of the United States. He enlisted 
thirty-two men for each of his boats, with a captain and first 
lieutenant, besides ordinary crews, firemen and engineers. He 
intended to station one of his boats in Charleston, another at 
Beaufort, and the third at Georgetown. He found it exceed- 
ingly difficult to procure boats suitable for the service and 
had to content himself with fitting out small schooners. They 
kept up communication between the points named, and 
gave protection, as far as they were able, from invasion by 
lawless bands in small crafts and skippers that infested the 
coast. 

On the 13th of March, South Carolina put afloat her first 
vessel-of-war since the Revolution in 1776; Gov. Pickens pur- 
chased her at Richmond, Va., and altered her for service; 
armed with twenty-four pounders she was regularly equipped. 
The Governor directed her to be named Lady Davis, in 
compliment to the lady of the first President of the Confed- 
erate States. Her officers were Lieut. Thomas B. Huger, 
commanding, with Lieuts. William G. Dozier and John 
Grimball. 

The Lady Davis made several captures of Federal vessels 
off Charleston, and, on May 1, she fired on a schooner that 
escaped from the port, belonging to Freetown, Mass., and 
wounded one of the crew. '^ 

1 A correspondent of the New York Herald, - The following is a copy of clearance of ves- 

writing from Montgomery on May 7, 1861, sels from the port of Charleston, S. C, with the 

alterations in the seals, etc. : 



says: 



DiSTEICT OF THE PORT OF CHAELESTON, ] 



' Bixt it may be asked, who will take these State of South Cabolina. ] 

letters of marque ? Where is the government of ? ° These are to certify. aU 

Montgomery to find ships ? The an.swer is to be : a House, o; whom it may concern. That 

*■ • ^ ^ - Master or 



Commander of the 
called the — 



found in the fact that already numerous applica- 
tions have been received from the ship-oivners of New 

England, from the whalers of New Bedford, and i T ''^^S" S • °* 7" burthen 

, „ • ^, ,T .1 \„ , ,- ",, • S. Carohna.p : tons or thereabout, 

from others in ihe jSorthern States for these very ^ ^ mounted with guns, 

letters of marque, accompanied by the highest navigated with men, and bound fon 

securities and guarantees! This statement I having on board cargo as per 

, ., T.- r. i i, .1 -r ■, .. annexed manifest hath entered and cleared his 

make on the very highest authority. I leave it ^ggggi according to law. 
to you to deal with the facts." W. F. COLCOCK, Collector. 




68 THE CONFEDERATE STATES NAVY. 

The privateer Savannah was the first captured, and the 
first that received a commission from the Confederate States — 
her letters of marque being indorsed No. 1, and was as follows: 

JEFFERSON DAVIS, 

PRESIDENT OF THE CONFEDERATE STATES OP AMERICA. 

To all who shall see these presents, greeting .-—Know ye, that by virtue 
of the power vested in me by law, I have commissioned, and do hereby 
commission, have authorized, and do hereby authorize, the schooner or 
vessel called the Savannah (more particularly described in the schedule 
hereunto annexed t, whereof T. Harrison Baker is commander, to act as a 
private armed vessel in the service of the Confederate States, on the high 
seas against the United States of America, their ships, vessels, goods and 
effects, and those of her citizens, during the pendency of the war now 
existing between the said Confederate States and the said United States. 

This commission to continue in force until revoked by the President 
of the Confederate States for the time being. Schedule of description of 
the vessel— name, schooner Savannah; tonnage, 53 .[-^ tons; armament, 
one large pivot gun and small arms; number of crew, thirty. 

Given under my hand and the seal of the Confederate States, at Mont- 
gomery, this 18th day of May, A.D. 1861. 

Jefferson Davis. 
By the President —R. Toombs, Secretary of State. 

The Savannah was a fast-sailing schooner of about fifty- 
four tons, having been formerly pilot boat No. 7 in Charleston 
harbor. She carried one eighteen-pound gun amidships upon 
a swivel, and was provided with a crew of thirty-two men, 
including officers, as well as a necessary supply of arms, am- 
munition, etc. In May she was fitted out in Charleston as a 
privateer; on Sunday, June 3, she went to sea under the com- 
mand of Capt. Thomas Harrison Baker. The instructions 
to the commanders of all letters of marque or privateers were 
as follows : 

1. The tenor of your commission, under the Act of Congress, entitled, 
" An act recognizing the existence of war between the United States and 
the Confederate States, and concerning letters of marque, prizes and 
prize goods," a copy of which is hereto annexed, will be kept constantly 
in your view. The high seas referred to in your commission you will un- 
derstand generally to refer to the low-water mark; but with the exception 
of the space within one league, or three miles, from the shore of countries 
at peace with the United States and the Confederate States. You never- 
theless execute your commission within the distance of the shore of the 
nation at war with the United States, and even on the waters within the 
jurisdiction of such nation, if permitted to do so. 

3. You are to pay the strictest regard to the rights of the neutral 
vessels; you are to give them as little molestation or interruption as will 
consist with the right of ascertaining their neutral character, and of de- 
taining and bringing them in for regular adjudication in the proper cases. 

You are particularly to avoid even the appearance of using force or 
seduction, with a view to deprive such vessels of the crews or the passen- 
gers, other than persons in the military service of the enemy. 

3. Towards enemy's vessels and their crews you are to proceed, in exer- 
cising the rights of war, with all the justice and humanity which charac- 
terize this government and its citizens 

4. The master, and one or more of the principal persons, belonging to 
the captured vessels, are to be sent, as soon after the capture as may be, 



THE CONFEDERATE STATES NAVY. GO 

to the judge or judges of the proper courts in the Confederate States, to 
be examined upon oath, touching the interest or property of the captured 
vessel and her lading; and, at the same time, are to be delivered to the 
judge or judges all papers, charter parties, bills of lading, letters and 
other documents and writings found on board, and the said papers to be 
proved by the affidavit of the commander of the captured vessel, or some 
other person present at the capture, to be produced as received, without 
fraud, addition, subtraction or embezzlement. 

5. Property, even of the enemy, is exempt from seizure on neutral 
vessels, unless it be contraband of war. 

If goods contraband of war are found on any neutral vessel, and the 
commander thereof shall offer to deliver them up, the offer shall be ac- 
cepted and the vessel left at liberty to pursue its voyage, unless the 
quantity of contraband goods shall be greater than can be conveniently 
received on board your vessel, in which case the neutral vessel may be 
carried into port for the deUvery of the conti-aband goods. 

The following articles are declared by this government contraband of 
war, as well as all others that are so declared by the laws of nations, 
viz. : 

All arms and implements serving for the purpose of war by land or 
sea, such as cannons, mortars, guns, muskets, rifles, pistols, petards, 
bombs, grenades, balls, shot, shell, pikes, swords, bayonets, javelins, 
lances, horse furniture, bolsters, belts, and generally all other implements 
of war. 

Also, timber for ship-building, pitch, tar, rosin, copper in sheets, sails, 
hemp, cordage, and generally whatever may serve directly to the equip- 
ment of vessels, wrought iron and i^lanks only excepted. 

Neutral vessels, conveying enemy's dispatches or military persons in 
the service of the enemy, forfeit their neutral character, and are liable to 
capture and condemnation. But this rule does not apply to neutral ves- 
sels bearing dispatches from the public ministers or ambassadors of the 
enemy residing in neutral countries. 

By the command of the President of the Confederate States, 

Robert Toombs, Secretary of State. 

FORM OP BONI>. 

Know all men by these presents : That we (Note 1.) , are bound 

to the Confederate States of America, in the full sum of (Note 2.) 

thousand dollars, to the payment whereof, well and truly to be made, we 
bind ourselves, our heirs, executors and administrators, jointly and sever- 
ally, by these presents. 

The condition of this obligation is such, that whereas, application has 
been made to the said Confederate States of America, for the grant of a 

commission of letter of marque and general reprisals, authorizing to 

( Note 3. ) or vessel called the , to act as a private armed vessel in the ser- 
vice of the Confederate States on the high seas, against the United States of 
America, its ships and vessels, and those of its citizens, during the pen- 
dency of the war now existing between the said Confederate States and 
the said United States. 

Now, if the owners, officers and crews, w^ho shall be employed on 
board of said vessel when commissioned, shall observe the laws of the 
Confederate States and the instructions which shall be given them accord- 
ing to law for the regulation of their conduct, and shall satisfy all dam- 
ages and injuries which shall be done or committed contrary to the tenor 
thereof by such vessel during her commission, and shall deliver up said 
commission when revoked by the President of the Confederate States, 
then this obligation shall be void, but otherwise shall remain in full force 
and effect. 

Signed, sealed and delivered in the presence of , on this day 

of 

A B ) 

CD witnesses. 



70 THE CONFEDERATE STATES NAVY. 

Note 1. — This blank must be filled with the name of the commander 
for the time being, and the owners and at least two responsible sureties 
interested in the vessel, 

Note 2. — This blank must be filled with a " five " if the vessel be pro- 
vided with only one hundred and fifty men, or a less number; if with 
more than that number, the blank must be filled with a "ten." 

Note 3. — This blank must be filled with the character of the vessel, 
*'ship," "brig," "schooner," "steamer," etc. 

On the 4th of May, Capt. Baker fell in with the brig 
Joseph, of Rockland, Maine, from Cardenas, Cuba, with a 
cargo of sugar consigned to Welch &; Co., of Philadelphia. 
The Joseph fell an easy prize, and was sent into Georgetown, 
S. C, where she was condemned and sold. The Savannah, 
having accompanied the Joseph almost into port, put to sea 
again in search for other prizes. Soon after the two vessels 
parted company, the U. S. brig Per^ry, man-of-war, hove in 
sight, a little north of the Hole in the Wall; but as her guns 
were run back, her port-holes closed, and the vessel otherwise 
purposely disguised, she was mistaken for a merchantman, 
and the Savannah, flushed with success, made all sail for the 
supposed prize. The privateer had got within a mile of the 
brig before Capt. Baker discovered his blunder, when he 
put about. The Per^ry at once gave chase, crowding all sail, 
and fired several shots, four of which were returned by the 
eighteen-pounder of the Savannah. Two of the shots from 
the Perry went through the foresail of the privateer; the shots 
of the Savannah did not take effect. Capt. Baker, seeing 
no possible chance to escape, surrendered his vessel. The 
officers and crew were taken on board the Perry, and were 
subsequently transferred to the Minnesota, lying off Charles- 
ton. The Minnesota put a prize crew of seven upon the 
Savannah, Midshipman McCook commanding, and they 
brought her to New York, where she arrived on June 1 5th, 
1861. The U. S. steamer JHariHet Lane, on June 25th, brought 
the officers and the remainder of the crew of the Savannah to 
New York. 

The capture of the Savannah, and the placing of her crew 
in irons on board of the frigate Minnesota, excited consider- 
able discussion. A great deal of debate also arose in relation 
to the disposition that should be made of them. The war 
press of New York claimed that, if they were to be considered 
privateers, they should have been hung at the yard-arm. and 
they demanded, at all hazards, the execution of the death 
penalty. Though the Confederate government was recog- 
nized by the courts as belligerent, and a state of war was held 
to exist, ' the government of the United States attempted to 

1 In the case of the prize bark Hiawatha, the constitute a state of war under the law of 

point presented by the counsel for her owners, nations : that no lawful blockade had been 

in conjunction with the counsel for other ves- established or maintained, or violated under the 

sels seized under similar circumstances, were law of nations; that no State, or combination of 

that the court had no jurisdiction; that the States, could be treated as enemies of the 

public disturbances which then existed did not United States government ; that the President 



THE CONFEDERATE STATES NAVY. 71 

put those engaged in hostilities at sea upon a different foot- 
ing, and to bring them to trial for piracy. The proclamation 
of Mr. Lincoln, on April 19, gave expression to this principle. 
In it he said: " And I hereby proclaim and declare that if any 
person under the pretended authority of the said States, or 
under any other pretence, shall molest a vessel of the United 
States, or the person or cargo on board of her, such person will 
be held amenable to the laws of the United States for the pre- 
vention and punishment of piracy." 

A privateer, as the name imports, is a private armed ship, 
fitted out at the owner's expense, but commissioned by a bel- 
ligerent government to capture the ships and goods of the 
enemy at sea, or the ships of neutrals when conveying to the 
enemy goods contraband of war. A privateer differs from a 
pirate in this, that the one has a commission and the other 
has none. A privateer is entitled to the same rights of war 
as the public vessels of the belligerent. A pirate ship has no 
rights, and her crew are liable to be captured and put to death 
by all nations, as robbers and murderers on the high seas. 
The policy of neutrals recognizing privateers as legitimate 
belligerent ships is founded on the interests of humanity and 
the common desire to prevent piracy. If privateers were not 
recognized by neutral nations they would become pirates, and, 
instead of making prisoners of the crews of prize vessels, they 
would massacre them, appropriate the cargoes and sink the 
ships. But, being recognized, they are under the surveillance 
of the government commissioning them as well as the gov- 
ernments of neutral nations, and they are responsible for their 
acts to both. The government, moreover, which issues letters 
of marque is liable to neutral nations for the misdeeds of its 
privateers. To a government with a small navy, or no navy, 
and with slender resources, privateers are a great advantage, 
because they not only cost the government nothing, being 
owned and equipped by private individuals, but, on the con- 
trary, they are a source of revenue, for they are obliged to 
pay a percentage on the value of their captures, in consider- 
ation of their license. 

The fact that the war was a civil one afforded no reason for 
a distinction between combatants at sea and combatants on 
land. As naval warfare is no more criminal than land war- 
fare, those captured in the one occupation are as much en- 
titled to be treated as prisoners-of-war as those captured in 

had no power to establish a blockade, or declare prizes of war. It is sufficient to establish the 
a state of war, without the authority of Congress. legality of the blockade, to show that the ports 
The exception as to the jurisdiction of the blockaded are under the power and use of the 
coiirt was overruled by Judge Betts of New enemies of the United States. So far as their 
York. A state of war, the judge maintained, did own acts can make them so, the insurgents who 
exist, and, under the law of nations, the rights hold these i^orts are as alien and foreign to the 
of a war waged by a government, to subdue an United States government as if they had de- 
insurrection or revolt of its own citizens or sub- clared themselves citizens and subjects of vari- 
jects, are the same in regard to neutral powers ous South American States; they thus make 
as if hostilities were carried on between in- themselves avowed enemies of the United States 
dependent nations, and apply equally in cap- and are waging a war for the dismemberment of 
tures of property for municipal offences, or as the nation and destruction of the government. 



72 THE CONFEDERATE STATES NAVY. 

the other. ^ The rights and privileges of privateering had 
been maintained and asserted by the United States, and the 
separate and distinct existence of the Confederate States as a 
political power had up to the time of the capture of the Savan- 
nah been also practically recognized in many ways by the 
U. S. government. From the outset of the controversy, the 
Southern States had been scrupulously exact, or rather super- 
stitiously exact, in recognizing the courtesies and civilities of 
warfare. Gen. Robert Anderson, who began the war as a 
subordinate, against pledges and promises, was treated for 
weeks with more attention and courtesies than were bestowed 
on many Confederate officers. When taken prisoner, he and 
his command were released with unusual honor. Gen. Harney 
was taken prisoner at Harper's Ferry and released with honor. 
Lieut. Col. Morris, U. S. army, was twice or thrice arrested on 
good grounds, and yet was discharged. Many prisoners were 
taken in Texas and at other places and honorably released. 

It is not necessary to multiply instances to prove that the 
South, because she was compelled to defend her rights by war, 
deserved an honorable war, modified by all the limitations 
and amenities of modern war among Christian and civilized 
nations. The outrages, therefore, perpetrated upon the South- 
ern privateersmen stirred the gall of every earnest man in the 
Confederate States. In the deficiency of a navy proper, these 
gallant men, commissioned by the Confederate government 
as their militia of the sea, went forth to punish their enemy to 
the extent of their ability. It was the only naval resource of 
the South, and accorded with the laws and customs of nations. 
It was a right which the United Colonies in 177G, and the 
United States in 1813, freely exercised against their mother 

1 Judge Daly, of New York, who from the first the same as that of the other. The question 

outbreak of the war had been distinguished for then arises — as there is in point of fact no 

his zeal in the Union cause, iu January, 1802, difierence between them — is every seamen 

addressed a letter to Senator Harris in opposi- or soldier that shall be taken in arms against 

tion to the enforcement of the alleged laws the government to be hung as a traitor or a 

against Southern i^rivateers. He said : pirate ? * * * 

' What is the ditference between the Southern "It is natural that we should have hesitated 
soldier who takes \\]y arms against the govern- to consider the Southern States in the light of 
ment of the United States iipon the land and the belligerents before the rebellion had expanded 
Southern privateersman who does the same to its present proportions; but now we cannot, if 
upon the water ? Practically there is none ; and we would, shiit our eyes to the fact that war, 
if one should be held and exchanged as a and war upon a more extensive scale than 
prisoner-of-war, the other is equally entitled to usually takes place between contending nations, 
the privilege. The court before which the crew actually exists. It is now. and it will continue 
of the Jefferson Davis were convicted as jjirates to be, carried on upon both sides by a resort to 
held that they could not be regarded as priva- all the means and appliances known to modern 
teers, upon the gi-ound that they were not acting warfare, and, unless we are to fall back into the 
under the authority of an independent State barbarism of the Middle Ages, we must observe 
■with the recognized rights of sovereignty. This in its conduct those humane usages in the treat- 
objection appUcs equally to the man-of-warsmen ment and exchange of prisoners which modern 
iu the Southern fleets, and to every soldier in civilization has shown to be equally the dictate 
the Southern army, none of whom are acting of humanity and of policy. * * * 
under the authority of a recognized govern- " The existing embarrassment is easily over- 
ment. The Constitution defines treason to be come; further prosecutions can be stopped, and 
the levying of war against the United States, in respect to the privateersmen \\\\o have been 
and the'giving of aid and comfort to its enemies. convicted, the President, acting upon the sug- 
All of them are engaged in doing this ; and gestion of the court that tried them, can,by the 
although the Southern privateersmen may fall exercise of the pardoning power, relieve them 
specifically under the provisions of the act from their position as criminals and place them 
defining piracy, the guilt of the one is precisely in that of prisoners-of-war." 



THE CONFEDERATE STATES NAVY. 73 

country, and in 1856 peremptorily refused to waive by treaty 
stipulation. Yet, in 18G1, because it bore disagreeably upon 
their commerce, the practice was denounced by the United 
States, and the captured Confederate privateersmen were 
subjected to the ignominious treatment of common felons. 
Paraded in chains through the streets of northern cities, for 
the gaze of the hostile rabble, they were put in the wretched 
dungeons of "the Tombs," surrounded by filth and vermin. 
Here for long months they were kept, that confinement and 
anxiety might prey upon their health, and that wounded self- 
respect might fret their hearts in the torture of humiliation. 
They were then dragged forth before the public gaze of their 
infuriated enemies to be tried for their lives as the worst of 
criminals — enemies to the whole human race. These were 
the men the Confederacy sent forth to fight their battles un- 
der the flag of their government, and this was the treatment 
they met with as prisoners at the hands of a government which 
claimed that it was conducting the war according to the laws 
and usages of civilized nations. 

On the 17th of July, Thomas H. Baker, John Harleston, 
Charles Sidney Passailaigue, Henry C. Howard, Joseph C. de 
Carmo, Handy Oman, Patrick Daly, Wm. C. Clark, Albert 
Ferris, Richard Palmer, John Murphy, Alexander C. Coyle, 
and Martin Galvin, the thirteen remaining crew of the 
Savannah, were arraigned in the U. S. Circuit Court, in 
jSTew York, to plead to their indictment. They were hand- 
cuffed in pairs, and attended by ten U. S. deputy marshals. 
The indictment against them was a very long and elaborate 
document, to which they pleaded "not guilty." The counsel 
for the prosecution were E. Delafield Smith, U. S. District 
Attorney, William M. Evarts, Samuel Blatchford, and Ethan 
Allen ; for the prisoners, Daniel Lord, James T. Brady, 
Algernon S. Sullivan, Joseph E. Dukes, Maurice Mayer, 
Isaac Davega, S. L. M. Barlow, G. R. J. Bondin, and Jeremiah 
Larocque. 

After the reading of the indictment the prisoners were 
remanded to the Tombs, followed by a large crowd of excited 
people, where they remained in confinement until the day 
set for their trial. On the 33d of October, the trial began 
in the U. S. Circuit Court, before Judges Nelson and Ship- 
man, and terminated on the olst in the disagreement of the 
jury. After a consultation of twenty hours, the jury could 
not agree upon a verdict, four members out of the twelve 
being in favor of an acquittal ; the remaining considering the 
prisoners guilty on some of the counts only. The trial de- 
served and attracted a great share of public attention during 
its progress, as it involved principles of international law and 
of national polity of the most delicate character. The man- 
agement of the case was highly creditable to the counsel on 
each side, and it was heard before two of the ablest Federal 



74 THE CONFEDERA.TE STATES NAVY. 

judges in the country, and a highly intelligent jury of New 
York City. 

The facts in the case were few and simple, and were ad- 
mitted by the defence. " The only question for the Court and 
jury to decide," said the New York Herald, in commenting 
on the case, "was whether the act amounted to piracy, either 
under international law or under the United States statute. 
Arguments were made to show that it was not piracy under 
the law of nations, because a pirate is designated as the en- 
emy of the human race, whereas the privateer only wars on 
the commerce of a particular nation. Under the United States 
statute, however, the prisoners appeared to be amenable, if 
the law were to be strictly and technically construed. But 
the opinions and precedents of all jurists who wrote, and of 
all courts that decided, and all governments that treated of 
the offence, were remarkably unanimous on the point, that in 
a state of foreign war, or domestic revolution, those who 
warred upon the ocean were entitled to the same humanities 
as those who warred upon the land. There could be no good 
reason, it was urged, why our government should treat as 
prisoners-of-war, or should discharge, on taking the oath of 
allegiance, the rebels taken on land with arms in their hands 
fighting against the republic, while they should treat as pi- 
rates or felons those who warred against the United States on 
the high sea. And the precedent of Great Britain in that re- 
spect was cited to show that when the American colonies 
revolted against her, and when the ocean swarmed with 

1 The 9th Section of the Act of Congress of In 1775 Gen. Gage, of the British army, re- 

1790, under which the prisoners were tried, is garded prisoners as persons " whose lives by the 

as follows : law of the land are destined to the cord." — 

" That if any citizen shall commit any piracy Sparks' Collection of the Writings of Washington, 
or robbery aforesaid, or any act of hostility Vol. III., p. .500. In his reply. Gen. Washington, 
against the United States, or any citizen thereof , on the 11th of August, 1775, said that he '-re- 
npon the high seas, under color of any com- solved to adopt the same mode of treatment 
mission from any foreign isrince or State, or on towards the British prisoners then in his pos- 
pretence of authority from any person, such session which was i^racticed by Gen. Gage. ' — 
ofl'ender shall, notwithstanding the pretence of Ibid, p. 5(0, 501. Congress was of a like opinion 
any such authority, be deemed, adjudged and with the American general. After the King s 
taken to be a pirate, felon and robber, and on proclamation of the i^d of August, 1775, Con- 
being thereof convicted, shall sutfer death." gress declared and pubUshed "that whatever 

It may be well to observe that this act was punishment shall be inHicted upon any persona 

taken from the British statute of 11 and 12 Will. in the power of our enemies, for favoring, aid- 

3, c. 7 ; the 8th section of which provided as ing or abetting the cause of American liberty, 

follows : shall be retaliated in the same kind and the 

"That if any of his Majesty's natural born same degree upon those in our power who have 

subjects or denizens of this kingdom shall com- favored, aided or abetted, or shall favor, aid or 

mit any piracy or robbery or any act of hostilities abet, the system of ministerial oppression." — 

against others, his Majesty's subjects, upon the Jbid. p. 204. And when Col. Alleu was taken 

sea, under color of any commission from any prisoner near Montreal and thrown into irons, 

foreign prince or State or pretence of authority Gen. Washington, following the order of Con- 

from any person whatsoever, such offender and gress, wrote on the 18th of December, 1775, to 

offenders and every of them, shall be deemed. Gen. Howe, that "whatever treatment Col. 

adjudged and taken to be iiirates, felons and Allen receives, whatever fate he undergoes, 

robbers." pnch exactly shall be the treatment and fate 

This statute was in force during the American of Brigadier Prescott, now in our hands." 

Kevolution, just as much as tlie Act of Congress This, it will be seen, was before the D clara- 

of 1790 was in force during the Southern Kevolu- tion of Independence. After that Declaration, 

tion; and there was no naore reason then for a general exchange of prisoners was proposed 

applying the act of 1790 against citizens of the and acceded to, to wit : of officers for officers 

Confederate States than there was for applying of equal rank, soldier for soldier and sailor 

the statute of 11 and 12 Will. 3, c. 7, against for sailor. — Vol. IV., pp. 23, 512, also pp. 105, 

citizens of the United States from 1775 to 1783. 108, etc. 



THE CONFEDERATE STATES NAVY. 75 

American privateers, she never treated those who fell into her 
hands in any other manner than as prisoners-of-war. These 
arguments and precedents had their weight with the jury, and 
helped to save the accused from the verdict of guilty." 

Meanwhile, pending the trial of the officers and crew of 
the Savannah, the Confederate government threw out the 
menace of retaliation, which, after the first battle of Manas- 
sas, it was in a position to carry out. It decided, if one drop 
■of Southern blood was shed by Northern courts for defending 
the Confederate States on the seas, it was to be paid for, with 
interest, in Charleston. Self -protection and the enforcement 
•of the laws of nations and of humanity alike required, in this 
instance at least, full and ample retaliation. 

As soon as President Davis received intelligence that the 
crew of the Savannah had been placed in irons and were to be 
tried for piracy, he sent Col. Richard Taylor, of his staff, as a 
special messenger to Mr. Lincoln, with a communication, 
under date of July Gth, 1861, in which he said: 

"Having learned that the schooner Savannah, a private armed vessel 
in the service, and sailing under a eonimission issued by authority of the 
Confederate States of America, had been captured by one of tlie vessels 
forming the blockading squadron off Charleston harbor, I directed a 
proposition to be made to the oflBcer commanding the squadron, for an 
exchange of the officers and crew of tlie Savannah for prisoners-of-war 
held by this government, ' according to number and rank.' To this propo- 
sition, made on the 19th ultimo, Capt. Mercer, the officer in command of 
the blockading squadron, made answer on the same day that 'the prisoners 
(referred to) are not on board of any of the vessels under my command.'' 

" It now appears, by statements made, without contradiction, in news- 
papers published in New York, that the prisoners above mentioned were 
conveyed to that city, and have been treated not as prisoners-of-war, but 
as criminals; that they have been put in irons, confined in jail, brought 
before the courts of justice on charges of piracy and treason; and it is even 
rumored that they have been actually convicted of the offenses charged, 
for no other reason than that they bore arms in defence of the rights of 
this government, and under the authority of its commission. 

" I could not, without grave discourtesy, have made the newspaper 
statements above referred to the subject of this communication, if the 
thi'eat of treating as pirates the citizens of this Confederacy, armed for its 
service on the high seas, had not been contained in your proclamation of 
the 19th of April last; that proclamation, however, seems to afford a suf- 
ficient justification for considering these published statements as not de- 
void of probability. 

"It is the desire of this government to so conduct the war now exist- 
ing as to mitigate its horrors as far as maybe possible; and, with this 
intent, the treatment of the prisoners captured by its forces have been 
marked by the greatest humanity and leniency consistent with public ob- 
ligation. Some have been permitted to return home on parole, others to 
remain at large, under similar conditions, within this Confederacy, and all 
have been furnished with rations for their subsistence, such as are allowed 
to our own troops. It is only since the news has been received of the treat- 
ment of the prisoners taken on the Savannah, that I have been compelled 
to withdraw these indulgences, and to hold the prisoners taken by us in 
strict confinement.. 

"A just regard to humanity and to the honor of this government 
now requires me to state explicitly, that, painful as will be the necessity, 



7G THE CONFEDERATE STATES NAVY. 

this government will deal out to the prisoners held by it the same treat- 
ment and the same fate as shall be experienced by those captured on the 
Savannah ; and if driven to the terrible necessity of retaliation, by your 
execution of any of the officers or ci-ew of the iSavannah, that retahation 
will be extended so far as shall be requisite to secure the abandonment of 
a practice unknown to the warfare of civilized man, and so barbarous as 
to disgrace the nation which shall be guilty of inaugurating it. 

" With this view, and because it may not have reached you, I now 
renew the proposition made to the commander of the blockading squad- 
ron, to exchange for the prisoners taken on the ISavannah an equal num- 
ber of those held by us, according to rank." 

Col. Taylor was permitted to go to Washington, but 
was refused an audience with Mr. Lincoln, and was obliged 
to content himself with a verbal reply from Gen. Scott that 
the communication had been delivered to him, and that he 
would reply in writing as soon as possible. 

No answer ever came, however, and the Confederate 
authorities were compelled to select by lot, from among the 
Federal prisoner in their hands, a number to whom they pro- 
posed to mete out the same fate which might await the crew 
of the Savannah. ' But fortunately Mr. Lincoln was induced, 
from some cause, to recede from his position — albeit he never 
deigned an answer of any sort to Mr. Davis' letter — and the 
horrors of retaliation were thus averted. Perhaps the Federal 
government was influenced in this matter by what occurred 
in the British House of Lords, on the IGth of May, soon after 
Mr. Lincoln's proclamation, declaring the Confederate priva- 
teers pirates, reached that country. On this subject the Earl 
of Derby said: 

" He apprehended that if one thing ivas clearer than another, it was 
that privateering was not piracy, and that no law could make that piracy, 
as regarded the subjects of one nation, which was not piracy by the law 
of nations. Consequently the United States mnst not he allowed to enter- 
tain this doctrine, and to call upon Her Majesty's government not to inter- 
fere. He knew it was said that the United States treated the Confeder- 
ate States of the South as mere rebels, and that as rebels these expeditions 
were hable to all the penalties of high treason. That was not the doc- 
trine of this country, because we have declared that they are entitled to 
all the rights of belligerents. The Northern States could not clfiim the 
rights of helligerents for themselves, and, on the other hand, deal with 
other parties not as belligerents, hut as rebels." 

1 The following correspondence discloaes the as siieh so long as the enemy shall continue bo 

names of the prisoners the Confederates had to treat the like number of prisoners-of-war 

selected to await the fate of the Savannah priva- captured by them at sea, and now held for trial 

teersmen, etc.: in New York as pirates. As these measures are 

" C. S. A. War Depaetmknt, ) intended to repress the infamous attempt now 

' "KicHMOND, Nov. 9, 18G1. I made by the enemy to commit judicial mirrdcr 

" SiK — You are hereby instructed to choose by on iirisoners - of - war, you will execute them 

lot from among the prisoners-of-war of highest strictly, as the mode best calculated to prevent 

rank one who is to be confined in a cell appro- the commission of so heinous a crime. 
Ijriated to convicted felons, and who is to be " Your obedient servant, 

treated in all respects as if such convict, and to " J. P. ] ENJAMIN, 

be held for execution in the same manner as " Acting Secretary of War. 

may be adopted by the enemy for the execvition " To Brig. Gen. John Winder, Richmond, Va." 
of the prisoner-of-war Smith, recently con- 
demned to death in Philadeljihia. You will also " Headquarters DEPAExirENT of Henrico, ) 
select thirteen other prisonersof-war, the high- " Richmond, Va. Nov. 11, 1861. ) 

est in rank of those captured by our forces, to ■' Hon. J. P. Benjamin, Secretary of War ; 
be confined in the cells reserved for prisoners " Sir — In obedience to instructions contained 

accused of infamous crimes, and will treat them in your letter of the 9th inst., one prisoner-of- 



THE CONFEDERATE STATES NAVY. 77 

Lord Brougham said that '' it was clear that privateering 
was not piracy by the law of nations." 

Lord Kingsdown took the same view. " What was to be 
the operation of the Presidential proclamation upon this sub- 
ject was a matter for the consideration of the United States." 
But he expressed the opinion that the enforcement of the doc- 
trine of that proclamation " would be an act of barbarity 
which would produce an outcry throughout the civilized 
world." 

Up to this time there had been no formal cartel for the ex- 
change of prisoners, and the policy of the Washington govern- 
ment seemed to be that they would not treat with "rebels" 
in any way which would acknowledge them as " belligerents." 
But many prisoners, on both sides, were released on parole, 
and a proposition made in the Confederate Congress to return 
the Federal prisoners taken at First Manassas, without any 
formality whatever, would doubtless have prevailed but for 
the difficulty in reference to the crew of the Savannah. 

The pressure upon the Federal government by friends of 
the prisoners became so great that they were finally induced 
to enter into a cartel for the exchange of prisoners on the very 
basis that the Confederates had offered in the beginning. The 
Confederate Gen. Howell Cobb and the Federal Gen. Wool 
entered into this arrangement on the 14th of February, 1862 — 
the only unadjusted point being that Gen. Wool was unwilling 
that each party should agree to pay the expenses of trans- 
porting their prisoners to the frontier,' and this he promised to 
refer to his government. 

At a second interview, the 1st March, Gen. Wool informed 
Gen. Cobb that his government would not consent to pay 
these expenses, and thereupon Gen. Cobb promptly receded 
from his demand, and agreed to the terms proposed by the 
other side. But Gen. Wool, who had said at the beginning of 
the negotiation, " I am alone clothed with full poiuer for the 
purpose of arranging for the exchange of prisoners," was now 

war of the highest rank in our possession was " Headquarters Department of Henrico, ) 

chosen by lot, to be held for execution in the " Richmond, Va., Nov. 12, 1861. ) 

same manner as may be adopted by the enemy " Hon. J. P. Benjamin, 

for the execution of Smith, recently condemned " Secretary of War, Richmond, Va.: 

to death in Philadelphia. The names of the six "Sir — In obedience to your instructions, all 

colonels were placed in a can. The first name the wounded officers have been exempted as 

drawn was that of Col. Corcoran, Sixty-ninth hostages to await the result of the trial of 

Regiment, N. Y. S. M., who is the hostage chosen prisoners captured by the enemy at sea. I have 

to answer for Smith. In choosing the thirteen therefore made selections by lot of Capts. H. 

from the highest ranis to be held to answer for Bowman and T. Kefferto rexslace Capts. Ricketts 

a Uke number of prisoners-of-war captured by and McQuade, wounded. 

the enemy at sea, there being only ten field " The list of thirteen will now stand : Cols, 

officers, it was necessary to draw by lot three Lee, Cogswell, Wilcox, Woodruff and Wood ; 

captains. The first names drawn were Capts. Lieut. Cols. Bowman and Neff; Majors Potter. 

J. B. Ricketts, H. McQuade and .T. W. Rock- Revere and Vogdes ; Capts. Rockwood, Bowman 

wood. The list of thirteen will therefore stand: and Keffer. 

Cols. Lee, Cogswell, WUcox. Woodruff and Wood; " Respectfully, your obedient servant, 

Lieut. Cols. Bowman and Neflf ; Majors Potter, "JOHN H. WINDER, 

Revere and Vodges ; Capts Ricketts, McQuade "Brigadier General." 

and Rockwood. The prisoners were sent to Charleston. S. C, 

" Respectfully, your odedient servant, where they were put in jail in close confinement, 

" JOHN H. WINDER, to abide the issue of the trials of the privateers- 

" Brigadier General ' men at the North. 



78 THE CONFEDERATE STATES NAVY. 

under the necessity of stating that '• his government had 
changed his instructions." And thus the negotiations were 
abruptly broken off, and the matter left where it was before. 
The vacillating conduct of the Federal government was of 
easy explanation, and in perfect accord with their double deal- 
ing throughout the war. After these negotiations had begun, 
the capture of Forts Henry and Donelson had given the 
United States a considerable preponderance in the number of 
prisoners held by them, and they at once reverted to their 
original purpose of not treating with "rebels" on equal 
terms. 

But Jackson's Valley campaign, the Seven Days' Battles 
around Richmond, and other Confederate successes again re- 
versed the "balance of power," and brought the Fetleral gov- 
ernment to terms, to which the Confederate authorities were 
always willing. Accordingly negotiations were again entered 
into by Gen. I). H. Hill on the part of the Confederacy, and 
Gen. John A. Dix on the part of the United States, and the 
result was, on July 22d, 1863, the adoption of a cartel of ex- 
change. 

The rigid observance of this cartel would have prevented 
all the horrors of prison life North and South, and have 
averted the great mortality in Southern prisons, and the 
greater mortality in Northern prisons, if it had been faithfully 
carried out by the Federal authorities. 

In the meantime, on the 3d of February, 1862, Hon. Alfred 
Ely, member of Congress from New York, captured at the 
first battle of Manassas, had an interview with Mr. Lincoln 
and Secretary Seward, when it was determined to place the 
privateersmen in confinement at New York and Philadelphia 
upon the same footing as other prisoners-of-war. On the 3d, 
the following prisoners confined in the Tombs were transferred 
to Fort Lafayette in obedience to orders received from Wash- 
ington, and were subsequently exchanged : 

From the Savannah. — T. Hamilton Baker, John Harleston, Henry 
Howard, Handy Oman, Wm. Clark, Alex. C. Coyle, C. S. Passailaigue, 
Joseph Cuig De Carmo, Patrick Daly, John Murphy, Martin (jalvin. 
From THE Dixie. Geors^e Gladden, Charles Forrester, J. P. M. Catro, 
John Journell, John H Marshall. From the Sumter. — Henry Spence, 
John Davis, A. D. Hodgier, John O'Brien, Wni. May, Peter Thompson, 
John Donnelly, James Milner, Eugenie Ruhl. From the Confederate 
MAN-OF-WAR F/nri da.— John Williams, Patrick McCarthy, James Reilly, 
Archibald Wilson. 

The brig Jefferson Davis, formerly the slaver EcJw, built 
in Baltimore inlBSi, and condemned in Charleston, was fitted 
up in the latter city as a privateer, and on the 28th of June, 
1861, started out upon a privateering expedition. The Davis 
was 230 tons register and rated 1|. She was full-rigged and 
carried four waist guns, two e'ighteen-pounders, and two 
twelve-pounders, and one long eighteen-pounder of old English 



THE CONPEDEKATE STATES NAVY. 79- 

make amidships. Her officers were Capt. Louis M. Coxetter, 
Lieuts. Postell and Stewart, Surgeon Babcock, Capt. of Marines, 
Mr. Sanfrau, four prize-masters, and a crew of 70 men. 

Soon after leaving Charleston, the Jefferson Davis reaped 
a rich harvest in capturing Federal vessels, with an estimated 
value of $225,000. On the 6th of July, the brig John Welsh, 
bound from Trinidad to Falmouth, Eng., with a cargo of sugar, 
was captured off Hatteras. Capt. J. C. Fifield, of the John 
Welsh, says : 

" After the work of transferrine: the stores had been completed, Capt. 
Coxsetter mustered all hands aft and said to them : ' Boys, if you molest 
the crew of that bri^ or their things to the value of a rope-yarn, I will 
punish you to the utmost of my power. Do you understand ? Now go 
forward.' Turning to his officers, he said : ' Gentlemen, I desire that you 
do everything in your power to make the stay of these gentlemen as agree- 
able as possible.' He then invited me to dine with him in his cabin, while 
my mate was taken into the ofiElcers' mess.''' 

A prize crew in charge of Prize-master Stephens was then 
put in charge of the captured vessel, and she was ordered to 
put in the nearest Southern port. On the same day the schooner 
Enchantress, from Boston, bound to St. Jago, was captured off 
Montauk. She was placed in charge of Wm. Smith, formerly 
a Savannah pilot, as prize-master, and ordered South. On Sun- 
day, the 7th of July, about 150 miles from Sandy Hook, the 
Jefferson Davis captured the schooner 8. J. Waring, of Brook- 
haven, L. I., with a valuable cargo, bound to Montevideo. 
Montague Amiel, a Charleston pilot, was put in charge as 
prize- master, with a man named Stevens as mate, and Mal- 
colm Siding as second mate, and two men. The Davis left 
William Tillman, a colored cook, two seamen, and Bryce 
Mackinnon, a passenger, on board. Late in the afternoon 
the schooner was headed South. The remaining crew and the 
passenger were in hopes of a recapture by some U. S. vessel, 
and made themselves agreeable and sociable to the privateers- 
men, and in consequence they suspected nothing until the 
night of the 16th of July, when fifty miles to the southward of 
Charleston. 

Seeing no prospect of their hopes being realized, and the 
prize-captain and first mate being asleep in their berths, and 
the second mate at the wheel, the others dozing or asleep, the 
preconcerted plan was carried into effect by the steward, Wil- 
liam Tillman (colored), killing the three with a hatchet, and 
throwing the bodies overboard. One of the remaining men 
was tied up that night, and both were released in the morning 
on promise to help work the vessel, and were treated accord- 
ingly. 

After retaking the vessel, the charge of her devolved on 
the steward. Neither he nor the others understood naviga- 
tion, but having once got hold of the land he brought her 
safely up to the pilot ground, when Charles E. Warner, of 



80 THE CONFEDERATE STATES NAVY. 

the pilot-boat Jane, took charge, and brought the schooner 
up to the battery in New York Harbor. ^ 

On July 9th, the Jefferson Davis captured the ship Mary 
Goodell, Capt. McGilvery, from New York for Buenos Ayres. 
As she drew eighteen feet of water, and was useless to the 
privateer, she was allowed to go, five of her crew joining the 
Davis. All the prisoners captured by the privateer were put 
aboard of the Mary Goodell, and she sailed for Portland, Me. 
On the same day, the brig Mary E. Thompson, of Scarsport, 
bound to Montevideo, loaded with lumber, was made a prize 
of. After venturing to within 100 miles southeast of 
Nantucket shoals, and reaping a rich harvest, the Jefferson 
Davis steered her course for the South American coast, where 
she captured several valuable cargoes. The havoc made by 
the Jefferson Davis among the merchant ships of the enemy, 
within sight of the Atlantic shores, created the greatest ex- 
citement in all the Northern ports. Immediately upon the re- 
ceipt of the news of her seizures, the government at Wash- 
ington ordered a fleet of revenue -cutters and gunboats to 
be dispatched in quest of the daring privateer. The command 
of the fleet from New York was confided to Capt. Howard, and 
the cutters Jackson, Craivford and Varina went promptly to 
sea in tow of the steamer Mercury. The Henrietta and the 
gunboat Iroquois started in pursuit on the loth of July. From 
Boston the revenue-cutters Morris and Caleb Cushing sailed 
on the same mission on the 12th, and the frigate Vincennes 
sailed on the following day with orders to cruise off Nantucket 
for a week in search of the Jefferson Davis. 

The privateer arrived at St. John's, P. P. , on July 26th. Be- 
fore entering the port, a boat and ten men were sent in for 
provisions, but no't being allowed to land, the brig was allowed 
to go in. The captain-general informed the commander of the 

1 Shortly before tbe hour of midnight on the called out to the two remaining of the crew aft, 

16th of July, Capt. Montague Amiel was asleep in telling them that they must obey him as captain 

hie cabin , together with Stevens, the mate, in the of the vessel, or he would throw them overboard 

berth next to him. The second mate, Malcolm also. The men yielded up without a murmur. 

Siding, was also asleep on the poop deck, and when he had them at once ironed, but subse- 

the other two seamen composing the privateer quently released them ou their consenting to 

prize crew were lounging leisurely at the fore- assist iu bringing the vessel to a Northern port, 

head part of the ship. Tillman afterwards related that the time con- 

Tillman stole up ifrom between decks, with suuied in killing the men and throwing them 

hatchet in liand, and first went down into the overboard and getting the vessel under his com- 

captain's cabin, who was sound asleep in bed. mand only consumed seven and a half minutes. 

He theu raised his axe and gave him a vigorous Mr. Mackinnon, the passenger on board of the 

blow on his .skull, from which he seemed to be Waring, afterwards gave the following account 

launched into eternity, for he moved not an of the steward's Woody work: 

inch. The negro next proceeded to deal with the "I was awakened from a light sleep by a pecu- 

mate, who was also reclining near his captain fast liar soimd in the captain's room, which I knew 

Asleep, and dealt with hiui in the same summary instinctively could only have been produced by 

and terrible manner. After leaving both these an axe cleaving Amiel's skull. No sooner did 

dead men below, Tillman came on the poop the • (/ats/t* strike upon my ear than I leaped out 

deck and struck the second mate a fearful blow of bed, and leaning against the door-casmg m 

over the temple. The unfortunate man was just the partition, saw the steward dart through the 

rising from his reclining position with little ex- twilight— for he had extinguished the light— 

pectation that he was about being launched into noiselessly as a rat, across the cabin towards 

eternity. He then went below once more, took the second mate's room. I also saw, at the same 

hold of the captain's body and flung him over- glance, Capt. Amiel rise from his berth and at- 

board, doing the same with that of the mate aud tempt to follow him, but the blood blmded him, 

second mate. The coast being now clear, he and he fell to the floor, with a horrid gurgling 



THE CONFEDERATE STATES NAV^Y. 81 

Jefferson Davis that he must leave within twenty-four hours, 
and immediately dispatched the steam - corvette Herman 
Cortez, mounting six guns, outside the harbor to watch her 
movements. After procuring a supply of water and provis- 
ions, the privateer sailed on the 29th. 

On the 5th of August, after chasing several vessels with- 
out success, the Davis captured the schooner Windivard from 
Turk's Island, with a cargo of salt. On the following day the 
privateer made prize of the brig Santa Clara, of Eastport, 
loaded with sugar from Porto Rico, bound to New York. It 
had been the intention of Capt. Coxetter, of the Davis, to 
burn or sink the Windward, but, having so many prisoners, he 
put them on board that vessel and set tliem free. On July 21st 
the Davis had captured the bark Alvarado, bound from the 
Cape for Boston, with a valuable cargo of wool, hides, etc. 
She was sent into the Confederacy. The bark California 
was also captured by the Jefferson Davis, but not having 
sufficient men to put a prize crew on board was allowed to 
proceed. 

Capt. Coxetter, finding that his provisions and water were 
short, and that his crew had been reduced to one-half of his 
original number, made sail for the Florida coast, intending to 
run into a Confederate harbor. When about 800 miles east of 
Cape Florida,, says the Richmond Enquirer, she came in con- 
tact with the ship John Crawford, Capt. Edge, from Phila- 
delphia, bound to Key West, with arms and coal for the 
U. S. forces. She was found to draw twenty-two feet of 
water, and could not possibly be brought in. The officers and 
crew, numbering in all twenty-two persons, were taken on 
board the privateer, the vessel fired, and holes bored in her 
sides and bottom. This was about four o'clock in the morn- 
ing, and about good daylight the ship was wrapped in flames, 

sound in his throat. All this was but the work of " Then the steward came down to the cabin, 

a second. ThecleavingoftLie skull, like the flash where I still stood while Stedding stood, pistol 

from a gun preceding the report, was followed by in hand, to guard the deck. The captain cried 

a weak, faint cry, like that of a sick child, and faintly twice to me by name, ' Helij me — help 

the gurgling in the throat. I knew then that me,' but he was past help. Another swishing 

his wound was mortal. Stooping side-ways, the blow of the axe. and he did not rei^eat the cry. 

steward entered the second mate's cabin, and Then the steward returned to the second mate's 

once more swung his axe, but not so effectively. cabin, whez-e, seated on a pile of starch boxes, 

" The mate started up with a ' you; his legs drawn up, and his head between his 

don't strike me again,' and clutched at the knees, was the half-stupefied man. Again and 
steward's breast, but eluding ihe wounded man, again the axe fell, and again and again the cry, 
he ran on deck to where the man lay near the ' Don't do that,' fell on my ear, each time fainter 
wheel-house, and keeping his axe behind him, than the last. Stedding now came down, and 
demanded ' what all this noise was about ?' The the steward and he took the corpse of the 
mate who had been aroused by the outcries of captain by the feet, and dragging it up the 
the captain and mate, had raised himself uj) on companion-way, tossed it overboard. Meau- 
his elbow, and stared at the steward in a half- time I had got some irons out, hoping to inter- 
stupid, half-fascinated way, not seeing the j)istol cede to save bloodshed. Stedding and the 
which Stedding, the man at the helm, had steward once more came down, and each taking 
pointed at him for use in case of necessity. As the second mate by the shovilder led him out 
he turned his face toward the steward, the latter from the place where he had crouched on the 
drove his weapon home into the base of his starch boxes. He seemed to walk, with their 
skull. Stedding and the steward then tumbled assistance, as they went up the companion- 
him overboard. He rose on the wave, with a way, but his head lay a pulpy mass iipon his 
hoarse cry, when about two lengths astern, the shoulder, and a moment after a loud splash 
water having raised him ; but he must have alongside told the fate of another of the priva- 
soon gone down to his long account. teers." 
6 



82 THE CONFEDERATE STATES NAVY. 

going down shortly afterwards. It was found impossible to 
secure any of the arms, as they were stowed under the coal. 

On August ] Gth, the Jefferson Davis was off St. Augustine, 
Florida, but the wind blowing half a gale, she could not ven- 
ture in. On the following day, while trying to cross the bar, 
the privateer stuck. A small boat was sent ashore with Dr. 
Babcock and Lieut. Bay a, and the prisoners were landed. The 
officers and crew of the privateer then went ashore, and were 
greeted with the most enthusisastic demonstrations by the in- 
habitants. About half-past nine two lightboats went off to 
the brig along with Capt. Coxetter and other officers. The 
starboard guns were thrown overboard to lighten the vessel, 
in order to clear her decks of water and save as much as pos- 
sible of the supplies on board the brig. 

Ever}' effort was made to save everything on board, but 
it was supposed that the guns thrown overboard stove her in 
and caused her to bilge. The lightboats, however, were filled 
with a large amount of provisions and baggage, and finally 
succeeded in saving all the small arms on board. 

The ladies threw open their houses, and they were received 
with cheers upon cheers. Cheers were given for the Jefferson 
Davis, for the Southern Confederacy, and the utmost hilarity 
and rejoicing for the safe arrival of the privateersmen was mani- 
fested. While there they were sumptuously provided for, and 
furnished with every comfort that could possibly be devised. 

During the voyage of the Jefferson Davis, a conspiracy 
existed among the prisoners and a portion of the crew to kill 
the captain and officers, and take the vessel into New York. 
After the return of the privateer to the Confederacy, the con- 
spiracy was disclosed by one of the crew, and upon their ar- 
rival in Charleston the suspected ones were arrested, and tried 
before Judge Magrath on October 11th. Only one of the men 
proved to be guilty of the charge. 

AVm. Smith, one of the crew of the Jefferson Davis, was con- 
victed in the U. S. Circuit Court, at Philadelphia, on Oct. 25th, 
upon an indictment of piracy. Thos.Quigley, David Mullins,and 
Edward Rockford, of the crew of the same privateer, were also 
convicted in the same court, Oct. 29th, upon the same charge. 
When the U. S. government, after the trial of the Savannah 
privateersmen, decided to place the crews of the privateers 
upon the same footing with other prisoners taken from the Con- 
federates, on Feb. 5th, 1862. the four men belonging to the Jeffer- 
son Davis'^wd the thirty-four of the Petrel, who were confined 
in the jail at Philadelphia, were sent to Fort Lafayette. ' 

1 The following were the names of the priva- Robert R. Jeffries, William H. Htirlehunt, Geo. 

teersmen : William Smith. Thomas Quigley, S. Harrison, John Mack, Hugh Managoort, 

Daniel Mullins. Edward Kockford. Wm. Perry, William Ryan, George Moadcn, John Cronin, 

Richard M. Harvey, Chas. Campbell, August Jlichael Delton, Henry A. Rumn, John Mullins, 

Peyrupet, Robert Barrett, Henry Mills, Edward C. H. Marriott, G. H. Roberts, T. A Brook- 

Flynn, Austin C. Williams, Henry Aulinaus, banks, Richard Lewis, Edward Murphy, John 

Daniel Courtney, John M. Morgan, George H. Edwards, Thomas Wood, John G. S. 

Hankins, Asa Delahey, John Cunningham, Luckett. 



THE CONFEDERATE STATES XAVY. 83 

Capt. Coxetter, of the Jefferson Davis, after the wreck of 
his vessel, went into the blockade-running service, and com- 
manded the steamers Autonica (Herald), and the Beauregard 
(Havelock). In his last trip in the Bexmregai^d to Charleston, 
S. C, in 1863, he was fired at fifteen times by the Federal 
blockaders. He was very successsul in the service, but owing' 
to bad health was compelled to retire. 

The steamer Gordon was owned by the Florida Steam- 
ship Company, and, before the war, ran on the line between 
Charleston and Fernandina. She was about 500 tons 
burden, carried two guns, and was commanded by Capt. 
Lock wood. She succeeded in running the blockade at Charles- 
ton, and made several valuable prizes. Her name was changed 
to the Theodora, and she frequently ran the blockade. 

About the middle of July, 1861, the privateer steamer Gor- 
don, from Charleston, captured and carried into Hatteras In- 
let the brig Wm. McGilvery, from Cardenas bound to Bangor, 
Me., with a cargo of molasses; also the scliooner Protector, from 
Cuba to Philadelphia, with a cargo of fruit. The privateer 
steamer Mariner at the same time captured a schooner loaded 
with fruit. The schooner Frank Lucas, of Philadelphia, about 
May 1st, reported that off the eastern shore of Virginia she 
was chased by three sailing-vessels ; and the Norfolk corre- 
spondent of the Richmond Examiner, on Aug. 1st, said: " An- 
other privateer left our waters yesterday afternoon, the Smith, 
carrying two guns of heavy calibre." On the 15th of August, 
the schooner Priscilla, bound to Baltimore from Newbern, 
N. C, arrived at her destination, bringing the captains and 
crews of several vessels which were captured off Cape Hat- 
teras and taken into the port of Newbern. The steamer Coffee, 
or Winslow, as she was afterwards called, was a small steamer 
and carried two guns. It is said that she was lost or abandoned 
in the neighborhood of Hatteras after making several cap- 
tures. The schooner Priscilla, loaded with salt, was captured 
by the Confederate privateer steamer Winsloiv, Capt. Carsen. 
The Confederates took out the salt, and, because the schooner 
was owned in Baltimore, she was released, Baltimore vessels 
being exempted from capture. The Priscilla brought to Balti- 
more the captain and crew of the brig Itasco, of Warrenton, 
Me., loaded with sugar, captured off Hatteras, on August 
4th, by the steamer Winsloiv ; also Capt. Carlisle and the 
crew of the brig William McGilvery, of New York, and the 
crew of the steamer Sea Witch, of New York, captured by the 
steamer Gordon, and the officers and crew of the schooner 
Henry Nutt, of Philadelphia. The following captured vessels 
were at this time in the harbor of Newbern: schooner Transit, 
of New London, captured on the 23d of June; Wm. S. Bobbins 
and J. W. Hewes. The gunboat Ninon chased the Winsloiv 
off Cape Hatteras, but could not overtake her. The Baltimore 
brig B, B. Kirkland was boarded to the southward of the 



84 THE CONFEDERATE STATES NAVY. 

Gulf Stream in July, by two privateer schooners, and thirty 
miles south of Hatteras by a privateer steamer, but was re- 
leased because she belonged to and was bound for the neutral 
port of Baltimore. The privateers reported to Capt. Knight 
that they had captured a bark belonging to New Bedford, from 
Philadelphia, loaded with coal; also a schooner. On July 25th, 
the schooner John Elliott, from Boston for St, Domingo, re- 
ported that she had been chased by three privateers on three 
successive days. The British schooner Favorite, from Picton, 
on the 20th of July, when about sixty miles east of Halifax, 
was chased by a privateer schooner of about 100 tons. 

The privateer schooner Dixie, of about 150 tons burden, 
after a very successful cruise, passed through the " efficient 
blockade," and with guns booming and colors flying, on Au- 
gust 27th, startled from their gravity the quiet people of the 
'"nest of rebellion" and anchored under the guns of Castle 
Pinckney. The Dixie was commanded by Thomas J. Moore, 
with Lieuts. George D. Walker, John W, Marshall, and L. D. 
Benton; Gunner, Charles Ware; Boatswain, George O. Glad- 
den, and a crew of twenty-four men. Capt. Moore, upon his 
return to Charleston, gave the following interesting account 
of his cruise : 

" The Dixie weighed anchor in Charleston liarbor on July 19th, On the 
following day, aided by a stiff breeze, she succeeded in getting out safely to 
sea. The privateer pursued a southeasterly course without any incident 
of special moment until Tuesday, the 28d ult. At an early hour on that 
day Capt. Moore made a sail upon the lee quarter, and tacking ship soon 
overhauled her. A gun fired across the bow of the stranger speedily 
brought her to. The captain was ordered to come on board the Dixie, 
and his papers showed his vessel to be the bark Glen, of Portland, Maine, 
bound to Fort Jefferson, Tortugas, with a cargo of coal. Without fur- 
ther ceremony, the Yankee skipper was informed of the business of his 
captors, and inade prisoner. A prize crew was put aboard the Glen, who 
did not take her to Fort Jefferson, and the Dixie went on her way I'ejoic- 
ing. On Thursday, the 25th, the schooner Mary Alice, of New York, 
from the West Indies, with a cargo of sugar, bound for New York, hove in 
sight. A messenger from Long Tom explained the meaning of the Stars 
and Bars, and the Mary Alice was soon a prize. ' On the 27th, two sails 
were for a short time in sight, but a heavy squall came up, accompanied 
by a waterspout, which jjassed close ahead of the privateer; and, when 
this subsided, the vessels had disappeared. On Monday, the 29th, two 
sails were agam descried, but the i>/a;z« was unable to come up with them. 
On the 30th, the hermaphrodite brig Robert R. Eirkland, of Baltimore, 
loaded with salt, consigned to a firm in that city, was spoken. She was, 
of course, permitted to pass. The captain of the brig, however, was in- 
duced to take on board the cook of the Glen, the prisoners on board the 
Dixie having become more numerous than was desirable. On the evening 
of the 31st, no less than nine sail were visible. About sundown the Dixie 
gave chase to one of these vessels, which, from information obtained fi*om 
one of the prisoners, was believed to be the bark Albertina, armed with 
two rifled-cannon. Two of the guns of the privateer were loaded with 
grape and canister, and when the stranger was sufficiently near, a shot 
was fired across her bovv, which had the desired effect of bringing her to. 
She proved to be the bark Rowena, of Philadelphia, from Laguayra, with 

1 This vessel was afterwards recaptured by the blockaders. 



THE CONFEDERATE STATES NAVY. 85 

coffee for Philadelphia. The Rowena, as well as her coffee, was of course 
duly "bagged." But inasmuch as her ci'ew numbered thirteen, besides 
four passengers, Ca[)t. Moore deemed it prudent to go aboard of her him- 
self as prize-master, taking with him several of the prisoners, and leaving 
on board the Dixie a crew of four men, under command of Lieut. L. D. 
Benton, with the remainder of the prisoners. 

" The privateer being now in latitude 30 deg. 38 min., longitude 76deg. 
25 min., and with the baric Rotaeaa in her wake, was headed west. On 
August 3d, she made a strange steamer, but managed to elude her. On 
Sunday, August 4th, before daylight, a vessel's light was discovered to the 
eastward, but the Dixie kept shy of her. Shortly after daybreak, a 
steamer was plainly seen in the same direction. For a while she gave 
chase to the Dixie, but Lieut. Benton finding himself off a well-known 
and convenient harbor of our coast, now a port of entry, decided to run 
in without delay. The steamer, finding her chase ineffectual, hauled off 
to the southward." 

On the 25th of August, the schooner Agricola. from Ells- 
wortJi, Me., was overhauled twenty miles northeast from 
Cape Ann by the privateer schooner Freely, of Charleston, 
S. 0. The Freely, not wishing anything the Agricola had on 
board, allowed her to resume her voyage. The privateer 
Sallie, formerly the fore-and-aft schooner Virginia, about 
140 tons, and mounting one long gun amidships, Avith a 
crew of forty men, commanded by Captain Libby, ran 
the blockade from Charleston on the lOth of October. On the 
13th, when off Charleston, she captured the brig Granada, 
with a cargo of 400 hogsheads of sugar, melado and molasses, 
and a quantity of cedar consigned to New York. A privateer 
brig sailed from St. John's, P. R., on the 6th of September, 
after having obtained a supply of water and provisions. The 
schooner Herbert Marston, with a cargo of sugar consigned 
to New York, and valued at $30,000, on the 3d of July, was 
captured by a North Carolina privateer steamer twenty-five 
miles southeast of Hatteras, and towed into Hatteras Inlet, 
where she was anchored under a battery. The brig B. F. 
Martin, with a cargo of machinery, was captured on the 23d of 
July, 180 1, off Hatteras, and the crew taken prisoners by the pri- 
vateer York, commanded by Capt. Jeffrey. The York was a 
large pilot-boat built in Baltimore, and armed with one rifled 
cannon. In running down the coast to get to Hatteras Inlet, 
the Martin was intercepted by the U. S. ship Savannah, which 
gave chase. The brig at once sheered into shore and eluded 
capture in the shallow water. While there, the U. S. steamer 
Union came along and shelled the Martin, setting her on fire 
and destroying her cargo, valued at $25,000. The brig Hannah 
Butty, from Savannah, Ga., to some Northern port, was cap- 
tured on June 25th, laden with molasses, by the steamer Coffee. 
She was brought into Hatteras Inlet together with the schooner 
Gordon, bound for Philadelphia, laden with fruit. At this 
time the two principal ports of North Carolina. Wilmington 
and Beaufort, were not under very rigid blockade, and an ac- 
tive trade was carried on from them in naval stores, and the 



86 THE CONFEDERATE STATES NAVY. 

importation of provisions and military supplies. The trade 
was with Nassau and other British ports. 

The revenue cutter Aiken, which had been seized in 
Charleston by the authorities of South Carolina before the 
firing on Fort Sumter, was fitted out as a privateer, and 
called the Petr^el, and placed under the command of Capt, 
Wm. Perry. On July 27th the privateer schooner sailed out of 
Charleston, and stood for the U. S. frigate St. Lawrence, which 
she mistook for a merchantman, as all her ports were closed. 
When the Petrel got within range she fired three shots with- 
out doing any damage. The St. Lawrence returned with shot 
and sheila terrific fire, one shell exploding in the hull of the 
Petrel, and sinking her instantly. The boats of the frigate 
were lowered, and picked up thirty-six out of forty of the 
privateer's crew, who were taken aboard, and their feet and 
hands heavily manacled. The remaining four were drowned. 
The prisoners were afterward removed to the U. S. gunboat 
Flag, and brought to Philadelphia. They arrived in that city 
on the 6th of August, and were lodged in Moyamensing prison. 
On August 9th they were escorted from prison in two omni- 
buses, handcuffed, and had a preliminary hearing before 
IF. S. Commissioner Hazlett. On the way out to the coaches, 
a dense mob hooted the prisoners and threatened to hang them. 
In the Circuit Court of Philadelphia, on November 4th, while 
the Assistant District Attorney was urging the trial of the crew 
of the Petrel, Judge Grier said he could not consent to have 
the regular business of the court interrupted. *' It seems like 
a farce to try tliem at this time, when the country played 
civil war. The dictates of humanity would counsel the gov- 
ernment to treat captives on the sea the same as those taken 
on land, and he could not understand the policy of hanging 
the first and holding the latter as prisoners or releasing them. 
Let the rebellion be crushed — and God grant that it may be 
speedily — and these men might be tried for treason or piracy, 
and he would assist, no matter how much he might be called 
Jeffreys or Scroggs." 

The privateer schooner Beauregard was fitted out by a 
stock company in Charleston, and, on October 14th, President 
Davis commissioned her to act as a private armed vessel in 
the service of the Confederate States on the high seas. She 
was commanded by Capt. Gilbert Hays; John B. Davis, First 
Lieutenant; Joseph H. Stuart, Second Lieutenant; Archibald 
Lilly, Purser, and twenty-three seamen. Several of the officers 
and men had served on the privateer Jefferson Davis. The 
Beauregard was 101 tons burden and carried a rifled pivot gun, 
throwing a twenty-four pound projectile. 

The Beauregard sailed from Charleston on the 7th of 
November, and, when about 100 miles east-northeast of Abaco, 
she was captured early on the morning of the 12th by the U. S. 
bark W. G. Anderson. The privateer saw no vessel before her 



THE CONFEDERATE STATES NAVY. 87 

capture, and did not fire a gun after leaving port. No resistance 
was made by the Beauregard, the superiority of the armament 
of the Anderson — six thirty-two-pounders and one rifled-cannon, 
and a crew of 110 men — being so great that it would have been 
madness to measure their strength. While the Anderson was 
approaching the Beauregard, however, her crew were engaged 
in throwing over shell, shot, muskets, etc., and before the cap- 
ture most of the ammunition was destroyed, the sails and rig- 
ging cut to pieces, and pivot gun spiked. The crew, 27 in 
number, were at once placed in irons and transferred to the 
Anderso7i. A prize-crew was placed in charge of the Beaure- 
gard, and she was brought into Key West. After an exami- 
nation on board, the ofKcers and crew were taken to the shore 
and placed in the county jail, ' 

The Convention of Georgia having placed that State out- 
side of the Union, at the same time adopted a resolution 
calling upon her citizens — officers of the U. S. army and 
navy — to resign, and give their services to Georgia. In re- 
sponse to this call, Capt. Josiah Tatnall, Commander James 
D. Bulloch, Lieuts. Julian Myers, Wm. A. Wayne. C. M. 
Morris, John Kell, A. E. Armstrong, C. J. Graves, Wilburn 
B. Hall, George A. Borchert, R. F. Armstrong, and many 
other officers of distinction in the "old navy," resigned their 
commissions and tendered their services to their State. 

Among the first to accept service under Georgia was 
Lieut. Wilburn B. Hall, who had just arrived in New York in 
command of a captured slaver, which had been seized off the 
coast of Africa by the U. S. frigate Constellation, with 700 
slaves aboard. Immediately upon his arrival in the United 
States, Lieut. Hall resigned his commission and reported at 
Milledgeville for orders. Governor Brown, like his associates 
of the other sea-coast States, was at that time engaged in 
establishing a sea-coast police, to guard against attempts of 
Northern slave-dealers to carry off slaves from the coasts and 
sell them in Cuba; thus transferring their slave ti'ade from 
the African coast to that of the Southern States adjacent or 
near to Cuban waters.'^ To guard against these depredations, 
a sea-coast police was necessary. Accordingly, upon his arri- 
val at the capital of Georgia, Lieut. Hall had a conference 
with Adjut. Gen. H. C. Wayne, who directed him, on 
behalf of the State, to return to New York and purchase a 
rapid steamer for coast service. The Governor and Adjutant 
General said they had no apprehension of war, and that the 
State only wanted a rapid steamer capable of mounting two 
howitzers to overhaul vessels engaged in illicit trade, and to 
give protection to the citizens of Georgia residing along the 

1 All tlie privateersmen belonging to the vari- sel with slaves was ever captured by the United 
ous vessels were exchanged in June, 1862, at States on the coast of Africa, owned by South- 
City Point, on the James River. ern men — all of them, wth but one exception, 

having been fitted out at the North. The ex- 

2 It is a fact not generally known that no ves- ception was the Wanderen 



88 THE CONFEDERATE STATES NAVY. 

coast. It was their belief, that, thougli the situation between 
the two sections looked serious. " the whole matter would be 
accommodated, and that loar ships tuould not be needed.'^ To 
accomplish his mission, Lieut. Hall had $15,000"placedtohis 
credit, and started for New York, where he purchased the 
steamer Huntress. The vessel had run as a mail-boat between 
Boston and Portland, and was very fast, making, in smooth 
water, twenty knots with ease. She was about 500 tons, 230 
feet in length, very narrow beam, low in the water, immense 
side-wheels, and painted black. Her engines were very fine, 
and her accommodations ample, but she was old. For the 
purpose she was intended, however, the Huntress was a great 
bargain. 

Notwithstanding that Lieut. Hall was dogged day and 
night by government spies, with the aid of Engineer George W. 
Tennent, afterwards of the C. S. navy, he equipped his vessel, 
secured his crew, and about the middle of March got safely to 
sea in a great storm, at midnight, running between the U. S. 
steamers Vanderbilt and Harriet Lane, who were guarding 
the port of New York. Being forced to make some harbor 
from the equinoctial storm which was raging along the 
coast, Lieut. Hall sought refuge in Hampton Roads, and 
anchored close under the guns of Fortress Monroe. Having 
put himself in communication with friends on shore, Lieut. 
Hall soon learned that his vessel was suspected, and that her 
seizure was certain to take place on the following morning. 
He therefore resumed his voyage in the face of a fierce 
gale in the night. After being storm-driven for more than 
eight days and terribly battered, starboard wheel-house 
knocked to pieces, coal and stores almost entirely consumed, 
the Huntress arrived in a deplorable condition at Charleston. 
She entered the harbor flying the Confederate flag, and a flag 
bearing the coat-of-arms of the State of Georgia — being, it is 
believed, the first vessel to raise the Southern flag on the high 
seas. As the Huntress passed in between Fort Moultrie, fly- 
ing the Confederate flag, and Fort Sumter, flying the U. S. flag, 
with Anderson in a state of siege, she was saluted by Moul- 
trie. Lieut. Hall supplied his vessel with coal, and sailed for 
Savannah, where he reported to Capt. Tatnall. Having been 
accepted, and war having begun, the Huntress was turned 
over to the C. S. navy, and placed under the command of 
Lieut. C. M. Morris, Lieut. Hall being ordered to command 
the C. S. steamer Savannah. The Huntress served on the 
Georgia coast until the battle of Port Royal, in which she took 
an active part, when she escaped to Charleston. After the 
negro pilot Smalls stole the steamer Planter out from Charles- 
ton, the Huntress took her place as a dispatch-boat in the har- 
bor. Being very fast, the Confederate government changed 
her name to the C. S. steamer Tropic, and made her a block- 
ade-runner. After successfully eluding and parsing through 











CAPTAIN CHAKLES M. MORRIS, C. S. N., 

COMMAN-*DER OP THE " FLORIDA." 



THE CONFEDERATE STATES NAVY. 89 

the blockade ships of the enemy off Charleston, the Huntress, 
with a cargo of cotton belonging to the Confederate govern- 
ment, was burned at sea by accident. 

The Everglade, or Savannah, to which Lieut. Hall was 
ordered from the Huntress, was a small side- wheel steamer, 
purchased by the State of Georgia for $34,000. She was changed 
into a gunboat, for the purpose of cruising as a coast-guard 
at the mouth of the Savannah River. Her officers, as first 
appointed, were as follows : Commander. J. Mcintosh Kell ; 
Midshipmen, R. F. Armstrong, S. N. Hooper, J. A. Merri- 
weather; Chief Engineer, Joshua Smith; Assistant Engineer, 
ISTorval Meeker ; Clerk, William J. Bennett. The Everglade 
had her name changed to the Savannah. At the attack on 
Port Royal by the Union forces she figured as the flag-ship of 
Commodore Tatnall. 

The steamer Nina, mounting one gun, was used along 
the coast of South Carolina as a gunboat. The brig Bonita. 
built in New York in 1853, was 276 tons burden, and a fast 
sailer. She was formerly engaged in the slave trade, but wns 
captured on the coast of Africa, taken to Charleston, and af- 
terwards to Savannah, where she was seized by order of Gov. 
Brown and converted into a privateer. The Leivis Cass was 
a clipper-built topsail schooner, of 100 tons burden, and 
was in the U. S. revenue service when she was seized at 
Savannah. She was converted into a privateer, armed with 
one long sixty-eight-pounder taken from the Pensacola navy- 
yard. Her crew numbered forty men and officers. 

The privateer schooner Judith was of 250 tons, and car- 
ried four broadside guns and one pivot gun amidships. She 
was destroyed at the Pensacola navy-yard by the Union 
forces, who boarded her, spiked her guns, and then fired her. 

On the 4th of May, the Georgia privateer schooner Five 
Brothers, Capt. Wm. Barquedo, with a crew of eighteen men, 
in Cumberland Sound, seized the brig Elisha Doane. of Boston, 
loaded with lumber. The Doane was detained by a prize- 
crew for eight days, and then released by order of Gov. 
Brown. 

Soon after the secession of Louisiana, Capt. Lawrence 
Rosseau, a true son of that State, who had entered the U. S. 
navy on the 16th of January, 1809, and who had been in its 
service for many years, resigned his commission and accepted 
rank under his native State. Gov. Moore appointed him com- 
mander of the Louisiana navy, with headquarters at New Or- 
leans. When the delegates at Montgomery formed a Provis- 
ional Government, Captain Rosseau was one of the first to re- 
port for duty under the new Confederacy. In February, 
Capts. Rosseau, Ingraham and Randolph, with other naval 
officers, were before the Naval Committee at the Confederate 
capital, and assisted in devising means for the establishment of 
a navy. Soon after the organization of the Navy Department^ 



90 THE CONFEDERATE STATES NAVY. 

Capt. Rosseau was ordered to New Orleans, where he aided 
in sending out a number of privateers to cruise against tlie 
commerce of the enemy, and had the high honor of equip- 
ping and sending to sea the first Confederate man-of-war — the 
Sumter. Early in March, 1861, he was ordered to purchase 
for the Confederate Government the steamship Habana. af- 
terwards named the Sumter, in honor of the victory over Fort 
Sumter, and fit lier out as a cruiser. On the 26th of the same 
month he entered the naval service of the Confederate States. 

Immediately upon the receipt of the news in New Orleans 
that President Davis had invited privateers to prey upon the 
enemy's commerce, several stock companies were organized 
and several hundred thousand dollars were subscribed in a few 
hours for the purpose of fitting out vessels. About the 14th 
of May, the privateer steamer Calhoun, of 1,058 tons burden, 
under the command of Capt. J. Wilson, with a crew of 100 
men and several pieces of cannon, hastened out of New 
Orleans to the Balize on her cruise in the Gulf. She soon cap- 
tured the bark Ocean Eagle, from Portland, Me., with a cargo 
of 3,147 casks of lime, valued at $34,000. Having put a prize- 
crew on board, and towing the vessel into the Mississippi, the 
Calhoun resumed her voyage. The Calhoiin also captured the 
ship Milan, with 1,500 bags of salt, valued at $20,000, and the 
schooner Ella, from Tampico, with a cargo of fruit, valued at 
$5,000. 

The Calhoun was afterwards engaged in blockade-run- 
ning, and while on her way from Havana to New Orleans 
with a large and valuable cargo of military stores, valued at 
$300,000, was chased by a Federal cruiser and abandoned. 
Capt. Wilson, who commanded the Calhoun, was formerly the 
captain of tlie brig Minnie Schiffer, the vessel that rescued 
the passengers of the ill-fated steamer Connaught. 

The steamer Wm. H. Webb, immediately upon the break- 
ing out of the war, was converted into a gunboat and pri- 
vateer. She steamed out of New Orleans in May, and on the 
24th captured, about ninety miles from the Passes, three Mas- 
sachusetts whalers, the brig Panama, and scliooners John 
Adams and Mermaid. The prizes reached New Orleans on 
the 27th, and had on board 215 barrels of whale and sperm oil. 

The privateer steamer V. H. Ivey. of about 200 tons, armed 
with two thirty-two pound rifled guns, in May steamed out of 
New Orleans and captured the ship Marathon, from Marseilles, 
in ballast, valued at $35,000; ship Albino, from Boston, with a 
■cargo of ice, valued at $25,000. 

The privateer steamer Music captured during the same 
time a splendid new ship — the Marshall, from Havre, in bal- 
last, valued at $50,000, and the ship John H. Jarvis, from 
Liverpool, in ballast, valued at $20,000. The schooner Vigi- 
lante, with a cargo of provisions, was captured on July 21st, 
in Jourdan River, by Lieuts. J.V. Touloneand J. Colly, with a 



THE CONFEDERATE STATES NAVY. 91 

detachment of the Shieldsboro' Rifles. All of these vessels 
were condemned and sold in New Orleans by C. B. Beverly, 
the Confederate States Marshal. ' 

On April 18th, 1863, Congress passed "an act to establish a 
volunteer navy " According to the provisions of this act, any 
person or persons who produced to President Davis satis- 
factory evidence as to character, competency and means, were 
to be, under certain regulations, commissioned by the Con- 
federate government, as regular officers of the volunteer 
navy, to procure and fit out vessels of over 100 tons burden 
for cruising against the enemy. Such officers were to be 
" worthy to command," and such vessels were to be "fit for 
the service," and they were to be '"'received into the volunteer 
navy," "to serve during the war,'* and *' subject to all the laws, 
rules and regulations of the regular navy, except as otherwise 
provided for." The grades of rank were fixed in the act from 
commander down, and pay was provided, which, however, 
was small, the compensation being prizes (ninety per cent, of 
Avhich went to the captors, and ten per cent, to the wounded 
and widows and orphans of those slain), and a bonus of twenty- 
five per cent, for every armed vessel, or military and naval 
transport of the enemy, burnt, sunk or destroyed, and twenty- 
five dollars for every prisoner captured and brought in from 
isuch vessels. 

The passage of this act, it was thought, would add con- 
siderably to the navy of the Confederacy, that was doing so 
much on the high seas for the South. Immediately after the 
passage of the Act of Congress, " the Virginia Volunteer 
Navy Company " was organized, and over a million and a half 
dollars was subscribed for stock. The subscribers were men 
of capital and influence, who saw in the measure a means of 
most seriously damaging the enemy, as well as handsomely 
rewarding those who embarked in it. 

The company was chartered by the Legislature of Vir- 
ginia on October 13th, 18G3, with the following incorporators: 

1 The New York Herald of June 2cl, 1861, says: bakks. 

-On the 26th of last month there were under ^^^g_ Master. HaU From 

seizure, or as prizes m the port of New Orleans, 

the f oUowlng vessels : Chester Bearse Boston. 

gjjjpg Ocean Eagle Luce Thomaston. 

Name. Master. Hail From schooners. 

Abffillino Smith Boston. E.S.Janes Townsend.. . 

Ariel Delano Bath, Me. Henry Travers Wyatt Baltimore. 

American Union. Lincoln .... Bath, Me. Ella Howes Philadelphia. 

O. A. Farwell Earwell Rockland. 

Express Frost Portsmouth, N.H. " Of the above vessels some doubt attaches to 

Enoch Train 1 _ Burwell Boston *^*^ seizure of the Enoch Train and Wilbur Fisk; 

(probably) ) "■ • t,ut the probabilities are that they have been 

AfoT^ti'^f^^ ^'i'^ ?T°®H?' , confiscated. The seizures made by the Confed- 

Marathon Tyler New York. ± x x,, , ^^ ^ a. x,. 

Marshall ... Sprague Providence ^'^^^^^ "P *° ^^^^ ^^^ accounts may be thus 

Milian Eustis Bath. Me. enumerated : 

Robert Harding. Ingraham . . Boston. Off the different ports 12 

State of Maine.. Humphrey.. Portland. In port 30 

W-lb°'^ f'W Upshur New York. Steamers captured on the 'Mississippi. .'!'."! 15 

<probIblyl j ..Pousland... Boston. ^^^^^ - 



U'i THE CONFEDERATE STATES NAVY. 

Samuel J. Harrison, Baker and Baskerville, Dunlap, Moncure 
& Co., Joseph R. Anderson & Co., J. L. Apperson, R. H. 
Maury & Co.. W. F. Watson, J. P. George, John Robin Mc- 
Daniel, R. M. Crenshaw, Thomas Branch, D. B. Dug-ger, 
Thomas R. Price & Co., Matthew Bridges, William B. Jones 
& Co., William B. Isaacs, Boiling W. Haxall, and such other 
persons as were tlien or afterward associated with them. The 
capital of the company was not to be less than $1,000,000, nor 
more than $10,000,000. The officers were Samuel J. Harrison, 
President; Robert Archer, J. L. Apperson, Thomas W. Mc- 
Cance and J. R. McDaniel, Directors. 

Owing to the unfavorable turn of affairs in the South and 
the blockade of Southern ports, the company did not embark 
in privateering. 

"The Old Dominion Trading Company" of the city of 
Richmond, which was chartered by the Legislature of Virginia 
on October 3d, 18G3, with a capital of not less than $100,000, 
and not to exceed $2,000,000, in shares of $500 each, did a con- 
siderable business in blockade -running. The incorporators 
were : A. Morris, P. C. Williams, Wm. G. Payne, D. O. Hufford 
and E. D. Keeling. 

The privateers of the Confederacy carried on their de- 
struction of U. S. commerce for many months with consider- 
able immunity. There was no limit to their boldness or scope 
to their operations. By August 1, 1861, three privateer steam- 
ers were reported in latitude 7 deg. 47 min. North, longitude 
22 deg. 48 min. West. The British mail -steamer Tyne, on 
August 17th, reported seeing a privateer steamer between Rio 
Janeiro and Pernambuco. A letter from the Island of St. 
Thomas, dated Aug. oth, said that several privateers had been 
seen in the neighborhood, and two of them, well armed and 
equipped, refitted and provisioned at St. John's, in the island 
of Porto Rico. The Liverpool underwriters, as early as June, 
had permitted the pith of President Davis' rules for priva- 
teers to be posted in their rooms, and an American siiip— the 
first— on May 23d, hoisted the Confederate flag in the Prince's 
dock. The operations of the privateers upon commerce put 
up insurance premiums so high upon all freights taken in 
American vessels as to cause many U. S. merchants to turn 
their vessels over to English owners, who sailed them under 
the English flag. 

Notwithstanding all the naval preparations made by the 
U. S. government from the beginning of the war to August, 
1861, only two small privateers had been captured or destroyed, 
the Savannah and the Petrel; only two of their prizes had 
been retaken by government vessels, and two by the crews. 
The little privateers, on the other hand, had captured within 
the same length of time nearly sixty Federal vessels. How 
many had been captured of which we have no account, it is 
impossible to say. Several privateers, whose names are now 



THE CONFEDERATE STATES NAVY. 93 

unknown, and of which we have no record, were undoubtedly 
afloat along the coast or in mid-ocean, or near the shores of 
countries where the American foreign trade was chiefly car- 
ried on. Many prizes, no doubt, were burnt or sunk, as in the 
case of some of those taken in the early part of the war by 
the Sumter; and it is doubtful if we shall ever hear of them. 
" We are satisfied," says the New York Herald of Aug. 10th, 
1861, "that already $30,000,000 worth of property has been 
lost in various ways through the operations of these highwa}^- 
men of the seas, increasing daily in numbers, and becoming 
more and more daring from impunity. The worst effect, is 
not the loss of the vessels and their cargoes, but the destruc- 
tion of our trade. Our commerce with the West Indies was 
immense before the pirates commenced their depredations. 
Now no Northern vessel will get a charter or can be insured 
for any reasonable premium. English bottoms are taking all 
our trade. When the Great Eastern was here, she could have 
been filled with cargo, if her draft of water were not so great. 
Thus our shipping interest is literally ruined. " 



CHAPTER V. 
VIRGINIA WATERS 



THE secession of Virginia from the Union, following imme- 
diately after the assault upon Sumter, dispelled all hope 
at Washington that Virginia would not ally herself with 
the Confederate States. It was accepted, and possibly 
intended, as a virtual declaration that, in any collision between 
the Federal and Confederate forces, Virginia would arraign 
herself on the side of the latter. It was regarded at Washington 
as a hostile act, and the waters of the State as having been 
opened to invasion whenever the government should deem it 
proper to send a force to occupy the rivers, bays and harbors of 
the State. In the same light it was accepted at Richmond, and 
Gen. Lee, in reporting to Governor Letcher, June IStli, 1861, 
the state of military and naval preparations to that date, says: 

" Arrangements were first made for the establishment of batteries to 
prevent the ascent of our rivers by hostile vessels. As soon as an exam- 
ination was made foi- the selection of sites, their construction was begun, 
and their armament and defence committed to the Virginia navy." 

Among the very first of those arrangements, Gen. Lee 
dispatched Capt. Wm. F. Lynch of the State navy to examine 
the defensible points on the Potomac, and to take measures 
for the establishment of batteries to prevent the vessels of the 
enemy from navigating that river. In the discharge of that 
duty, sites for batteries along that river were immediately 
selected, and arrangements made for their speedy erection. 
But the entire command of the river being in the possession 
of the U. S. government, a larger force was required for the 
protection of the batteries than could be spared at that early 
day from the field of active operations. 

Alexandria, Va., the practical head of navigation so far 
as Virginia was concerned, was occupied immediately by a 
small force of State troops under Lieut. Col. A. S. Taylor, but 
their exposed position was soon found to be untenable, and the 
city was evacuated on May 5th, 1861, Col. Taylor's force falling 

(94) 



THE CONFEDERATE STATES NAVY. 95 

back eight miles to Springfield, on the Orange & Alexandria 
Railroad. That force consisted of only two companies of raw 
recruits, numbering 150 privates, armed with flint muskets 
of 1818, without cartridges; the Mt. Vernon Guard, 80 privates, 
armed with new muskets, 52 men without accoutrements, and 
15 without arms, and all with very little ammunition. ' Such 
a force was useless for defence, and only provocative of attack. 
The retention of the command and navigation of the Potomac 
was even more indispensable to the Federal authorities for the 
maintenance of their capital than to the Confederates for de- 
fence, and, therefore, the Pawnee, Commander S. C. Rowan, 
carrying a battery of fifteen guns, was put in commission as 
soon as Virginia seceded, and under the protection of her guns 
the first Zouave regiment of New York Volunteers, under Col. 
Ellsworth, occupied Alexandria on May 34th. The removal of 
the fiag from the staff on the Marshall House was avenged by 
Mr. Jackson, the owner, who sacrificed his life in taking that 
of Col, Ellsworth. Among all the acts of personal bravery 
during the war, not one exceeds in heroism that total indiffer- 
ence to personal safety v/liich inspired the noble Jackson to 
brave in his single person a whole regiment of the enemy. 
The uselessness of the act may detract from its wisdom, but 
cannot lessen its heroism. The authorities at Washington had 
on April 23d the U. S. steamers Anacostia and Pocahontas, the 
latter a vessel of some 1,800 tons, at the navy-yard, to keep 
the navigation of the Potomac open. 

On April 24th, Major Thos. H. Williamson of the Engi- 
neers, and Lieut. H. H. Lewis of the Virginia navy, by order of 
Gen. Ruggles, examined together the ground at Aquia Creek, 
and selected Split Rock Bluff as the best point for a battery, 
as the channel there could be commanded from that point by 
guns of sufficient calibre. Cream Point, on the other side of 
the creek, was not defensible with the small force then under 
Gen. Ruggles, and hence was not fortified. '^ The Aquia Creek 
landing and the protection of the steamer George Page, which 
had been seized, were regarded as of secondary importance, 
except in the moral infiuence upon the neighborhood. The 
position at Aquia was difficult to defend, since it was easily 
turned by way of Potomac Creek, and exposed to disaster from 
an attack in the rear. But it would serve the purpose of draw- 
ing the attention of the enemy from Freestone and Mathias 
Points, which would control the navigation of the river, and 
which, w^hen occupied, would render the battery at Aquia 
Creek of little importance. ^ To this end, Capt. Wm. F. Lynch, 
Commander Robert D. Thorburn and Lieuts. H. H. Lewis and 
John Wilkinson, of the State navy, erected at Aquia a battery 
of thirteen guns, about May 14th, to protect the terminus of the 

1 Official Records, Series 1, Vol. II , p. 27.— Re- April 24th, 1861, Off. Rec, Series 1, Vol. H., p. 779. 
port of Col. Taylor. .. jj^^^^.^ ^^ ^^^^^ Buggies, May 6tli. Off. Rec. 

2 Report of Major Williamson and Lieiit.Lewis, Vol. II, p. 810. 



96 THE CONFEDERATE STATES NAVY. 

railroad to Richmond. While serving to protect the railroad, 
that battery was also a threat to close the navigation of the 
Potomac, and was so considered at Washington. U. S. naval 
authorities immediately organized the Potomac flotrlla,consist- 
ing of the Freehorn, carrying three guns, the Anacostia, of two 
guns, and the Resolute, of two guns; the whole commanded by 
Commander James H. Ward. The Aquia Creek battery was 
commanded by Capt. Wm. F. Lynch and other officers of the 
Virginia but afterwards of the Confederate navy. 

On April 29th, Lieuts. Wm. L. Maury and Wm. Taylor 
Smith, of the State navy, having ascertained reliably the num- 
ber of Federal troops in Washington City to be very largely in 
excess of that holding the Confederate lines on the Potomac, 
advised Gen. Ruggles against erecting a battery above Aquia 
Creek, and that the two eight-inch guns, ammunition, etc., 
then in Alexandria, be removed to some point of greater se- 
curity; which was immediately done, and not too soon, as the 
enemy occupied Alexandria on May 24th. Capt. Lynch, on 
May Gth, diverted the guns, first intended for Mathias Point, to 
Aquia Creek, to protect the approaches to Fredericksburg from 
the Potomac, and the guns were placed in position by Com- 
mander Thorburn, and the necessary preparation of defence 
actively undertaken and completed within forty-eight hours. 
The difficulty of enrolling men for any naval service, even in 
shore batteries, by naval officers, w^as experienced at that early 
day. and for that reason Gen. Ruggles was compelled to man 
the batteries with companies of volunteers, as well as to detail 
infantry to work in erecting the batteries for the heavy guns. 

On May 31st and June 1st, 1861, the first battle of the war 
between the navy of the United States and batteries of the Con- 
federate States was fought. On the first day, the U. S. steam- 
ers opened their fire on the battery, and fired fourteen shot 
and shell, slightly wounding one man in the hand, but doing 
no other damage, and not b}^ any means justifying the remark 
of Admiral Porter that, " the batteries were silenced altogether 
in two hours, and the secessionists driven to their earthworks 
on hills overlooking the landing." Nothing of that kind oc- 
curred. On June 1st, about 10 A. M., the U. S. Potomac flotilla 
renewed their attack upon the battery, and after throwing 397 
shot and shell retired, having hurt no one in the battery and 
doing no injury to the works. ' 

The report of Capt. W. F. Lynch, then of the Virginia 
navy, dated June 2d, 1861, to Capt. Samuel Barron, Virginia 
navy, in charge of Naval Detail and Equipment, shows that- 

"On Friday, at 10:30 P. M., two out of three steamers abreast of the 
battery opened fire upon us, and continued the cannonade for three 
hours, when they withdrew. The largest steamer very much resembled the 
Crusader. As they kept at long shot, mostly beyond our range, I economized 
ammunition, and only fired flfty-six times. One of the steamers had a rifled 

1 OfficioX Records, Keport of Gen. Buggies, 1st Series, Vol. II., pp. 55 and 57. 




COMMANDER MATTHEW F. MAURY, 

CONFEDERATE STATES NAVY. 



THE CONFEDERATE STATES NAVY. ' 97 

gun, the shell from which penetrated through the sand bank, and one of 
them exploded in and completely demolished the room occupied by the 
officers and myself. Upon our part no one was injured; but lookers-on 
from the hills and opposite shores state that the enemy was repeatedly 
struck. 

"Yesterday, the steamers which had laid off during the night were 
reinforced by the Pawnee, and at 11:30 A. M. they commenced a brisk 
cannonade, which continued Avith little interruption until about 4:30 P. M., 
during which the Pawnee fired 393 shot and shell, and the other steamer 
207, the greater portion of the latter being rifled shells. 

" Our sand banks not being en barbette, we could only fire as the 
enemy came within range through the embrasures. This, added to the 
long distance at which he kept, and the necessity of occasionally repair- 
ing damages to the breastwork, combined with my desire to save ammu- 
nition, constrained me to withhold fire, excejit when something like a fair 
shot presented. The houses in the rear were very much knocked about, 
and the railroad track torn up in three or four places; but, thanks to a 
kind Providence, who seems to smile benignly on our cause, no one with 
us was injured. 

"As the enemy had on Friday made the buildings at the extremity of 
the wharf his line of sight upon the battery, I had all the furniture, etc., 
together with the weather-boarding, conveyed to the rear of the battery, 
and in the course of the forenoon set fire to and blew up the platform 
and outer end of the bridge. 

"I have spoken of Commander Thorburn's zeal in the first engage- 
ment, and cannot too highly applaud the spirit and alacrity, tempered 
by deference to orders, of Commander Cooke and Lieut. Trobel. With 
the exception of Gunner's Mate Cunningham and Master's Mate Larmour, 
whose services were of inestimable value, our guns' crews consisted of only 
volunteer militia, who stood their ground bravely. 

" We had yesterday, in addition to our guns, a small rifled one from 
Capt. Walker's battery, under the immediate command of Lieut. Robert- 
son, of Tennessee, which rendered efficient service. 

"In connection with the transportation of the Columbiads to the 
summit of a lofty hill, I cannot speak in too highly commendable terms 
of the zeal and untiring energy of Lieut. Chas. C. Simms." 

The result, or rather want of result, of the cannonade of 
the earth battery at Aquia Creek by the Federal gunboats, 
attracted the immediate attention of Gen. Lee, and on June 
10th he wrote to Gen. Holmes, commander at Fredericks- 
burg: 

" It is probable, that realizing the inutility of cannonading the bat- 
teries at Aquia Creek with smooth-bore guns, the naval force of the 
United States will hereafter employ rifled cannon of large calibre at long 
range. It is therefore advisable that the batteries should be rendered as 
secure as possible by the application of some such means as were so suc- 
cessfully employed at Charleston. Railroad iron, laid at an angle of about 
forty-five degrees with the horizon, on the exterior slope, the upper 
ends projecting above the exterior crest, would pi'obably answer the 
purpose." 

In that first battle, the accurate firing of the battery 
under Capt. Lynch, C. S. navy, was attested by the damage done 
to the flotilla — the Freeborn being obliged to return to Wash- 
ington for repairs. The U. S. Potomac flotilla had been in- 
creased by the Paivnee, Commander Rowan, and, though a 
number of the shots from the battery struck the hulls of the 



98 THE CONFEDERATE STATES NAVY. 

vessels, there was no irreparable damage, ^ The Federal news- 
paper accounts of this "opening of the ball " were extravagant 
in expression, and far beyond the facts of the fight; "the ob- 
server, through a telescope," who "saw a number of the bodies 
of them carried away in wagons," was himself carried away 
in imagination. One finger was the total loss sustained in 
the battery. Nor was the official report of Commander Ward, 
May 31st, 18G2, more accurate in his conjectures of damage 
inflicted by the battery of his flotilla, while his commenda- 
tion of the working of the gun-carriage of his own invention 
was not wholly without a business look. The report of Com- 
mander Ward, of June 1st, is not without its testimony in behalf 
of Capt. Lynch and the other Confederate naval officers who 
commanded the Aquia Creek batteries. He reported that : 

" Several shots eaine on board of us, cansine: the vessel to leak badly, 
and, besides other injuries, ehpping the port wheel, the vrrought-iron 
shaft being gouged by a shot whicli would have shattered it if of cast 
iron. * * * J proceeded to Washington to repair damages and refill 
my exhavisted magazine. The Pawnee remains meantime below to supply 
my place in the blockade. Capt. Rowan of that ship joined me last night, 
replenishing my exhausted stores, and most gallantly opened fire this 
morning, having followed my lead in shore towards the batteries. His 
ship received numerous wounds, both below and aloft, inflicted by the 
enemy's shot. On account of her size, she being more easily hit, she ap- 
peared to be their favorite mark, and was herself often a sheet of flame, 
owing to the rapidity of her repeated charges." 

Major Thomas H, Williamson. Chief Engineer of the State 
of Virginia, as early as May -ith recommended the establish- 
ment of a battery at Mathias Point, on the Potomac, where a 
bluff-headland, twenty feet above the water, commanded the 
channel at a distance of about three-quarters of a mile, 
for more than a mile of sailing. Capt. Lynch, C. S. navy, 
was also consulted, and, upon the recommendation of these 
officers, a battery of ten heavy guns was constructed. But, 
before the battery was commenced, a small party of the enemy, 
on June 24:th, landed at Mathias Point, and burned the house 
of Dr. Howe; and two days after, on June 2Gth. Commander 
Ward, of the U. S. Potomac flotilla, dispatched Lieut. Chaplin 
with a party from the EesohUe. protected by the Reliance, and 
provided with implements for holding the Point and erecting 
a battery. About 1 P. M. the Confederate pickets reported that 
the enemy had landed, and that, under the heavy fire of shell 
and shot from the enemy's steamers, they had been compelled 
to retire. A vigorous attack was immediately made by the 
Confederate troops under Col. R. M. Mayo, and the enemy 
were driven to their boats and vessels, having sustained very 
heavy loss. Capt. Ward, commander of the Potomac flotilla, 
was killed and many wounded. Col. Mayo reported the "abso- 
lute necessity " for a battery of heavy artillery at the Point, 

1 Porter's Hist., p. 41. 



THE CONFEDERATE STATES NAVY. 99 

and the battery was erected, which, in conjunction with that 
erected soon afterwards at Evansport, completed the blockade 
of the Potomac. 

In August the Confederate authorities determined to erect 
the batteries at Evansport, near the mouth of Quantico Creek, 
which had been recommended by Capt. Lynch on June -ith. 
Brig. Gen. French, with a portion of the command of Gen. 
Holmes, was ordered to erect the batteries under the direction 
of Commander Frederick Chatard of the C. S. navy, assisted 
by Commander H. J. Hartstene and Lieut. Charles W. Read, ' 
all of the navy. The place selected for tlieir erection was ad- 
mirably suited for offence and defence. The construction of 
the batteries was an exceedingly difficult undertaking, and 
had to be carried on with the greatest secrecy and caution, 
for the river was most rigidly patroled by the Federal gun- 
boats night and day, while larger vessels and transports were 
passing up and down at all hours. It seemed almost impos- 
sible under such circumstances that four powerful batteries, 
mounting in all about twenty heavy guns, could be constructed 
without interruption at the very river's edge ; yet it was ac- 
complished. A stinted growth of pines skirting the edge of 
the Potomac Bluff formed the screen behind which the work 
was performed. Two of the batteries were nearly completed 
and fully manned when discovered on the morning of October 
15th, 1861. Their armament consisted of nine-inch Dahlgrens, 
forty-two-pounder navy guns, two rifled thirty-two-pounders, 
and an Armstrong gun. which carried a ball of 135 pounds' 
weight. It was received from England by way of Bermuda, and 
brought in by the blockaders. The Potomac there being but a 
mile and a half wide, with a channel close to the Virginia 
shore, was completely commanded by the guns of the Con- 
federate batteries. Before the batteries were established the 
bosom of the broad river was whitened with the sails of trans- 
port fleets, and its waves were plowed by rapid war 
steamers continually passing between Washington and the 
sea. After the establishment of the batteries nothing was to 
be seen but the dark and swelling river, and occasionally a 
small schooner stealing furtively along the Maryland shore. 
On these insignificant crafts our gunners did not care to waste . 
their ammunition. Sometimes, in the darkness of night, a 
steamer managed to slip past; but for all practical purposes 
the river was closed against the enemy. 

The first shot that notified Capt. Chatard that his batteries 
were discovered came from the sloop-of-war Pocahontas as 
she was passing down the river. The garrisons had been in 
the fortifications but a few days, and the troops in Battery 
No. 3, at Freestone Point, preparatory to unmasking their 
position, had been ordered to cut the small pines in front of 
them on one side, so that each one of them afterward could be 
easily leveled by a single blow of an axe. A storm of wind 



100 THE CONFEDERATE STATES NAVY. 

coming on at night blew some of the pines down, so that when 
the Pocahontas came by early in the morning the battery and 
the men at work were discovered through the openings. She 
promptly notified the Confederates of the discovery by a shell 
which struck the battery square in the centre of the rampart, 
pushing its way clean through to the woodwork inside, but 
injured no one. The Pocahontas fired but the single shot and 
passed on. About a mile astern, and following in her wake, 
the Seminole was steaming majestically down the river. Orders 
were instantly given in the battery to prepare for action. All 
concealment was now thrown off. A party of men with axes 
soon leveled the thin green pines in front, and the details, hur- 
riedly told off, sprang with alacrity to the guns, which were 
quickly loaded with shot and shell. Promptly they opened on 
her, shot after shot followed in quick succession, and the 
Seminole, without hastening her speed, gallantly replied to 
every shot, and poured her broadsides into, the batteries in 
quick succession. 

A letter from the U. S. steam-sloop Seminole, published in 
the Philadelphia Bulletin, and dated Oct. 10th, shows the accu- 
racy of firing attained by the batteries under the instruction 
and drill of the Confederate naval officers. The Seminole was 
going from Washington to Old Point, and passing Evansport 
batteries encountered their fire: 

" They sent us at least thirty rifled balls and shells, all splendidly 
aimed, their guns being evidently well manned. Some of their shot and 
shell went over us, about eight or nitie feet clear of the deck, and only a 
few feet above my head. These fell or burst from twenty to forty rods 
beyond on our port side. Some burst just outside, before reaching us, 
and some just over our heads. Fragments of shell flew about the deck, 
and splinters in thousands. 

'* We roere struck eleven times. One ball cut away the main stays, 
scattering bits of iron chain down on the deck. One shot cut through and 
shivered the mizzen mast. Several banged clear through the ship, in at 
one side and out at the other. One rifled ball came through in that way, 
struck and carried away the brass hand-rail guard around the engine 
hatch, and went out through the opposite side of the ship. This ball 
went within five feet of me, and sent a piece of brass, bent double like a 
boomerang, whizzing over my head. How the balls do hiss, and the shells 
sing aloud— a perfectly distinct, fascinating, locust-like song ; but grow- 
ing louder and faster as they come nearer, plunging, hissing and bursting 
through the air t * * * 

" The fight was a severe one, and without knowing what the other 
side suffered, I do know that the Seminole suffered severely." 

Early on the morning following the firing on the Seminole, 
the Pawnee, in passing the batteries, received seven shots. 
One of them, a thirty-two-pounder, struck amidships, about 
eighteen inches above the water-line. A second took effect 
on the starboard quarter, passing through the dingy, and made 
its appearance in the ward -room, but was prevented from 
entering by striking on the plank shear. ' A third struck the 
bluff of the starboard bow, while a fourth struck the vessel in 



THE CONFEDERATE STATES NAVY. 101 

the waist, passing from one side through to the other, cutting 
a hammock in two in its course. The splinters flew around in 
all directions, but she was not seriously damaged, and nobody 
was hit. 

It was supposed that the Confederates were making ar- 
rangements for some offensive demonstration from the vicinity 
of Aquia Creek for crossing into Maryland, and shortly after 
the batteries were unmasked a division of troops was de- 
tached from the Army of the Potomac and sent to southern 
Maryland, and General Hooker given the command. The 
line stretched along the river from Port Tobacco, opposite 
Aquia Creek, to within about twenty miles of Washington. 
The troops were encamped well back from the river, but the 
bank was closely picketed by batteries and sentries day and 
night. 

Before the arrival of Hooker's troops, a small steamer — the 
George Page — which the Confederates had captured during 
the early part of their occupation, and which had been armed 
and newly christened the C. S. steamer City of Richmond, 
ran out of Aquia Creek late in October during a storm, un- 
der the darkness and fog, and came up the river anchored in- 
side of Quantico Creek. On October 24th she came out in the 
Potomac and crossed over to the Maryland side and shelled 
the camp of Gen. Sickles' Excelsior brigade, necessitating the 
changing of their position to a more distant location and out of 
the reach of the Pages guns. The Page gave great annoya.nce 
to the enemy and kept up the apprehension of a Confederate 
landing in Maryland. Capt. Parks, of the U. S. tug Murray, 
reported in Washington, October 23d, that the steamer was 
seen crossing to Maryland at Budd's Ferry between Evans- 
port and Shipping Point, that she was protected by the Confed- 
erate batteries "which have recently thrown balls from their 
rifled guns across the river (which was a mile and a half wide), 
and to a distance of two miles into Maryland." At the time 
the George Page was playing about the river, under the pro- 
tection of the Confederate batteries, a Northern correspondent 
said : 

" The United States squadron off Indian Head consists of the follow- 
ing vessels: Yankee (flaejship), Commander Craven; Pocahontas, Com- 
mander Wyman; Seminole^ Commander Gillis ; Penguin, Commander 
; U7iion, Lieut. Com. Harrell; Valley City, Lieut. Commanding- 
Chaplin ; Jacob Bell, Lieut. Commanding McCrea ; Island Bell, Mas- 
ter Commanding Harris; Rescue, , commanding; Herbert, ; 

Murray, Midshipman Commanding McGlensey ; Reliance, Master 
Commanding Hannum ; Resolute, Master Commanding Foster, and 
Satellite. Thus our squadron consists of various descriptions of ves- 
sels, from the smart and powerful sloop-of-war Pocahontas to those 
tiny twin sisters, Resolute and Reliance, each mounting one brass twenty- 
four, and are probably the smallest men-of-war in the world. Beside 
these there are six large launches, each armed with either a twenty-four 
howitzer, or a rifled cannon of the same calibre. In naming the foregoing 
vessels, I have by no means exhausted the catalogue. There are a number 



102 THE CONFEDERATE STATES NAVY. 

of gunboats further down the river guarding the entrance to Aquia 
Creek, and keeping a sharp look-out on Mathias Point and other suspi- 
cious places. Among tliese is the Freeborn, whicli, under the command 
of the late gallant Commander Wai'd, was of so much service in keeping 
the navigation of the river clear during the earlier period of the present 
struggle." 

And the New York Herald, October 25th, taunted the Navy 
Department at Washington with insufficiency because, 

" In the interval, on the Lower Potomac River, between the principal 
batteries of the rebels, the rebel steamer George Page, poking her nose 
out of Aquia Creek, has suddenly made her appearance, and has been 
complimenting the Sickles brigade on the Maryland shore with a few speci- 
men shells. Next we shall probably hear of another mosquito fleet, and 
of the capture of some of our river transports, unless we put an end, and 
that very soon, to this rebel blockade of the Potomac. Rome, we know, 
was not built in a day; but these rebel batteries, built in a night, ought 
not to require more than one day's work to silence them. But let us wait 
with patience, for good news, we think, is close at hand." 

On November 14th, Gen. Hooker, in reporting the burning 
of a schooner off Mattawoman Creek by a party of rebels from 
Cockpit Point, says that " it was executed with an air of true 
heroism"'; and later, November 27th, the newspapers said: 

"Last night, the Harriet Lane, and the other vessels of the flotilla off 
Indian Head, had their cables ready for slipping at a moment's notice, 
had the rebel steamer George Page made her appearance out of Quantico 
Creek, but as she did not quit her retreat she gained another lease of ex- 
istence. Apropos of the Page, Dr Russell's remarks in the London Times 
about her and her supposed achievements and capabilities ai"e pure in- 
vention. She has never landed any troops in Maryland; only one attempt 
was made to do so, on the day she came out of Aquia Creek, but the sight 
of a single Union soldier caused her to turn back and run into Quantico 
Creek, whence she never dared to stir till Friday night, when she at- 
tempted to captui'e the store-ship Wyandunk, but the opportune appear- 
ance of the Hale, with her formidable batteries, once more drove her back 
like a rat to its hole. The rebels are capricious in their attentions to pass- 
ing vessels. Sometimes they will let several pass without a shot, but 
open fire on the last. It would appear from this, that when they open on 
an unarmed vessel it is merely for target practice. Last night and to- 
day several schooners passed unmolested. Perhaps they are short of 
ammunition.'" 

On the morning of January 2d, 18G2, an experiment was 
tried by the enemy to reduce the Confederate battery at 
Cockpit Point. The correspondent of the New York iferaZd, 
on board the U. S. steamer Stepping Stones, said : 

" At ten o'clock the Anaeostia approached the battery, and took up a 
position somewhat above and opposite the Mattawoman Creek. She 
threw in a number of shells, several ot' which were seen to explode in the 
rebel battery. The Yankee then got underway and stood for the bat- 
tery, ranging herself right opposite. She commenced by firing two shells 
from her bow gun, a sixty-four-pounder, and afterwards continued to 
pour in her fire on the enemy from her after guns, consisting of a thirty- 
two-pounder and twenty-four brass howitzer, and a twelve-pounder 
Ijrass rifled cannon. The enemy replied to the Yankee, for the Anaeostia 
was so placed that the batteries could not hit her, throwing four shots, 



THE CONFEDERATE STATES NAVY. 103 

the second of which struck the Yankee, entering the forecastle on the 
port side, her head being up the river, and knocking away a knee entirely; 
passing to the starboard side, the shot smashed another knee and drop- 
ped on the floor, its force being spent. The shot was from a rifled gun, 
and weighs eighty pounds." 

Of these almost daily occurrences no official reports from 
either side are to be obtained, and all information must be 
gathered from the contemporaneous accounts in the news- 
papers of the day, which, notwithstanding the tone of exag- 
geration and the bitterness of feeling, then quite natural, are 
yet reasonably accurate and to be relied on for information 
of many gallant actions which illustrate American character, 
and which would have been lost to history but for the zealous 
and indefatigable newspaper correspondent. Their letters, 
particularly those in the Federal papers, often contain the 
only accounts that have survived those events, which, unim- 
portant to the general conduct of the war, were nevertheless 
of great value in training the soldier and the sailor. 

The efficiency of the Potomac batteries, though not enough 
to close the river, was, under the management of Capt. 
Frederick Chatard of the C. S. navy, such as to compel 
the U. S. steamer Pensacola to creep by at night under 
cover of darkness, and signalled by lights from the Besolute, 
Freeborn, Yankee, Reliance, the Wyandunk and the Stepping 
Stones. ' The George Page, from her iair on Quantico Creek, 
gave great annoyance to the navigation of the river, compel- 
ling the convoy of the Reliance or the Wyandunk to every 
little schooner or oyster-boat. From May, 18G1, to March, 1862, 
the N. Y. Ti^ibune, of March 1st, said: 

"There has been no safe communication by water between this 
city and the capital of the nation during all this time — a period of six 
months. This is one of the most humiliating of all the national digraces 
to which we have been compelled to submit. It has been most damaging 
to us in the eyes of the woi'ld. No one circumstance has been used more 
to our disadvantage with foreign nations than this. And it has helped 
the Confederates just in proportion as it has injured us. It has been 
their haughty boast that they had maintained steady and effectual sway 
over the great channel of commei'ce between this city and Washington, 
through which the immense supplies of our grand army of the Potomac 
would naturally have passed. Our own government has been subjected 
to very heavy expense, and great inconvenience, in consequence of this 
blockade. The inhabitants of Washington have at times suffered from 
a scarcity of both food and fuel from the same cause. If occasionally 
some vessel has got past the enemy's guns, it has been under the cover of 
darkness, or at a considerable risk, in the same way that our blockade of 
the Southern coast is often run by the Confederates. 

" Has all this damage and disgrace been a matter of necessity to us ? 
or could it by a different policy, by energy and capacity, have been 
avoided? Let facts answer : In the month of July last Mr. Marshall O. 
Roberts, of this city, offered to keep the Potomac River open, and free 
from all obstruction by the enemy's guns, for the period of twelve months, 
sxt his own expense; if he succeeded, the government to pay him whatever 

1 N. Y. Herald, Jan. 12th, 18G2. 



104 THE CONFEDERATE STATES NAVY. 

they thought proper; if he did not, he would charge nothing. He was in 
Wasliington at tiiat time, with one of his sliips. fully prepared to carry 
his offer into immediate execution. The proposition was made to a lead- 
ing member of the Cabinet, who at once reported it to President Lincoln, 
and subsequently informed Mr. Roberts that it was accepted with great 
satisfaction and pleasure— as any man in his senses would suppose it 
must have been. But it seems that the matter was subsequently referred 
to the Secretary of the Navy, and he rejected the proffered service. The 
malicious may say he did so because he could not see any way for his 
brother-in-law, Mr. Greorge D. Morgan, to make anything out of it in the 
shape of fat commissions or otherwise. We are sure that such conclusions 
as this would do Mr. Welles great injustice. His errors are all of judgment, 
not of intention. But, whatever the reason, the Potomac has remained 
blockaded, to the infinite injury and disgrace of our government." 

The Chicago Times describes the effect of this blockade of 
the Potomac as most seriously felt: 

" Washington is now beginning to feel some of the evils of the 
beleaguered city. With its principal avenue closed by hostile batteries, 
and in the hands of its enemies, it is dependent on the single-track rail 
road from Baltimore here for every article of daily consumption. This 
would be no inconvenience at all in ordinary tiiues, when the National 
Capital is only a mere village of 20,000 inhabitants. But now, when its 
ordinary population is augmented by an army of 200,000 men and 
40,000 horses, it is a very different matter. The railroad is taxed beyond 
its utmost capacity. Yet, in spite of all, the supplies that arrive are not 
equal to the demand. In regard to provender for the horses, it has be- 
come so scarce that the whole country for many miles around has been 
scoured for forage with vei*y indifferent success." 

And the Cincinnati Commercial said : 

*'The severe inconveniences suffered from the blockade of the Poto- 
mac affect already nearly every person in the community, and unless 
relief can be had in some way, it must soon ripen into actual distress. 
Fuel and wood are the chief necessaries of life in the winter season. The 
supply of both is wholly exotic as regards Washington." 

It was not only the inconvenience which these batteries 
gave, but they were of so much military importance that Mr. 
Lincoln, in General Orders No. 3, March 8th, 1802, ordered : 
*' That no more than two army corps (about fifty thousand 
troops), of the said Army of the Potomac, shall be moved 
en route for a new base of operations until the navigation 
of the Potomac from Washington to the Chesapeake Bay 
shall be freed from enemy's batteries and other obstruc- 
tions." 

The Annual Report of Secretary Welles, December 1st, 
1863, says: "The active operations of the Potomac flotilla 
ceased in a great measure after the erection of the extensive 
rebel batteries on the Virginia shore in the autumn of 1861. 
For several months the commerce on this important avenue 
to the national capital was almost entirely suspended, though 
at no time was the passage of our armed vessels prevented *' — 
and he ought to have added — except by stealing by under 
cover of darkness, directed by signal lights from other vessels 




CAPTAIN FREDEKICK CHATARD, 

OONFEDEEATE STATES NAVY. 



THE CONFEDERATE STATES NAVY. 105 

and points on the Maryland shore, and when they could not 
be seen or heard from the Confederate batteries. 

In consequence of the blockade of the Potomac by the 
Confederate batteries, an immense quantity of freight was 
carried over the Washington branch of the Baltimore and Ohio 
railroad, running from Baltimore to the capitol. It was esti- 
mated that more than sixty vessels, including many large 
steamships, arrived at Locust Point, Baltimore, daily, and their 
cargoes were immediately forwarded to Washington. For 
some days the daily average of cars over this road numbered 
over four hundred, and to supply the increasing demand for 
transportation, in October. 18(31, a wagon-train of nearly one 
hundred wagons was established between Balximore and 
Washington. This immense amount of business which the 
exigencies of the war created, rendered it necessary that the 
Wasliington branch of the Baltimore and Ohio should be care- 
fully guarded, and a sentinel was placed at every quarter of a 
mile of the road. 

Among the fortifications erected at Harper's Ferry by Gen. 
Joseph E. Johnston were the naval batteries under Lieut. 
Charles M. Fauntleroy, of the navy, which were placed on the 
northern and southern salients of the village at Harper's Ferry, 
and were designed to envelop with their fire the whole town 
of Bolivar, and the approaches by the immediate banks of the 
Potomac and Shenandoah Rivers. On May 23d, 1861, these bat- 
teries mounted but two thirty-two-pounders each on plain plat- 
forms, and the guns on ships' carriages. The number of guns 
intended was six to each battery, and they would have been 
very formidable in resisting an attack upon the town. ^ 

During Gen. Lee's command of the Virginia military and 
naval forces, prior to their being turned over to the Confed- 
erate States, Commander H. H. Lewis, of the navy, advised 
him "that the points lowest down the Rappahannock River, 
where batteries would be effective in preventing the passage 
of vessels, are at Lowery's and Accoheek Points, about seven 
miles below Tappahannock. The channel does not exceed 
three-quarters of a mile from these points, and a small redoubt 
with five or six guns on each point would close the passage to 
any vessels that are likely to attempt it.'"^ In consequence of 
thisrecommendation, Fort Lowery was erected with four thirty- 
two-pounders and an eight-inch columbiad, and on May 4th 
Gen. Lee directed Gen. Daniel Ruggles, commanding at Fred- 
ericksburg, to assign a portion of the troops under his com- 
mand for the protection of that battery. The point was selected 
because there the river was narrowest and the channel the 
most difficult, and could be best defended by the guns that 
were then available; at the same time, examinations of Gray's 
Point and Cherry Point were made for batteries, and CoL 

1 Off. Rec, Vol. II., p. 869. 2 off. Rec, Vol. II., p. 811. 



106 THE CONFEDERATE STATES NAVY. 

Talcott was ordered to complete the battery at Gray's Point 
Avith the utmost dispatch and secrecy. 

These batteries in the early days of the war held the Rap- 
pahannock River above them from the operations of raiding 
gunboats of the enemy, and enabled the formation of those 
naval expeditions into the waters of the Chesapeake which 
were so fruitful in dash and enterprise under Col. John Taylor 
Wood, aide to the President, and also of the C. S. navy. 

During the first year of the war, the Washington authori- 
ties were under the impression that gunboats were being con- 
structed at Fredericksburg. These impressions were created 
by reports from negroes, who also reported that the St. Nicholas, 
which Col. Thomas had captured, and the Virginia, had been 
armed. These boats were never armed, but were used only as 
transports between Fredericksburg and Fort Lowery. Capt. 
S. V. "Spencer, of the Potomac flotilla, suggested to Secretary 
Stanton, March 17th, 1863, that a " few hundred troops might 
land at Taylor's, opposite Maryland Point, and march over to 
a place called Hop's Yard Wharf (a distance of seven miles), 
where the steamer Neales stops to land passengers, and sur- 
prise her. taking her past the batteries under her own colors"; 
but the Secretary did not commend the expedition. 

The movement of land forces in the early part of March, 
1863, caused the retirement of the defensive line of Gen. Holmes 
to the Rappahannock River, and Fort Lowery was made the 
depot of provisions and supply for the right of Gen. Holmes' 
army, and Col. Maloney was ordered to concentrate his forces 
for tlie protection of that fort. Naval matters, on both the 
Potomac and Rappahannock Rivers, were, with the exception 
of Confederate States naval expeditions, brought to an end in 
March, 1863, by the retrograde movements of the armies from 
the line of the*^ Potomac to that of the Rappahannock River. 
This movement caused the removal of all guns and supplies 
and troops from the batteries of the Lower Potomac to Fred- 
ericksburg; and the occupation of the peninsula between those 
rivers by the U. S. troops under Gen. Hooker. In that retro- 
grade movement the steamer George Page was burned by the 
Confederates in Quantico Creek, March, 1863, having for 
nearly one year baffled every effort of the IT. S. Potomac flo- 
tilla to destroy and capture her. Close beside the burning 
Page lay the remains of the Fairfax, another capture in the 
Potomac, which was snatched from the tow of the Besolute 
in October, and whose valuable cargo of hay, cement and 
furniture was verv acceptable— and near by lay the hulk of 
a schooner— all evidences that the Potomac flotilla had been 
met on many occasions by the enterprise and dash of the 
Confederate navv, and which its superior advantages had not 
been able to circumvent or overcome. The batteries built by the 
Confederate naval officers. Capt. Lynch. Lieuts. Lewis, Read 
and Thorburn, were described by those officers of the U. S. army 



THE CONFEDERATE STATES NAVY. 107 

who entered them after evacuation, "as perfect gems of engi- 
neering skill,"' but which ceased to be any longer of use or 
value, through the movements of the army which protected and 
defended their rear. They yielded to the force of military, 
not naval, events. 

On April 20th, 1861, the form and position for a water 
hattery on Gloucester Point, on York River, was selected, 
which would cover all the channel-way with its line of fire, 
and to mount thirty-one guns ; the faces bearing on the 
channel were arranged for five and nine guns, respectively; the 
fifteen intermediate guns were to be arranged on the arc of a 
circle, of about 120 degrees. The lines of fire would cross 
the channel so near, that that part of the battery was to be 
armed with eight -inch howitzers, while the faces were to be 
provided with eight-inch columbiads. All the high ground in 
rear of the battery was intended to be covered with a large 
field-work for the protection of the battery. On the Yorktown 
site a very good position for a six-gun battery was selected 
near the river bluff. J. J. Clarke was left by Col. Andrew 
Talcott in charge of the work. 

Col. Wm. B. Taliafero was appointed colonel of Virginia 
volunteers, and on May 3d was assigned to the command of the 
troops he could collect at Gloucester Point, where Capt. W. C. 
Whittle, of the Virginia navy, was then constructing the bat- 
tery. On the 7th, the day Gen. Taliafero assumed command 
at Gloucester Point, Col. Dimick, in command of Fortress 
Monroe, was informed "by Flag-ofiicer Pendergrast that a 
three-gun battery had been discovered by him at Gloucester 
Point, and that the steamer Yankee exchanged several shots 
w^ith it; but as there was one eight-inch gun in the battery, 
and those of the steamer were of much shorter range, her com- 
mander hauled off."^ The facts are, that the guns in battery 
were six-pounder guns, and complaint being made of a waste 
of ammunition in firing at the Yankee so far off, Capt. Whittle 
disclaimed all authority for the firing, and Gen. Taliafero on 
the 8th of May urged "Gen. Lee to order to that point some 
effective sea-coast guns. At that date there were six nine-inch 
guns at the river, and the next day three thirty-two-pounders . 
arrived at West Point, but the Yankee was driven off by six- 
pounder guns. ^ Gen. Lee, on May 11, urged that it was very 
important that the Gloucester Point battery be pushed forward 
as fast as possible, and that all labor necessary for its speedy 
completion be devoted to it. On the same day, Gen. Taliafero 
wrote to Gen. Lee that the defences had greatly improved, two 
heavy nine-inch guns being in position on the water battery, 
and two more of the same kind of guns ready to be placed in 
battery; that two companies of infantry and one of artillery 
had been mustered into service, and that with the company of 

1 Off. Doc., Vol. II., p. 27. 2 Off. Rec, Vol. II.. p. 821. 



108 THE CONFEDERATE STATES NAVY. 

cavalry he had the means to prevent a landing from boats. 
May 14th the water battery was armed with three nine-inch 
guns, and were being instructed in the working of the guns 
by Commander T. J. Page, of the Virginia navy. Major 
George W. Randolph, of the Richmond Howitzer Battalion, 
on June 18th, wrote to Gen. Lee, that "there are in York- 
town, besides the field pieces of my battalion, four columbiads 
on the water battery, two brass twelve-pounders, one twelve- 
pounder navy howitzer and two iron six -pounders," and, 
after calling attention to the extended lines of defence and 
the necessity for more large guns, added, "that Capt. 
Ingraham, the Chief of the ISTaval Bureau of Ordnance, 
can supply us with eight thirty - two - pounders of twenty- 
seven hundred-weight, and four forty-two-pounder carron- 
ades with navy carriages. * * * Capt. Ingraham can also 
furnish us four boats, capable of transporting 400 or 500 men, 
which will be very useful in preserving the communications 
between Yorktown and Gloucester Point. Two of the guns- 
are at Gloucester Point, and two at West Point; but Capt. 
Whittle authorizes me to say that they are not ready for them 
at either place, and that he should prefer seeing them mounted 
at Yorktown." There had been sent to Gloucester Point eight 
nine-inch guns; two thirty-two-pounders of fifty-seven hun- 
dred-weight; three thirty-two- pounders of thirty-three hun- 
dred-weight; one thirty-two pounder of twenty-seven hundred- 
weight, which constituted its battery on June 25th. The 
defences were incomplete and liable to be taken by parties land- 
ing below the batteries on the Gloucester side, and carrying or 
turning them; to prevent which. Gen. Magruder, on July 9th, 
called on Capt. Whittle, at West Point, to send down the two 
thirty-two-pounders at that point and for a regiment of infantry,, 
to enable Col. Crump to hold the Point against any ordinary 
force that could be brought in boats to assail it. The ease 
with which the enemy could land a large force below Glou- 
cester Point, and take the land and water defences in their rear, 
kept Gen. Lee " anxious for the safety of that position"; for, 
if the Point was once in the possession of the enemy, the navi- 
gation of York River to West Point would be open, as Glou- 
cester Point commanded Yorktown; and his letters to Gen. 
Magruder, in the month of July, show how urgently he pressed 
the commanding officer on the peninsula to complete the earth- 
works for the defence of Gloucester Point. 

In reference to the relative rank of navy and army officers. 
Gen. Lee addressed the following order to the officers at Glou- 
cester Point, for the regulation of all mixed commands : 

" As there are no sailors in the service, it is impossible to serve river 
batteries by them, and artillery companies must perform this duty. 
Naval officers, from their exiserience and familiarity with the peculiar 
duties connected with naval batteries, their management, construction, 
etc, are eminently fitted for the command of such batteries, and are most 



THE CONFEDERATE STATES NAVY. 109 

appropriately placed in command of them. In a war such as this, unan- 
imity and hearty co-operation should be the rule. Petty jealousies about 
slight shades of relative command, and bickering about trivial matters, 
are entirely out of place and highly improper, and, when carried so far as 
to interfere with the effectiveness of a command, become both criminal and 
contemptible. Within the ordinary limits of a letter it is impossible to pro- 
vide for every contingency that may arise in a command which is not cen- 
tred in a single individual. It is therefore hoped tliat mutual concessions 
will be made, and that the good of the service will be the only aim of all." 

With that circular an order was transmitted to Col. Pey- 
ton, at Yorktown, that the naval officer assigned to naval 
batteries would command all troops when in the battery, 
either for drill, instruction or fighting, but that in camp the 
officer of the particular command would have charge of the 
troops, but must make no order that would impede the naval 
officer in the proper discharge of his duties. 

Commander James L. Henderson, of the navy, in command 
of the naval batteries at Gloucester Point, was retained by Gen. 
Magruder several weeks after the order detaching him, while 
awaiting the arrival of Lieut. Chas. M. Fauntleroy, and the re- 
peated letters of Gen. Magruder for Lieut. Fauntleroy's services 
show the high appreciation in which tliat officer was held. 

Complaint was made by Gen. Magruder that the gun-car- 
riages of the naval batteries, having been made of green pine, 
had given indications of breaking down; that their manner of 
construction prevented their being elevated sufficiently to ex- 
plode a fifteen-second fuse; that carriages of good pattern prom- 
ised by the Navy Department had never been sent; and that 
the depth of water at the mouth of York River being ample for 
the largest ships, the defences were liable to assault, while the 
guns in battery on their present carriages could not reach 
the ships. Capt. George Minor, Chief of the Naval Ordnance 
Bureau, immediately had other and proper carriages made and 
replaced the defective ones. 

The subject of building gunboats on the upper waters of 
York River was brought to the attention of the Virginia State 
authorities as early as May 11th. prior to that State joining 
the Confederacy, by Capt. Wm. C. Whittle, then commanding 
defences in York River. In a letter of that date to Capt. S. 
Barron, then in the Virginia Office of Detail and Equipment, 
Capt. Whittle urged that "an energetic naval constructor" be 
at once directed to commence, on the Pamunkey River, the 
construction of one or more steam-propeller boats, to carry 
each two eleven-inch shell guns, and to be manned by eighty to 
one hundred men; that much timber suitable to such boats was 
already cut, and an inexhaustible supply was standing every- 
where in the surrounding forests. And, again, September 24th, 
Capt. Whittle renewed the request, and sent Gabriel F. Miller, 
a constructor from Matthews County, to Capt. F. Buchanan, 
then in charge of the C. S. Office of Orders and Detail, as a 
man every way reliable and fully competent, and ready to 



110 THE CONFEDERATE STATES NAVY. 

undertake at once the construction, at West Point, of a steam- 
propeller gunboat — that the timber could be had on the Pa- 
munkey River hard by. Capt. Whittle urged that such vessels, 
so valuable then, would be the true foundation for a navy com- 
posed of vessels of 800 or 1,000 tons, and manned by 100 men 
each, such as the river trade in Virginia waters could supply. 
The suggestions were unheeded by both the State and Confed- 
erate authorities. It was the opinion of Capt. Whittle that a fleet 
of these small gunboats, secure behind the batteries at Yorkto wn 
and Gloucester Point, sallying forth when occasion offered, and 
intercepting every unarmed boat and vessel that approached 
Fortress Monroe, would have compelled the enemy to convoy all 
supplies to the fort, or have starved the fort into surrender. That 
convoy service would have weakened the blockading squad- 
rons, as well as the expeditions to Southern waters, and those 
boats, in conjunction with the army, would have made an im- 
portant diversion, probably fruitful in many important captures. 

As late as January 23d, 18G2, General Magruder wrote to 
the War Department that the work at Gloucester Point was 
not half finished; that the works at Yorkto wn, though trebled 
in strength in the last two months, were still unfinished, both 
as regards the protection of tlie men against the enemy's 
shells, guns and mortars at sea, as well as his attacks by land. 

The victory of the Virginia in Hampton Roads, on March 
9th, created such consternation in all military and naval cir- 
cles that intelligence of every kind was eagerly caught at by 
the Federal officers. The '• contraband " was a prolific source 
of information. One of these was received on board the 
Wachusett, April 13th, of whom Mr. I. S. Missroon says : "He 
is not intelligent "; but, notwithstanding, he communicated 
that Gen. Magruder had asked for and expected the Merri- 
mac {Virginia) to come to the York River; that "the battery 
at Gloucester Point is commanded by Jeff Page, late of the 
U. S. navy, a good officer; Richard Page, also formerly of the 
navy, in command of the upper works at Gloucester;' that they 
are very sanguine of sinking vessels, and have practiced their 
firing, which is very accurate; says Page (Jeff) can kill a dog- 
a mile. He knows the roads and creeks. I will send his p. m. 
If you want him, telegraph. Would it not be well to com- 
municate to Flag-officer Magruder's expectation of the Merri- 
mac coming here ? It can do no harm."-" 

The naval batteries at Gloucester Point and Yorktown, 
though incomplete and imperfect, had served their purpose 
fully, holding the enemy's fleet in check, barring their way 
up that river to the rear of the Confederate army on the pe- 
ninsula, and were abandoned, not to the U. S. navy, but to 
the exigencies of the C. S. army, which, retiring beyond the 
Chickahominy River, rendered the batteries useless. 

1 Off. Bee, Vol. XI., Part III., p. 99. 



CHAPTER V I. . 
CAPTURES IN VIRGINIA WATERS. 



ABOUT the middle of June, 1861, Lieut. H. H. Lewis, of 
the C. S. navy, while visiting the Potomac River at Aquia 
Creek with Gen. Holmes, observed the steamer St. Nicho- 
las, of Baltimore, approach without challenge or inquiry 
the U.S. steamer Pa wwee, range alongside without question from 
the Paivnee, and put provisions and other articles on board. 
There was neither stoppage or delay of the St. Nicliolas before 
reaching the side of the Pawnee. Interested at this unusual 
proceeding in actual war, Lieut. Lewis called Gen. Holmes' 
attention to the matter, and finding from repeated observation 
that the same unchallenged intercourse took place, Lieut. Lewis 
formed a plan upon that fact for the capture of the Pawnee, 
by first seizing the St. Nicholas lower down the river, putting 
upon her a force of naval officers and a detachment of infantry, 
and steaming, as was usual, alongside of the Paivnee, board 
and overpower her crew. Appealing to Gen. Holmes for 
a detail of 300 men from a Tennessee regiment which had 
many Western steamboat-men in its ranks, Lieut. Lewis met 
with a refusal by Gen. Holmes, who regarded the risk too 
great for him to assume the responsibility. He was referred 
to the Secretary of War, and on his way to Richmond met 
Capt. M. F. Maury, of the navy, at Fredericksburg, to whom 
he explained the plan of capture. Capt. Maury, approving 
heartily of the plan, returned with Lieut. Lewis to Richmond, 
and laid the plan before Mr. Mallory, who entered warmly 
into the enterprise, and talked it over with the Secretary of 
War, L. P. Walker. That officer, under date of June 2oth, 
wrote to Gen. Holmes: " You are authorized to co-operate 
with Lieut. Lewis, C. S. navy, with any part of the force under 
your command, as you may deem advisable, in the operations 
which he has explained to this department, and with which 
you are acquainted." To this letter Gen. Holmes suggested 
that he be ordei^ed to make the detail, and Mr. Mallory v/rote 
to the Secretary of War: "Gen. Holmes suggests that instead of 

(111) 



112 THE CONFEDERATE STATES NAVY. 

obtaining volunteers from him. you order the Tennessee regi- 
ment to the duty required in our joint machinations against 
the 'peace and dignity' of Abraham and the Pawnee, and 
that a line from you to Col. Bate would " enthuse ' them, etc. 
Capt. Maury calls on you. at my request, to attend to this. 
Our commander. Lewis of the navy, will command the party 
afloat, and will succeed." Secretary Walker immediately 
wrote to Gen. Holmes, June 27th : "If you deem the sugges- 
tions of Commander Lewis feasible, you are authorized to de- 
tail 500 troops for the purpose of co-operating with him. In 
doing this it will be proper to select from the lifferent regi- 
ments under your command. If, however, you do not concur 
with Commander Lewis in the feasibility of the undertaking, 
it will be proper for you to send a detachment of troops to Cone 
River to support him in the event he should find it necessary to 
run in at that point." To this letter Gen. Holmes replied to Secre- 
tary Walker, June 27th : " In answer to yours relative to co- 
operating with Commander Lewis, Confederate navy, I have 
respectfully to say that I did not feel justified in ordering vol- 
unteer troops on an expedition so fraught with ruinous con- 
sequences if it failed, and the success of which required that 
so many contingencies should be effectually accomplished. I 
referred the matter to the colonels of regiments, and they de- 
clined to volunteer their men."' 

Foiled in an enterprise which he considered both feasible 
and gallant, Lieut. Lewis proceeded to duty on the lower 
Rappahannock, where in a few days after he was surprised by 
a visit from Capt. George N. Hollins, of the C. S. navy, and Col. 
Thomas, who informed him that they were on their way to 
Baltimore to seize the St. Nicholas, run her into Cone River, 
and turn her over to his command. Returning immediately 
to Fredericksburg, Lieut. Lewis found there several naval 
officers and a part of the first Tennessee regiment under Col. 
Bate, and embarking on the steamer Virginia, they landed at 
Monasteon on the Rappahannock, and marched that evening 
across to Cone River, where, at three o'clock the next morn- 
ing, the St. Nicholas arrived. 

Such was the inception of the earliest and not the least 
bold and daring exploit of individual coolness, pluck and 
dash of the war — the capture of the steamer St. Nicholas on 
the Potomac River, on the morning of Saturday, June 29th, 
1861. Events had already shaped themselves into a state of 
actual war. Maryland, though still in the Union, was, in the sen- 
timent of a very large portion of her people, in thorough accord 
with the people of the seceded States. A similarity of institu- 
tions and a long association of trade, business, and social in- 
timacy united and bound her people and her interests with 
those of the people of the South. In the counties of that State 

1 Off. Rec. Vol. II., p. 949, 958. 



THE CONFEDERATE STATES NAVY. 113 

in the peninsula between the bay and the Potomac, were the 
homes of the bulk of her slave-holding people, and every feel- 
ing of interest and of sympathy were warmest and strongest 
for the people of the Confederate States. 

In St. Mary's County resided the Hon. Richard Thomas, 
one of Maryland's most honored citizens, who for many years 
had enjoyed the confidence and regard of her people, and who 
had presided for several sessions over the Maryland Senate. 
A large slave-holder, and thoroughly Southern in every prin- 
ciple of politics and every personal sympathy, his children 
had been educated and instructed in those principles of govern- 
ment which had obtained complete ascendancy over all the 
slave-holding States. Among his sons was Richard Thomas, 
whose sympathies were thoroughly enlisted with the South. 
Bold, brave, intelligent, and ardently desiring to signalize his 
advent in the South with an exploit which would serve to illus- 
trate the spirit and purpose with which the sons of Maryland 
espoused the Southern cause. Richard Thomas planned and 
executed the capture of the steamer St. Nicholas with all that 
indifference as to the odds that might be against success which 
existed all over the South at the beginning of the war. Fully 
aware that the success of his attempt would add very much to 
the strength of the Confederacy on the waters of the Chesa- 
peake Bay, he was not indifferent to the fact that, if unsuc- 
cessful, the very recklessness of the effort would illustrate 
that spirit of individual heroism so necessary in every contest 
between unequal forces. 

That the expedition was not one of inconsiderate rashness 
is shown by the precautions taken to hold the steamer after 
capture. Col. Thomas visited Richmond, where he made 
known to Gov. Letcher his plans and purposes, and arranged 
to have a detachment of troops on the Virginia shore, together 
with naval officers, to take charge of the steamer. To that end, 
a detachment from Col. Bate's (1st) Tennessee regiment, then 
near Fredericksburg, was ordered to take position on the Po- 
tomac in the neighborhood of Cone River, and to be in position 
on the morning of June 29th, the day the St. Nicholas was regu- 
larly due at the ports on the Maryland shore. In company 
with the infantry, Lieuts. H. H. Lewis, Robert D. Minor, 
C. C. Simms, of the C. S. navy, Lieut. Thorburn of the Vir- 
ginia navy, and fifteen sailors from the steamer Yorktown, 
were also dispatched from Richmond to lend assistance. The 
infantry and the naval force were promptly in place, having 
marched across the peninsula of the northern neck, and arrived 
almost simultaneously with the captured steamer. 

These preliminary precautions taken and arranged. Col. 
Thomas repaired to Baltimore and gathered together the very 
few men in whom he could confide. These were necessarily 
very few in number, though very determined in purpose and 
fully resolved to succeed; no contemporaneous account states 



114 THE CONFEDERATE STATES NAVY. 

the exact number of " passengers " that started in the boat. 
On Friday evening, June 28th, the St. Nicholas, a side-wheel 
steamboat of about 1,200 tons, regularly plying between Balti- 
more and Georgetown. D.C., touching at regular points on the 
Potomac, received on board a very quiet, demure, rather passe 
lady, with a French accent and rather masculine features; but 
reserved in deportment, and rather uneasy as to the time the 
boat would reach Washington. In all other respects the 
"French lady's" behavior attracted no attention. The " pas- 
sengers." booked for different stopping-places, dispersed them- 
selves about the boat, holding but little conversation among 
themselves and none whatever with the French lady. The 
officers of the boat observed nothing peculiar in the conduct 
of any of the passengers, and certainly nothing in that of 
the "lady." The boat proceeded on her course, with no oc- 
currence worthy of note, until the landing at Point Lookout 
was made, when two more " passengers" came aboard, one of 
these an "elderly-looking " man. With nothing to attract at- 
tention, that "elderly-looking" passenger took his position on 
deck in rear of the ladies' cabin, giving apparently more at- 
tention to the weather, the water, or the skies, than to the 
boat or her passengers. 

Upon casting-off from the wharf at Point Lookout, the 
St. Nicholas headed up stream for Washington, and when a 
mile or so from the wharf there might be seen climbing over 
the deck rail, immediately above the window of the cabin to 
which the "French lady" had retired, an active and deter- 
mined man, clad in Zouave uniform and fully armed with 
sword and revolvers. The " French lady " had doffed her wig, 
her curls, her petticoats, and donned the uniform of the 
Zouave and was ready for action. Exchanging a few hurried 
words with the "elderly passenger," he, too, was suddenly 
changed into Capt. George N. Hollins, formerly of the U. S. 
navy, but having resigned his commission in that service 
now about to assume the command of the St. Nicholas in the 
service of the Confederate States. The few hurried words ex- 
changed, both officers repaired below decks, where further 
transformations were immediately made among twenty-five 
"passengers," who now appeared as Zouaves, armed and de- 
termined to have and to hold the steamer. Surprised and 
astounded, the officers and crew of the boat found that resist- 
ance would be unavailing, and quietly yielded possession of 
the boat. The real passengers on the boat, though greatly 
alarmed by the unexpected turn which had been given to 
affairs aboard, were quieted with the assurances of safety and 
respect. The St. Mary's (Md.) Beacon, of July 6th, 18G1. says: 

" Throughout the whole night not a single aat of rudeness was per- 
petrated, all the passengers being treated with the greatest civlllt>^ The 
ladies were told by the commander that they were in the hands ofSouth- 
ern gentlemen, and would be treated as his own sisters. Whatever 



THE CONFEDERATE STATES NAVY. 115 

opinions may be entertained of the capture itself, no one who was present 
on that eventful night can say aught but in praise of the gentlemanly 
deportment of all concerned." 

A passenger on board the St. Nicholas, who witnessed 
Col. Thomas' appearance on deck, and his conversation with 
Capt. Hollins, '"suspected nothing of the truth, supposing that 
a government boat was boarding her for the purpose of in- 
quiry." So quiet was the execution of this well-considered 
and arranged plan of capture that every man knew his duty, 
the moment for his appearance, and the exact part he was to 
take. 

Such was the account given of this exploit in the Union 
papers of that day; but Col. Alexander, one of Col. Thomas' 
men, and who was subsequently captured and confined in Fort 
McHenry with Thomas, gives a somewhat different version. 
He says: 

" The detail that accomplished the capture of the St. Nicholas got on 
in small groups at different landings as ordinary passengers. When I got 
aboard, the first person I saw in the cabin was Col. Thomas, who was of 
small stature, dressed as a lady, carrying on an animated conversation 
with a Federal ofBcer. He spoke French fluently and was passing him- 
self off as a French lady. It was from this circumstance that the nick- 
name was afterward given him. It was amusing to note how admirably 
he performed his part, tossing a fan about and joutting on all the airs of 
an animated French woman, much to the enjoyment of the Federal officer 
with whom he was conversing. Our whole force was by this time aboard, 
known to each other by private signals. Thomas, when he saw that 
everything was ready for the immte, excused himself from his companion 
and retired to his state-room. We all knew that the time had now ai-rived 
for action, and we gathered together awaiting the reappeai-ance of Thomas, 
It was but a few moments when, with a shout, he sprang from his state- 
room in the dress of a Zouave, armed with cutlass and pistol. The balance 
of us made a rush to the state-room, where our arms were concealed, and 
likewise secured pistols and cutlasses. In a few moments we overpowered 
the passengers and crew, secured them below the hatches, and the boat was 
ours. We then proceeded immediately to the rendezvous where we expected 
to take aboai'd our infantry reinforcements, but owing to the long delay 
before they arrived word of our movements got abroad, and the enemy 
were placed on their guard Had our infantry regiment been at the ap- 
pointed place in time, the Pawnee certainly, and perhaps the entire Poto- 
mac fleet, would have been captured." 

Immediately after the capture of the steamer, all lights 
upon her were extinguished, and her head was turned to the 
Virginia shore, where she arrived at 3:30 in the morning, and 
stopped at the wharf at Cone River, where she was boarded 
by the officers of the C. S. navy, and the Tennessee infantry 
appeared for her protection. Embarking a portion of the in- 
fantry, the Pt. Nicholas, now under command of Capt. Hollins, 
headed up the Potomac in search of the U. S. steamerPa w»iee,the 
capture of which was contemplated by surprise and boarding; 
but, not finding the Pawnee, the steamer rounded and stood 
down the river for the bay. Between Smith's Point and 
the mouth of the Rappahannock River, Capt. Hollins met the 



IIG THE CONFEDERATE STATES NAVY. 

schooner Margaret, from Alexandria (Va.) to New York, 
whose mate, Mr. E. Case, gave to the N. Y. Times the follow- 
ing account: 

" On Saturday, the 29th day of June, we passed Smith's Point, at the 
mouth of the Potomac; we saw the steamer ^t. Nicholas come out of a 
river on the V^irginia shore, called Cone River. She passed us, and paid 
no attention to us, we thinking all the while it was rather strange for her 
to be sailing down the bay, as it was out of her course. Her object, we soon 
found out, was to seize the brig Monticello and the schooner Mary Pierce, 
which were bound up the bay as we were gomg out. 

" In a few minutes the 8t. Nicholas headed up the bay again; she 
came up and passed us, then turned again and bore down on us. Capt. 
Hollins hailed us, and asked what schooner it was. We told him the 
schooner llargaret. He then inquired what it was loaded with, and we 
told him. He then sung out that we were a prize to the Southern Con- 
federacy. The St. Nicholas was then I'un close alongside; then about 
twenty-five armed men jumped on board, and drove all hands on board 
the steamer. When I got on deck, and before they drove me into the 
hold, 1 looked around me, and who should I see but the traitor, Capt. 
Thomas Skinner, formerly master of the steamer Jamestown ! 

" They then took the schooner in tow, and took us up the Rappa- 
hannock River as far as the depth of the water would permit. That night 
they came again alongside, and coaled the St. Nicholas from our cargo. 
Next morning we started for Fredericksburg, and took the Mary Pierce in 
tow, and towed her within fifteen miles of the town. At dark, on the 30th, 
we came alongside of the dock; they kept us on board all night. The next 
morning early we were marched out, closely guarded by soldiers, and 
were placed on board the cars for Richmond, not having eaten anything 
worth speaking of for twenty -four hours." 

The vessels then captured by Capt. Hollins with the St. 
Nicholas were: 

Brig Monticello, from Brazil, bound to Baltimore, with 3,500 bags of 
coffee. "^ 

Schooner Mary Pierce., from Boston, bound to Washington City,Avith 
260 tons of ice. 

Schooner Margaret, from Alexandria, bound to Staten Island, with 
270 tons of coal. 

Lieutenant Simms, C. S. navy, was put in charge of the 
Monticello; Lieut, Robert D. Minor, C. S. navy, in charge of 
the Mary Pierce; and Lieut. Thorburn, of the Virginia navy, 
in charge of the Margaret. 

The people in the Confederacy needed coffee, ice and coal, 
their government needed the steamer and the vessels, and 
it is not surprising that the bold officers and brave men who 
brought in supplies so much needed should have been loudly 
praised and profusely complimented. On the Monticello were 
found a number of bags containing the mails and dispatches 
from the United States squadron in Brazil, from which the 
movements of the ships in that squadron were learned by the 
Confederate government. The ice captured was sold in 
Fredericksburg for $8,000. Col. Thomas repaired to Richmond, 

1 The Monticello, after being taken up the Rap- after the coffee had been taken out, and permitted 
pahannock River, was released by her captors to return to Baltimore, where she was owned. 



THE CONFEDERATE STATES NAVY. 117 

where every attention and compliment awaited and were lav- 
ishly bestowed upon him. The State of Virginia, by Governor 
Letcher, on July 1st, commissioned him, under the name of 
Richard Thomas Zarvona, a colonel in the volunteer forces of 
the State. During his visit, his friends insisted on seeing him 
in his costume of the " Frencli lady," as he appeared on the 
steamer St. Nicholas. To gratify them, he left "the room, 
promising to return promptly, provided the company was not 
enlarged, as the joke was to be strictly private. Unfortunately, 
the circle was shortly after disturbed by the entrance of a 
strange lady, for whom, however, room was made, and to 
whom a seat was tendered with customary Virginia gallantry. 
The rest of the company broke up into knots, leaving the 
stranger to herself, and discussing in whispers the propriety 
of keeping the colonel out until a favorable opportunity pre- 
sented itself. Suddenly their embarrassment was relieved by 
the action of the lady, who, lifting her skirts to a modest 
height, displayed a soldier's uniform and end of a cutlass. 
The effect may be imagined ! 

The capture of the St. Nicholas illustrates the difficulty 
which the United States authorities encountered at the begin- 
ning of the war in preventing communication across the 
Potomac between the sympathizing Marylanders and their 
compatriots in Virginia, Chas. Worthington, the Baltimore 
agent of the steamer St. Nicholas, writing to the Secretary of 
the Navy, July 1st, after describing how the steamer had been 
spirited away, gives at length the precautions he had taken 
with Capt. Ward to prevent any such occurrence: "The ar- 
rangement," says Mr. Worthington, "we made was mutually 
satisfactory, and he promised to meet her (the steamer) every 
Saturday morning at the mouth of the Potomac, and give her 
a pass to proceed on her trip. But, alas ! he is no more "— 
Col. Thomas had timed his enterprise so well that he slipped 
through the unguarded door of the mouth of the Potomac, and 
accomplished effectually his daring exploit. 

At the session of the Confederate States District Court in 
Richmond, February 3d, 18G2, in the admiralty case of George 
N. Hollins et al. against the steamer St. Nicholas, her cargo, 
tackle and apparel, the marshal reported that he had placed 
the amount of the sale of the vessel, etc. ($18,924.73), in bank 
to the credit of the case. 

The St. Nicholas was burned at Fredericksburg in 18G2, 
when that city was evacuated, along with many other vessels. ' 

1 The following is the list of vessels destroyed valued at $1,500; DecapoKs, valued at $700; 

at that place by the Confederate military au- Mary Pierce, owned by R W. Adams and L. B. 

thorities previous to the evacuation of the town: Eddans, Fredericksburg, Va., valued at $5,600; 

Steamer Fij-grima.steamer 5<. -/Vic/io^as. schooner Helen, Ca,x>t. Solomon Phillips, Essex Company, 

May, owned by McConkey, Parr & Co., Balti- valued at S2,000; W J. ra/itt?i<, valued at $1,500; 

more, Md ; A. Henry Armstrnng, valued at Anglo-Saxon, owned by Segars & Perkins, Mid- 

$45,000; schooner Ada, owned by Samuel Gr. dlesex Compauj-, valued at $1,500; Dazzling Orb, 

Miles, of Baltimore, valued at $3,500; schooner Fredericksburg, Va , valued at $600; Putala, 

Northern Light, valued at $2,000; Reindeer, owned owned by A. Williams and B. Walker, Lancaster 

by Capt. W. C. Moore, Middlesex County, Va., County, Va , valued at $1,500; James Henry, 



118 THE CONFEDERATE STATES NAVY. 

Col. Zarvona, prompted by his success, if not spirited by 
the praise and flattery it elicited, determined to return to 
Baltimore, and possibly with the purpose of accomplishing 
another daring feat. In spite of all persuasion, and against 
the advice of friends — indeed, against the application of force 
on the part of some of his admirers — he set out in a schooner in 
July for Maryland, and landed at Fair Haven, in the Bay. 

On July 4th, certain parties were seen inspecting the steamer 
Columbia, of the same line as the St. Nicholas, while lying at 
Fardy's ship-yard, near Federal Hill, Baltimore. They went 
aboard and inquired of Capt. Harper what was her speed, how 
much coal was on board, and whether she could be chartered. 
The steamer Logan, of the Baltimore and Fredericksburg line, 
and the steamer Virginia, were alread}^ in the possession of 
the Confederates; the steamer William Selden, of the Balti- 
more Steam Packet Company, was being used by the Confed- 
erates in Norfolk harbor. These captures had made the 
Union authorities more vigilant and suspicious. It was also 
reported to the authorities in Baltimore that several parties 
had left the city on the Monday night preceding, in omni- 
buses, and it was presumed that their purpose was to co-oper- 
ate with Col. Zarvona, whose arrival at Fair Haven, in Anne 
Arundel County, had also been reported. To effect the capture 
of the "French lady" and her whole party, an expedition 
was arranged by Provost Marshal Kenly, and placed under 
command of Lieut. Thomas H. Carmichael and Jolm Horner, 
of Baltimore. The steamer Chester, according to one con- 
temporaneous authority, and a sloop, according to another, 
was equipped at Fort McHenry with an armament of two 
twenty-four-pounders, an artillery company, an infantry com- 
pany, and a posse of police officers. Proceeding to Fair Haven, 
the officers arrested Neale Green, a noted barber, doing busi- 
ness on Pratt Street, Baltimore, on the charge of having been 
engaged in the assault on the 6th Massachusetts regiment 
on the 19th of April; and with Green in charge the officers 
returned to Baltimore on September lOth, 1861, on board the 
steamer il/ar?/ Washington, while the C/?es^ey proceeded down 
the bay in search of the schooner which brought Col. Zar- 
vona to Fair Haven. The Baltimore American, of July 9th, 
has the following account of the capture of Col. Zarvona: 

" Shortly after leaving, the lieutenant entered into conversation with 
a number of passengers, and ascertained that Capt. Kirwan, with tlie en- 
gineer and another officer of the steamer /Sf. Nicholas, as well as others 

owned by Capts. Miillin and Dickinson, Rich- $2,500; Lucy Renn, owned by a citizen of GIoii- 

moud County, Va., valued at $400; J. Wagtier, cester County, Ya , valued at $600: Hiaioatha, 

liancastex' County, Va., valued at $225; Active, owned by Mr. Garland Richardson, valued at 

Capt. Henry Taylor, Richmond County, Va., $2,000; sloop Amethyst, owned by Capt Charlea 

valued at $2,200; Sea Breeze, owned by Miles, Gutberidge, Fredericksburg, valued at $900; in- 

of Baltimore, Crabb & Sanger, Richmond, Va., eluding the value of the Virginia and St. Nich- 

valued at $2,000; Mary Miller, owned by G. olas. 

Burgess, of Northumberland County, Va., and In connection with the burning of bridges and 

Miller.of Middlesex County, Va., valued at $4,000: vessels, from $15,000 to $20,000 worth of cotton 

,Va«nte Skrevel, owned by E. JIann, valued at was also burned. 



THE CONFEDERATE STATES NAVY. 119 

•who had been taken prisoners when the steamer was seized by Thomas, 
the 'French lady,' and his party, had been released by them and was re- 
turning to this city on the Mary Washington. The officers also ascer- 
tained that among- the passengers on board were seven or eight of the cap- 
tors, with Capt. Thomas himself, who, doubtless exliilarated by the success 
attending their first achievement, were disposed to mal^e another venture, 
probably on the steamer Columbia or some other steamer plying on the 
Maryland rivers. 

"•* As soon as satisfactory information on this point was obtained and 
each one of the party recognized beyond doubt, Lieut. Cai'uiichael directed 
Capt. Mason L. Weems, tlie commander of the Mary Washington, to ])ro- 
ceed, on reaching this harbor, to land the passengers at Fort McHenry. 
The direction was given while the steamer was at Annapolis. Shortly 
after, while Lieut. Carmichael and Mr. Horner were in the ladies' cabin, 
they were approached by Thomas, who desired to know by what authority 
the order had been given for tlie steamer to touch at Fort McHenry. The 
lieutenant informed him that it was through authority vested in him by 
Col. Kenly, Provost Marshal of Baltimore. On hearing this, Thomas 
drew his pistol, and cahing his men around him, threatened to seize and 
throw Carmichael and Horner overboai'd. The latter drew their revolvers 
and defied the other partj^ to proceed to execute their threats. The ut- 
most coiifusion prevailed in the cabin for a short time, the female passen- 
gers running out screaming, but the other male passengers stood up with 
Carmichael and Horner, and compelled Thomas and his companions to 
remain quiet. Matters thus stood on the boat until the steamer ap- 
proached the fort wharf, when the lieutenant went up and informed Gen. 
Banks of his important capture. 

"The General instantly ordered out a company of infantry, who 
marched to the steamboat and secured all the accused excepting Thomas, 
for whom search was made for an hour and a half. He was then found 
concealed in the drawer of a bureau in the ladies' cabin, in the aft part 
of the boat. At first it was apprehended that Thomas would make a 
desperate resistance, but he disclaimed any such design, alleging that he 
was too weak to resist. He and the other prisoners were then marched 
to the fort and placed in confinement." 

The arrest created a "tremendous excitement'' m Balti- 
more, Avhere Col. Thomas was well known, and had many 
friends among the best families in the city. On his person was 
found his commission as colonel in the volunteer forces of 
Virginia;' but that did not protect him from treatment such 
as a pirate would have received. His imprisonment, upon 
becoming known at Richmond, was firmly protested against, 
and measures of retaliation adopted, which arrested all pro- 
ceedings against him on the charge of piracy, but did not 

1 The following are copies of papers found on be affixed, this second day of July, eighteen 

Col. Thomas at the time of his arrest at Fort hundred and sixty-one. 

McHenry : , John Letcher. 

" The Commonwealth of Virginia to Richard 

Thomas Zarvona, greeting : City of Richmond, Vikginia, To Wit : 

Know you, that from special trust and confl- This day appeared before me, Joseph Mayo, 

dence reposed in your fidelity, coTirage and Mayor of the City of Richmond, Richard Thomas 

good conduct, our Governor, in pur.suance of Zarvona, and qualified to the within commission 

the authority vested in him by an Ordinance of by taking the oath ijrescribed by law. 

the Convention of the State of Virginia, doth Given under my hand this 2d day of July, 

commission you a colonel in the Active Volun- A.D. 1861. 

leer forces of the State, to rank as such from the Joseph Mato, Mayor, 
first day of July, eighteen hundred and sixty- 
one. Executive Depaetment. ) 
( -^_ "I In testimony whereof, I have hereunto Richmond, July 3, 1861. ) 
<L. s. S signed my name, as Governor, and Permit Col. R. T. Zarvona, of the Potomac 
( — —' ) caused the seal of the Commonwealth to Zouaves, to pass at wiU./ree, over the roads and 



120 THE CONFEDEKATE STATES XAVY. 

secure the treatment due to liim as a prisoner-of-war. He was 
confined in Fort McHenry for several months, during which he 
made several ineffectual efforts to escape, and was, early in 
18G2, transferred to Fort Lafayette. During his imprisonment 
reports were circulated that his health had been impaired, and 
that his mental condition indicated cruelty in the treatment 
he had received. These reports caused the U. S. Senate to 
direct the Committee on Military Affairs of the Senate to inquire 
into and report as to the truths of those reports. Senator Wil- 
son reported, February IGth, 18G3, that : 

"Richard Thomas Zarvoiia was committed to this fort on December 
3d, 1801, and was allowed the same privileges as the other prisoners until 
the 3d March, 1863, on which date he was placed in close confinement by 
order of the Secretary of War, dated 28th day of February, 1862. After 
that date he was not allowed to leave his room except to go to the water- 
closet — which is situated on the sea wall — in charge of a member of the 
guard, of which privilege he took advantage on the night of the 31st of 
April, 1862, and attempted to escape by .lumping overboard and swimming 
to the Long Island shore. Since that time he has not been out of his 
room except to see his mother, who visited him in October last by per- 
mission of the Secretary of War. 

" The room in which he is confined, is one of those intended for quar- 
ters, 25 feet long and fifteen feet wide, with nine windows, one of which 
is closed, because it opens upon the court where the other prisoners exer- 
cise. The room is the same which Senator Wall, with some others, occu- 
pied while confined here. He is permitted to supply himself, through the 
commanding officer of the post, with anything he may wish in the way 
of food [in addition to the regular ration which is issued to him) and 
clothing. He is not permitted the use of papers or books, as he has taken 
advantage of these i)rivileges to communicate to parties outside. 

" As regards Thomas' health. Acting Assistant SurgeonW. H. Studley, 
of the fort, under date of February 2d, says : ' I have this day examined 
(Jol. Richard Thomas Zarvona, Confederate States army, and found that 
his health is generally good, according to his own admission. That it is 
better than when he entered the fort. In reference to his mental con- 
dition, I find him sound and rational, but somewhat eccentric in some of 
his ideas, and yet not more so than in thousands who may be said to be 
born with a certain turn of character. Therefore, in my opinion, I should 
deem his peculiarities perfectly consistent with sanity of mind.' 

"The report of Assistant Adjt. Gen. I). D. Townsend, to the Secre- 
tary of War, dated February 10th, says: Col. Richard Thomas, alias Rich- 
ard Thomas Zarvona, was captured on board the steamer 3Iary Washing- 
ton, near Annapolis, February 7th, 1861, and confined at Fort McHenry, 
Baltimore, Maryland. He was recognized on the steamer as a man 
who headed a party which captured the steamer ^t. Nicholas, 
plying between Baltimore and the Potomac, and was indicted by the 
Grand Jury of Maryland District for the offence and for treason. When 

rivers of this Commonwealth upon his own cer- amount would be duly honored by Messrs. R. H. 
tificate, and upon like certificate pass his men Maury & Co., of Richmond, 
and bapgage. July 14, 1861, Asst. Adj. Gen. Robert William.s 
All officers, civil and military, will respect at Fort McHenry, reported by direction of fliajor 
him, and give him such facilities as he may re- Gen. Banks, "that the schooner Georgiana, 
quire, in their power f o afford. owned by Thomas and his party, and with which 
By order, a portion of them had been lying in wait for the 
S. B.^ssETT Neuch, capture of other steamers from Baltimore, has 
Aide-de-Camp to Governor of Virginia. been taken possession of, and is now at the dock 
Approved: John Letcheb.'' of this port, having been run aground and de- 
He also )iad with him a letter of credit on a serted by her crew. No capture of rebels was 
Baltimore house for the sum of $1,000, declar- made on board of hm:"— Official Records, Series 
ing that the check of Col. Zarvona to that 1, Vol II., p. 'i49. 




COMMANDER JOHN TAYLOR WOOD, 

CONFEDERATE STATES NAVV. 



THE CONFEDERATE STATES NAVY. 131 

search was made for hiiu on the Mary Washington, he was found dressed 
in female apparel, and concealed in a bureau in one of the state-rooms. 
Gen. Dix, in his report of February 20th, 1862, thinks he should be treated 
as a ' pirate and a spy.' There are four witnesses against him as to the first 
crime, who were at Fort McHenry the last of September. The evidence 
of the second charge consists in his being taken in disguise as a female, 
with a commission of Colonel ' in the active volunteer forces ' of Virginia 
upon his person at the time. Inconsequence of the report made in his 
case, he has not been placed in the list of prisoners-of-war, but is held 
confined at Fort Lafayette," 

There was no truth in the statement that Col. Zarvona 
was " dressed in female apparel."' 

Such feats of resolution and daring inspire a whole people 
with admiration, and create that spirit of enthusiasm which 
takes no reckoning of the odds against success. Col. Zarvona 
may have been eccentric, every man that acts outside of the 
dull line of other men is set down as eccentric; but the cool- 
ness and resolution with which he faced danger, and the in- 
domitable energy with which he executed his enterprise, show 
that he was well fitted to lead in a desperate undertaking. 
Some idea of the resources of this young man may be formed 
from the novel means by which he tried to effect escape. With 
a number of tin cans securely corked and tied around his 
waist, he threw himself into the water and swam boldly from 
Fort Lafayette toward the Long Island shore; but being dis- 
covered by the sentinel, a boat was sent after him and he was 
recaptured and brought back to the fort. He continued to 
languish in the gloomy cell at Fort Lafayette for two years — 
an object of admiration and pity to every man and woman in 
the South. His imprisonment was reported to be rigorous in 
the extreme, and his confinement close and severe. His re- 
peated efforts to escape may have rendered these measures 
necessary — but their report caused retaliation to be instituted 
in Richmond, by the confinement at hard labor in the Peniten- 
tiary of two Federal officers, and the announcement of the pur- 
pose to mete out to them whatever might befall Col. Zarvona. 
In response to a resolution, adopted by the Virginia House of 
Delegates on the 23d of January, 1863, in relation to the efforts 
made by Governor Letcher to obtain the release of Col. Zar- 
vona, the Governor said that " at the time of his capture. Col. 
Zarvona was acting under orders from me, and was employed 
on secret service for the accomplishment of an object re- 
garded as one of the first importance to the interests of the 
State and the Confederacy." In response to this communica- 
tion, the Legislature, on March 28th, 1863, adopted a resolution 
authorizing and directing the Governor to transfer the prison- 
ers captured by the State Line to the Confederate government, 
except those held as hostages for Col. Zarvona and others. 
These acts of retaliation procured the release of Col. Zarvona, 
and he was exchanged and returned to Richmond in April, 
1863. That one so conspicuous in the earliest period of the 



132 THE CONFEDERATE STATES NAVY. 

war for coolness and courage should have played no further 
part, is remarkable, but not the less a fact. ^ 

On Wednesday night, Aug. 19th, 1863, Lieut. John Taylor 
Wood, C. S. navy, left Richmond in command of a party num- 
bering sixty men; the inception, organization and destination 
of the expedition were so well concealed that the first intima- 
tion received in Richmond of the expedition was the informa- 
tion of its complete success. '^ 

The United States Chesapeake flotilla, commanded by Capt. 
Craven, was chiefly engaged in arresting intercourse between 
the United States and the Confederate States along the waters 
of that bay. To that end armed steamers were kept cruising 
off the mouths of rivers and creeks, and at tlie mouth of the 
Rappahannock the steamers (SafeZ//fe and Reliance were doing 
duty in August, 1863. These steamers carried, on the former, 
one thirty-two-pounder smooth-bore gun and one twelve- 
pounder howitzer; and the latter mounted one thirty-pounder 
Parrott and one twenty-four-pounder howitzer, each with a 
crew of forty men. As they lay off Stingray Point, at the 
mouth of the Rappahannock, they offered a temptation which 
to the courage, dash and enterprise of Lieut. Wood was too 
inviting to be resisted. 

The point of departure, the lower end of Middlesex County, 
Va., was reached, and embarking in four small boats Lieut. 
Wood's command pulled steadily and swiftly for the two 
vessels. 

The challenge of the watches on board had scarcely died 
away on the midnight air before the boarders were clambering 
up the sides of the two vessels, cutting their way through the 
hammock netting, which had been triced up in anticipation of 
attack, driving the crews below and mastering the prizes. 
Three minutes finished the work. The assault was so quickly 
made that the crews had no opportunity to use their heavy 
guns, and the fighting was entirely hand-to-hand, in which 
Lieut. Hoge, Midshipman H. S. Cooke, and three men were 
wounded, and Capt. Waters of the Reliance, with eight others, 
were severely wounded and two killed. This affair, so bril- 
liant in conception and execution, was described in the Wash- 
ington City Evening Star by N. IL Stavey, Paymaster's Clerk 
of the Satellite, who was wounded in the fight. He said: 

1 Col. Thomas had originally intended to emit and drill, and wait for the release of its 

raise a regiment of Maryland Zouaves, and the colonel from imprisonment; but, ')wing to the 

first company was organized in Richmond on great length of time he was coutined, the scheme 

July 4th, 1861, by the election of the following of organizing a regiment of Zouaves was aban- 

officers ; William Walters, Baltimore, Captain; doned, and the company of Maryland Zouaves 

G. W. Alexander, First Lieutenant; John W. was soon after consolidated with other Coufed- 

Torsch, Second Lieutenant; F. M. Parsons, Jr., erate commands and x^erformed gallant service 

Third Lieutenant: Chas. Simms, Orderly Ser- throughout the war. 
geant; Charles Hemling, Second Sergeant; F. 

Duffin, Third Sergeant; J. L. Quinn, Fourth 2 Lieut. Wood with a boat's crew of thirteen 

Sergeant; John D. Mitchell, First Corporal; men, on the night of October 7th, 1862, boarded, 

William Uncle, Second Corporal; John H. Ens- captured and burned the steamer i^canei^ ^/more, 

sick. Third Coii^oral; William A. Ryan, Fourth which was lying at anchor off Lower Cedar 

Corporal. The company was ordered to Tap- Point in the Potomac River. The captain and 

pahaunock on tlie Rapiiahanuock River, to re- crew were sent prisoners to Richmond. 



THE CONFEDERATE STATES NAVY. 123 

"The attacking party numbered sixty-eight men, mostly sailors be- 
longing to the New Merrimac, at Richmond, with some of Wheat's bat- 
talion, and approached in four boats, each containing about seventeen 
men, the two boats which approached the /Satellite being in command of 
Col. Wood, an aide and relative to Jeflf. Davis, and the two who boarded 
the Reliance, in charge of Lieut. Hoge, ot the Merrimac. Both of these 
officers, we believe, formerly were attached to our navy. 

" At the time of the attack (twelve o'clock Saturday nights it was dark 
and a heavy sea was running. The assailants were not discovered on the 
Satellite until nearly to the boat, when the officer ran below to call the ex- 
ecutive officer, and by the time he returned the vessel was boarded and 
the crew were in a fight with the rebels, which lasted some ten or fifteen 

minutes, during which Thomas Damon, a fireman, and Lawson, who 

originally came from the rebel army, were killed, and Ensign R. Sommers 
received two cutlass wounds on the left arm, and was shot through the 
neck ; N. H. Stavey, Paymasters Steward, shot in the arm ; Wm. Bing- 
ham, Master-at-Arms, Samuel Chin (colored*, and two others, slightly. 
The fight on board the /Satellite is represented to have been desperate, and 
several of the rebels were wounded ; but the crews were obliged to give 
way. It is said that the Captain of the Satellite (Robinson i behaved in a 
very cowardly manner when he came on deck in his uiiderclothes. Find- 
ing the crew in a desperate hand-to-hand encounter with the rebels, he 
cried out, " For God's sake, don t shoot. I sui-render." 

"The party which boarded the Reliance, Acting Ensign Walters, also 
was resisted, the officers and men fighting desperately, but were obliged 
to succumb to this attack ; Lieut. Hoge was either killed or wounded, and 
Ensign Walters was shot through the stomach, the ball coming out at 
the hip. After Mr. Walters was wounded he crawled into his pilot-house 
and blew his whistle for help, not being aware that the Satellite had been 
already taken. Mr. McCauly, the engineer of the Reliance, when he found 
his boat in possession of the rebels, put his engines out of gear, rendering 
them useless. 

" After they captured both boats the rebels proceeded with them to 
Urbana, where the officers and ci-ews were put on shore, and they put out 
with the steamers again for the mouth of the river, where they lay all day 
Sunday ; but on Sunday night they went to the Eastern Shore and cap- 
tured three schooners, one a large coaler, from Philadelphia, which they 
took uyj to Urbana; and after burning one of them, went, as they said, to 
Port Royal, where they would remove the machinery and destroy the 
laoats.'' 

Immediately upon securing the two steamers, the boats in 
which Lieut. Wood had made the attack were made fast 
astern, everything was hauled taut on board, ropes coiled up, 
and guns prepared for a fight. Lieut. Wood was on board the 
Satellite, and Lieut. Francis L. Hoge being wounded, Lieut. 
Wm. E. Hudgins, the second officer in command, was put in 
charge of the Reliance. He was ordered to follow close after 
the Satellite, which was to be taken up the river by Pilot 
Moore. The engineers, Messrs. Bowman and Tennent, soon 
got up steam, and reported the vessels ready to move. 

Lieut. Hoge was the first to reach the deck of the Reliance, 
and fighting his way forward with great gallantry, was struck 
in the neck by a pistol ball, and fell upon the deck. Midship- 
man Cooke, though hit by two balls, continued to direct the 
fight until the enemy surrendered. Lieut. Hudgins took com- 
mand of the Reliance, and just as the first gray streak of day 
appeared in the East the Satellite moved out, followed closely 



124 THE CONFEDERATE STATES NAVY. 

by Lieut. Hudgins. The run up occupied some three hours^ 
and a little after sunrise we dropped the anchors off Urbana. 
The first thing was to get the wounded and prisoners ashore. 
Midshipman Matt. P. Goodwyn had charge of this, and in a. 
short time all were landed and delivered into the hands of the 
cavalry of Col. T. L. Rosser, who had co-operated with the ex- 
pedition, and was ready to take charge of the prisoners to 
Richmond. 

When captured, the Federal steamers had but a few hours 
supply of coal, and the Currituck, their companion-steamer, 
had gone for coal for the little squadron. Lieut. Wood, however, 
determined to make the supply on hand serve his purpose, and 
expecting resistance from the Currituck, Col. Rosser detailed 
Capt. Clay's company of sharp-shooters to assist on the Satel- 
lite. Capt. Fendall Gregory and Lieut. Nunn, of Rosser's regi- 
ment, also volunteered. 

Owing to the difficulty of making and keeping up steam 
on the Reliance, Lieut. Hudgins was unable to accompany 
Lieut. Wood in his cruise over the waters of the Chesapeake 
Bay, and the Satellite, on Sunday night, went out alone, and 
reached the mouth of the river at eleven o'clock. The sea was 
quite high, with a strong southeasterly wind, and every pros- 
pect of an approaching storm. Having so little coal, it was 
impossible to go far: but Lieut. Wood started boldly up the 
bay to see what there was afloat. The waves were every mo- 
ment getting higher and the Satellite creaked and groaned in 
every seam, and ran heavily against tjie sea, as if trying to 
commit suicide at the chagrin of capture. Although much 
indisposed, Pilot Moore managed her admirably, and kept her 
■well against the storm. After cruising awhile up the bay, her 
course was turned towards the eastern shore. Some few sails 
were seen looming up through the dark, but they were small 
and hardly worth the time when larger game was expected. 
At one o'clock the sea was very high, and about all the Satellite 
could stand. It would have availed little then to have made 
out a sail, for the sea was too rough for boarding, and small 
boats would probably have swamped in such weather. At two 
o'clock the Satellite turned back, and a little before day made 
Stingray Point. Fearing the Currituck might have returned 
during the night and dropped into the anchorage, Lieut. Wood 
sent up a signal light; but it was not answered, and the Satel- 
lite ran safely inside. 

In the gray of Monday morning the steamer ran some five 
miles up the river, and came to anchor near Gray's Point. 
Being out all night, as well as the two nights previous, every- 
body was much exhausted, and, as soon as the anchor dropped 
over the side, nearly all dropped to sleep upon the deck. Having 
suffered severely from sea-sickness during the night, the 
cavalry men were a forlorn-looking set, and it was pitiful ta 
see their pale, uneasy faces. 



THE CONFEDERATE STATES NAVY. 125 

Nothing of importance occurred during the day. The sea 
still ran high, and the wind increased in strength. About 
night three sails made their appearance in the bay, all beat- 
ing down upon the starboard tack directly towards the Satel- 
lite. Lieut, Wood made out towards them, and for an hour 
or two chased the larger of the two down towards Gwin's 
Island and the mouth of the Piankatank. About nine o'clock 
she was overhauled, and proved to be the schooner Golden 
Rod, laden with coals from Baltimore, and bound for Maine. 
The other two sail (schooners both) had anchored just inside 
the point, and these were picked up upon the return. They 
were the Two Brothers and the Coquette, anchor-sweepers, from 
Philadelphia. Both had a number of very fine anchors and 
cables on board. Taking the three in tow, the Satellite ran 
up to Urbana again, and let go anchors. As the Reliance had 
but a few bushels of coal left, she was sent up to Port Royal 
that morning, but after the capture of the Golden Rod she was 
ordered to return. 

Running the Satellite alongside the schooner, Lieut. Wood 
took on board coal to last a day or two, and prepared to run 
down the river. The schooners were made ready for burning, 
and instructions left with Lieut. Hudgins to take charge of 
them and apply the match should the enemy appear before 
the return of the Satellite. 

Remaining but a few hours of Tuesday at Urbana, for 
the purpose of ministering to the wounded in the fight, Lieut. 
Wood again ran down the river and laid under lee of the land, 
some two miles from the bay, waiting patiently for "some- 
thing to turn up." The sea seemed to be higher than before, 
and the white foam caps flashed in the light, and the heavy 
breakers dashed upon the beach with their continuous, sad- 
dening roar. It was too much for the Satellite — the elements 
were against her. From a picket it was ascertained that the 
Currituck had arrived off the Piankatank, communicated with 
the shore, and afterwards steamed rapidly in the direction of 
Fortress Monroe, It was evident, then, she was aware of the 
nature of Lieut. Wood's exploit, and had gone for aid. Sure 
enough, later in the evening, the black smoke-stacks of three 
large gunboats became visible in the distance. 

Had the weather been favorable, Lieut. Wood intended to 
have run out before the steamers came up; but the pilots de- 
cided the sea was too rough for the engines. This being the 
case, Lieut. Wood had the choice of an unequal fight or a re- 
treat up the river. The odds were too great for the former, 
and the Satellite headed for Urbana. 

Lieut. Hudgins had returned with the Reliance and was 
coaling alongside the captured schooner, and the Satellite was 
quickly moored close to the Reliance. The storm continuing 
with great violence put an end to all movements by either 
side, and when Wednesday morning broke clear and cold the 



126 THE CONFEDERATE STATES NAVY. 

river was very rough. However, a pilot was obtained from 
the shore and preparations were made to run up to Port Royal, 
where the steamers and the prizes could be dismantled. The 
larger schooner drew eleven feet of water, and this the pilot 
thought too much to be gotten up without difficulty; so at day- 
light she was fired. Taking the other two prizes in tow the 
Satellite started on, pilot Moore bringing up the Reliance close 
behind. After a few miles he brouglit her alongside the Satel- 
lite, and the two then worked together, making quite good 
time against the strong ebb-tide and the high headwind. 

The Confederate flag was flying from the Satellite, and 
from some old bunting on board the officers of the Reliance 
improvised a small flag of the new pattern — the white ground 
with battle-flag union. The advance caused considerable ex- 
citement on the route: the people did not know what to make 
of it. Some stared in mute astonishment, others thought it a 
trick of the Yankees, others again greeted the little fleet with 
enthusiastic cheers. 

Upon arrival at Port Royal, where was stationed some 
Confederate artillery, the approaching fleet was hailed and 
warned not to approach the shore. But a boat dispatched 
from the vessels explained their true character and changed a 
hostile aspect into pleasant and welcoming shouts. 

Early on Thursday, Lieut. Wood reported to the officer in 
command at Port Royal, where a detachment of Confederate 
cavalry and artillery had been protecting a foraging train. 
The Federal troops were at King George C. H., some fifteen 
miles distance, and from which an attack might be expected 
as soon as the news of the arrival of the captured steamers 
was made known. After two days' hard work, there was 
nothing left upon the Satellite and the Reliance, and their 
guns were on shore and in battery to resist any approach of 
the enemy. 

This bold and unexampled expedition was particularly an- 
noying to the administration of the Federal Navy Department. 
It had occurred in the very track of their communication be- 
tween Washington and McClellan's base of operations. It 
was liable to repetition, and the captured vessels offered the 
means of greater expedition among the many vessels sailing 
on the Chesapeake Bay. The Currituck, as anticipated by 
Lieut. Wood, did report his exploit to the gunboat Meigs, and 
an expedition for their recapture started, but returned empty- 
handed. 

In the meantime Lieut. Wood had arrived at Port Royal 
and was securing the fruits of his enterprise. Four wagons 
were set to work transporting the cargo and other captured 
material to Milford Station, on the R. F. and P. R. R. Lieut. 
Wood went to Richmond to procure more transportation, 
leaving Lieut. Hudgins in command. To Washington the 
report was carried "by Capt. Bates, of Gen. Sickles' staffs 



THE CONFEDERATE STATES NAVY. 127 

that information had been received at the headquarters of tlie 
Third Army Corps that Gen. Kilpatrick succeeded in sinking- 
the recently captured gunboats Reliance and Satellite, on the 
Rappahannock, twelve miles below Fredericksburg." 

Nothing of the kind occurred; the Federal cavalry did at- 
tack and did attempt to destroy the vessels, but was driven off 
by Col. Hardwick with an Alabama regiment that happened 
to be in Port Royal protecting a foraging train. Everything- 
valuable was taken from the captured steamers, and on Fri- 
day they were burned by Lieut. Wood. Gen. Kilpatrick's 
attack was on Tuesday evening and Wednesday morning pre- 
ceding. It accomplished nothing whatever toward the de- 
struction of the Satellite and Reliance, which were burned on 
Friday, by the order of Lieut. Woo.d, because they could not be 
of any further service to the Confederacy. The expedition 
was a most brilliant success, illustrating the dash and enter- 
prise of the C. S. navy, and a mortifying blow upon the 
U. S. Chesapeake flotilla, as well as securing valuable material 
for the navy and the army of the Confederacy. In its moral 
effect it aroused enthusiasm and kept alive the spirit of resist- 
ance, teaching the lesson that amid reverses there was still 
the chance of victory and the hope of success. 

The capture of these two steamers was investigated by a 
U. S. Naval Court of Inquiry, which reported that it was the 
result of a complete surprise, and by order of Secretary Welles 
the officers commanding the steamers were dismissed the 
service. 



CHAPTER VII 
HAMPTON ROADS. 



THE magnificent estuary of Hampton Roads, lying behind 
the guns of Fortress Monroe and the Rip Raps, receives 
the waters of the James River, which flow immediately 
past Richmond; while on the Elizabeth River, its other 
principal tributary, the greatest naval station and ship and 
ordnance yard of the United States is located. The central 
position of this great harbor, almost equally distant from the 
north and from the south portion of the Atlantic sea-board, 
made its possession and control of the greatest importance to 
both sections of the Union. And while the storm of war was 
gathering, and yet had not taken positive shape, both parties 
— at least Virginia and the United States — kept the possession 
of this harbor constantly in view. The report that the guns 
of Fortress Monroe had been turned "landward'' produced 
very great excitement in the Virginia Convention, even after 
resolutions looking to secession had been overwhelmingly 
defeated; and, if the report had not been contradicted, would 
have precipitated action quite as decided as did Mr. Lincoln's 
proclamation calling for 75,000 troops. While this anxiety about 
the possession of the Roads was very great, neither Virginia 
nor the United States seemed disposed to disturb the uncer- 
tain calm of public affairs by open efforts to secure the pos- 
session of the harbor; but both seemed to tacitly submit to the 
stahis quo in the hope that events might yet be so shaped as 
to avoid collision. But while President Lincoln and Mr. Seward 
were endeavoring to prevent a collision in Charleston, and to 
preserve their pledged word with South Carolina that the situa- 
tion should not be changed, it was a part of the secret purpose 
of the war wing of the Republican party, headed by Secretaries 
Welles and Stanton, not only to precipitate a collision in 
Charleston Harbor but to provoke a like assault at Norfolk. 

To that end, before Sumter was assaulted, and while the 
Virginia Convention was anxiously holding the State to her 
moorings in the Union, against the efforts of the secession 

(128) 



THE CONFEDERATE STATES NAVY. 129 

minority, Mr. Welles addressed his order of April 10th to Capt. 
C. S. McCauley, commandant of the navy-yard at Norfolk, 
to prepare the steamer Merrimac for sea, and to dispatch her 
to Philadelphia. The right of the government to control the 
movements of its war-ships is undeniable, but the prudence 
of changing the situation of affairs at Norfolk, just after the 
State Convention had refused to secede, can only be com- 
mended as a sequence to Mr. Welles' purpose to force Virginia 
into hostile action, as he was about to compel South Carolina 
to assault Sumter. The expedition of Capt. Fox to Charles- 
ton Harbor, and the letters of the Secretary to Capt. McCau- 
ley, of the 10th, 11th, and 12th of April, are not only contem- 
poraneous, but they are important parts in the scheme to 
preserve the unity of the Republican party by involving the 
country in civil war. Hoping and believing that the bad 
faith involved in dispatching the Fox expedition to Charles- 
ton would light the fires of strife, Mr, Welles determined to 
force Virginia to declare her position, and no better device 
could have been selected than that of changing the peaceful 
situation of affairs at Norfolk. In furtherance of that scheme 
he dispatched, on the 14th of April, Engineer Isherwood to 
Norfolk with orders to take charge of the Merrimac, repair her 
machinery, and remove her to Philadelphia. The condition 
of her machinery was such that she could have been removed 
on the 18th, but Capt. McCauley, anxious not to assume the 
responsibility of provoking the State of Virginia into seces- 
sion, refused on the 16th to permit the frigate to be removed. 
Secretary Welles, knowing that the Fox expedition had re- 
sulted in collision, wrote to Capt. McCauley on the IGth April 
that "no time should be lost in getting her (the Merrimac's) 
armament on board," and in placing that vessel and the others 
capable of being removed, with the public property, ordnance, 
stores, etc., " beyond the reach of seizing "; and confident that 
he had fired the train of civil war, he concluded his letter of 
the IGth with instructions that " the vessels and stores under 
your charge you will defend at any hazard, repelling by force, 
if necessary, any and all attempts to seize them, whether by 
mob violence, organized effort, or any assumed authority." 
The Cumherland frigate had been ordered to Vera Cruz be- 
fore Mr. Welles' scheme for provoking assault by South Caro- 
lina had been worked through the Cabinet of Mr. Lincoln; 
but, after the fall of Sumter, the Cumberland's departure 
was rendered '' inexpedient " by "a state of things" which 
Mr. Welles had brought about; so, on the 16th April, he 
ordered Capt. Pendergrast, of the Cumherland, not to depart 
for the Gulf, because "events of recent occurence, and the 
threatening attitude of affairs in some parts of our country, 
call for the exercise of great vigilance and energy at Norfolk." 
Affairs at Norfolk were not managed by Secretary Welles 
with the same success which had crowned his expedition under 



130 THE CONFEDERATE STATES NAVY. 

Capt. Fox to Sumter, where, to use tlie language of the Secre- 
tary's panygerist, Chaphiiu Boynton. it was "very important 
that the rebels should strike the first blow in the conflict.''' 

A timidity, both moral and physical, existed among the 
Federal officers at the Norfolk navy-yard, which prevented 
any fixity of purpose or any resolution of action. Whether 
to fly from the yard with the ships, or stay and defend both 
yard and ships, was a very difficult question to decide, and, 
whichever way determined, involved the most serious conse- 
quences. Those officers found themselves on the very verge 
of war, not with a foreign nation, but with their fellow- 
citizens — their friends and relatives — with States in the 
Union under one political theory, and out of the Union under 
another. The moral embarrassments that surrounded them 
involved no suspicion of their loyalty, and their gallantry 
before and after prevents any question of their courage on 
that occasion. 

Governor Letcher, of Virginia, on the 18th of April, after 
the passage of the Ordinance of Secession, ordered Major Gen. 
William B.Taliaferro, of the State Militia, to "forthwith 
take command of the State troops which are now or may be 
assembled at the city of Norfolk," to which city he was ordered 
to depart instantly; and on the same day, Robert B. Pegram and 
Catesby Ap R. Jones were appointed captains in the navy, and 
Capt. Pegram was ordered "' to proceed to Norfolk and there 
assume command of the naval station, with authority to or- 
ganize naval defences, enroll and enlist seamen and marines, 
and temporarily to appoint warrant officers, and to do and 
perform whatever may be necessary to preserve and protect 
the property of the commonwealth and of the citizens of 
Virginia," and he was further directed to cooperate with the 
land forces under Gen. Taliaferro. 

Under these orders, Gen. Taliaferro, with Capt. Henry 
Hetli and Major Nat. T3der of his staff, and Capts. Pegram 
and Jones, repaired to Norfolk, arriving on the night of the 
18th. The situation of affairs, both Federal and State, at Nor- 
folk, on the morning of the 19th of April, was that the Federal 
authorities had there "the U. S. frigate Cumberland, twenty- 
four guns, fully manned, ready for sea, and under orders for 
Vera Cruz ; the brig Dolphin, four guns, fully manned, and 
ready for sea; the sloop Germantown, twenty-two guns, fully 

1 Of Chaplain Boynton's History of the relations with a party who had given him an 

Navy during the Rebellion, Admiral Porter easy office, in order that he might have time to 

says : " He received his information from that devote himself solely to writing his Naval 

(the Navy Department) source, and naturally History. Many otficers of the navy say it Is 

followed it as that to be put in his history, only a history of the Naval Department." It 

whereas a historian should leave nothing un- is not suiprising that a book written under 

done to obtain a true statement of aft'airs. Mr. such inspiration should have been not only 

Boynton, while writing bis history, held an ap- unjust and partial in United States naval 

pointment under the Navy Department, which matters, but foul - mouthed with epithets 

he could only bold as long as his writings were toward Confederate affairs. Its reliability is 

acceptable to its chief ; * * * Where articles clouded with suspicion of its motives, and 

were jirejiared for his book, he could not very its statements poisoned with the malice of its 

well reject or I'evise them without severing his patron. 



THE CONFEDERATE STATES NAVY. 131 

manned, ready for sea; the sloop Plymouth, twenty-two guns, 
ready for sea; the marines of the navy-yard, and the guards 
of the frigate Raritan, sixty guns, in ordinary; the frigate 
Columbia, fifty guns, in ordinary; the frigate United States, 
fifty guns, in ordinary ; the steam-frigate Merrimac, forty 
guns, under repairs; the ship of tlie line Delaivare, seventy- 
four guns, in ordinary; the ship of the line Columbus, seventy- 
four guns, in ordinary, and the ship of the line Pennsylvania, 
120 guns, ''receiving-ship" — all lying at the yard or in the 
stream. The yard was walled around with a high brick inclos- 
ure, and protected by the Elizabeth River, and there were over 
800 marines and sailors with officers. 

On the side of Virginia the situation was: that of Gen. Talia- 
ferro with his staff ; Capt, Heth and Major Tyler, two volun- 
teer companies — the Blues of Norfolk and the Grays of Ports- 
mouth — and Capts. Pegram and Jones of the navy. These 
were the only troops in Norfolk, until after the evacuation of 
the navy-yard and the departure of the Federal ships. 

Whatever information may have been received by Capt. 
McCauley on "Friday, the 19th of April," about Virginia state 
troops arriving at Portsmouth and Norfolk in numbers from 
Richmond, Petersburg, and the neighborhood, had its only 
foundation in the rwse de guerre practiced by Wm. Mahone, 
President of the Norfolk and Petersburg Railroad, by run- 
ning empty cars up the railroad a few miles, where they re- 
ceived some citizens from the neighborhood, and then return- 
ing to the city, with every man yelling with all his might, and 
thereby creating the desired impression of large reinforce- 
ments pouring into the city. 

It was not until Saturday night, the 20th, that the first re- 
inforcements arrived from Petersburg, numbering about 400 
men; on Sunday the Richmond Grays, and on Monday three 
companies from Georgia arrived, and after that troops con- 
tinued to arrive until the post was fully garrisoned. At the 
evacuation of the yard, the State force was only the two vol- 
unteer companies in Norfolk and Portsmouth — the aggregate 
of which was outnumbered by the command on board any one 
of the U. S. ships in the navy. The batteries spoken of by 
Commander McCauley as being thrown up opposite the navy- 
yard, and which he said " were distinctly seen from the mast- 
head of the Cumberland, though screened from sight below 
by the intervening trees " — had no existence then, nor at any 
other time. Gen. Taliaferro, having no means at his command 
with which to oppose the passage of the ships from the navy- 
yard, relied largely upon the demoralization existing in the 
yard, for the effect of his promise " that to save the effusion 
of blood, he would permit the Cumberland to leave the port un- 
molested, if the destruction of property should be discontinued." 
The reply of Com. Paulding "that any act of violation on 
their part would devolve upon them the consequences" — 



132 THE CONFEDERATE STATES NAVY. 

was received by Gen. Taliaferro as a Parthian arrow shot by 
a flying foe; and having literally no force of any kind that 
could molest ships-of-war, he was forced to see the fly- 
ing squadron escape. The obstructions placed in the channel 
of Elizabeth River were not so placed as to prevent the men- 
of-war from escaping — for it was not desirable to shut up in 
Elizabeth River so formidable a force of armed ships as then 
floated on her waters. Those obstructions were a part of the 
intimidation mode of assault which Mr. Mahone carried out 
on land, and the old hulks in the water — designed only to 
threaten the closing of the river — and the capture of the 
ships by the large land force that was represented as arriving 
on the noisy but empty cars. At the same time, an opening 
was left, which Lieut. Murray found — a golden bridge for a 
flying foe — through which ships which could not be captured 
might escape. 

Capt. McCauley's report shows that on the 20th he was in- 
formed by Col. Heth, Gen. Taliaferro's aide-de-camp, that 
there were no batteries being constructed, and Lieut. Self ridge, 
of the Cumberland, confirmed the statement. The State had 
seceded but three days before, and Gen. Taliaferro had been in 
Norfolk but two days, so that under ordinary circumstances the 
Federal officers would have realized the impossibility of there 
being any formidable force threatening the yard. These offi- 
cers were demoralized by the political situation, and did not 
understand how to make war on a State, and were not prompt 
to commence hostilities on Virginia cities, as long as the ad- 
ministration at Washington had not declared war. Even 
the naval critic will find extenuation and apology for these 
gallant and brave men, Avho found themselves confronted 
with the appalling horror of being the first to commence 
civil war. 

The Norfolk navy-yard, which fell into the hands of Vir- 
ginia on the 20th April, was three-quarters of a mile long and 
a quarter mile wide. It was by far the most extensive and val- 
uable one in the United States. It had a granite dry dock like 
that at Charlestown, Mass. The yard was covered with ma- 
chine shops, houses for officers, and store-houses of various 
kinds. It was provided with two ship-houses complete, and 
one unfinished ; marine barracks, sail loft, riggers' loft, gun- 
ners' loft, shops for carpenters and machinists, and a large 
amount of tools and machinery, besides great quantities of 
materials, provisions, and ammunition of every description. 
There were 1,108 guns of all kinds captured with the yard, of 
which fiftj'^-two were nine-inch Dahlgren guns. Lying at the 
yard was the Merrimac, worth $1,200,000; the Plymouth waA 
Germantown, twenty-two guns each ; and the Dolphin, four 
guns — all efficient vessels. The old Pennsylvania was in com- 
mission as a receiving-ship; and the Delaware, eighty-four; 
Columbus, eighty guns ; and the Columbia and Baritan, fifty 



THE CONFEDERATE STATES NAVY. 133 

guns each, were lying in ordinary at the yard, and the ship-of- 
the-line New York was on the stocks. The Cumbe)'land,Commo- 
dore Pendergrast, lay in a position that commanded completely 
the cities of Norfolk and Portsmouth. The total property was 
estimated by the U. S. Navy Department at §9,760,181. 

Immediately upon the withdrawal of the U. S. ships, the 
citizens broke into the j'ard and began the work of saving prop- 
erty. The magnificent dry-dock was found mined and con- 
taining twenty barrels of powder, the train to which had 
failed, from some cause unknown, to ignite the mine, and the 
dry dock was saved. The ships that were scuttled and fired 
were saved from total destruction by sinking, the ship-houses 
and much other valuable propert}^ were destroyed, but a vast 
amount of property of inestimable value to the Confederate 
States was saved. On Monday morning, Lieut. C F. M. Spotts- 
wood raised the flag of Virginia over the yard, and the State 
assumed authority over all the property. 

The report of William H. Peters, made to the Governor 
of Virginia, of an inventory of property captured at the fall 
of the Norfolk navy-yard, makes the following statement: 

" It is difficult to estimate the value of property destroyed on the 
night of April 20th, 1861, when the Federal forces, having previously fired 
the navy-yard, evacuated it. The extensive row of buildings on the north 
front of the yard, containing large quantities of manufactured articles 
and valuable material — such as pivot gun-carriages, several full sviites of 
sails for frigates and sloops of -war, a very large number of hammocks and 
bags, and immense quantities of canvas, cordage, etc., etc., were, with 
their contents, entirely destroyed. 8hip-houses A and B, which were 
very large wooden structures, the foi-mer containing the line-of-battle 
ship New York, on the stocks, were also totally destroyed. So, also, were 
the buildings used as barracks; the latter, however, were of but little value." 

The report gives the following account of the attempt to 
destroy the dry dock: 

" The dry dock did not escape attention. Twenty-six barrels of pow- 
der (a quantity sufficient to have destroyed the dock and every building 
at the south end of the yard) were found disturbed in the culvert on its 
north side, and across the head of the dock. These barrels were con- 
nected by a train, continuing on to the inner steps at the bottom of the 
dock, where it is supposed slow matches were placed for ignition at a pre- 
arranged moment. The plan, however, was happily discovered in time 
to frustrate it. Lieut. C. F. M. Spottswood, of the navy, to whom the 
discovery was reported early on the morning of the 21st, promptly 
directed the opening of the gates, when the dock was flooded, and thus 
saved from destruction." 

The number of guns in the yard is not stated, but the fol- 
lowing general remarks are made: 

" Many heavy cannon were spiked, and for the time rendered useless; 
but they have since been restored. Some had their trunnions broken off. 
The small arms (of which there were in the yard 1,32!) carbines, 274 rifled 
muskets, 950 naval pistols, and 337 Colt's revolvers) were in part carried 
off in the frigate Cumberland, and the remainder broken and thrown 
overboard. 



134 THE CONFEDERATE STATES NAVY. 

" I had purposed offering some remarks upon the vast importance to 
Virginia, and to the entire South, of the timely acquisition of tliis exten- 
sive naval deijot, with its immense supplies of munitions of war, and to 
notice briefly the damaging effects of its loss to the government at Wash- 
ington; but I deem it unnecessary, since the presence at almost eveiy ex- 
posed point on the wliole southern coast, and at the numerous inland 
intrenched camps in the several States, of heavy pieces of ordnance, with 
their equipments and fixed ammunition, all supplied from this establish- 
ment, fully attests the one, while the unwillingness of the enemy to at- 
tempt demonstrations at any point, from which he is obviously deterred 
"by the knowledge of its well-fortified condition, abundantly proves the 
other — esi)ecially when it is considered that both he and we are wholly 
indebted for our means of resistance to his loss and our acquisition of the 
Gosport navy-yard." 

To the report there are appended elaborate tabular esti- 
mates of the vahie of the property seized. The w^orth of the 
land is given as follows: 

Navy-yard, proper, containing eighty-six acres . . $246,000 00 
St. Helena, containing thirty-eight acres . . . 13,000 00 
Naval hospital, containing 100 acres .... 20,000 00 

Fort Norfolk, containing six acres 10,000 GO 

Total $288,000 00 

The estimates of the improvements are: 

Improvements at navy-yard 2,944,800 00 

Improvements at St. Helena 8,300 00 

Improvements at naval hos])ital . . . . . 622,800 00 

Improvements at naval magazine 136,580 68 

Improvements at other points 226,000 00 

Total $3,938,480 68 

The worth of the vessels partially destroyed is thus esti- 
mated : 

Merrimac, steam-frigate $225,000 00 

Plymouth, first class sloop 40,000 00 



. 25.000 00 
6,000 00 
. 10,000 00 
10,000 00 
5,000 00 
1,000 00 
800 00 
100 00 
United States 10,000 00 



Germantown, first-class sloop . 
Pennsylvania, line-of-battle ship 
Delaware, line-of-battle ship 
Columbus, line-of battle shiiJ . 
Columbia, frigate .... 
Dolphin, brig .... 

Powder boat 

Water tank .... 



Total $332,900 00 

The value of the steam-engines and other apparatus is es- 
timated at $250, G7G. The following is a recapitulation: 

Value of territory $288,000 00 

Value of buildings and other improvements . . 3,938,480 68 

Value of vessels 332,900 00 

Value of engines, machinery, etc 250,676 00 

Total $4,810,056 68 



THE CONFEDERATE STATES NAVY. 135 

Gen. Taliaferro's appearance at Norfolk, as commanding 
officer of the Virginia forces, made it apparent to the people of 
that city, as well as to the officers of the navy-yard, that the Con- 
vention had passed the Ordinance of Secession. From that mo- 
ment the intensest excitement prevailed, for upon the pru- 
dence of the Virginia troops the safety of both Norfolk and 
Portsmouth depended. The Federal naval force in Elizabeth 
River was known to be too formidable for attack, and yet any 
imprudent or threatening preparations might invite severe 
and destructive retaliation. The demoralization existing in 
the navy-yard was well known in both cities, and was felt to 
be rather a danger than an aid towards the capture of the 
yard. The excitement which prevailed was by no means any 
indication of a sentiment of opposition to the secession of the 
State, and the statement made in the report of the Select Com- 
mittee of the U. S. Senate, ^ * * * " that at least a majority 
of the citizens of both Norfolk and Portsmouth were on the 
side of the Union, and would have been warmly and openly 
so had the government shown a strong hand and a timely de- 
termination to defend itself," has no foundation whatever in 
truth and fact. That "an election for Mayor was held in 
Portsmouth a few days previous to the surrender, at which 
the Union candidate was elected by an overwhelming ma- 
jority," no more proves the disloyalty of the people of that 
city to Virginia than the fact that the Virginia Convention, 
but a few days before the fall of Sumter, refused by an over- 
whelming majority to pass the Ordinance of Secession, estab- 
lished the loyalty of the State to the Union. Both the election 
in Portsmouth, and the defeat of secession in the Convention, 
preceded the fall of Sumter and the proclamation of Mr. Lin- 
coln, which revolutionized public sentiment throughout the 
State. Neither is it true, as stated by that committee, that 
"a voluntary military association, considerable in numbers 
and influence, was formed in Norfolk for the exclusive pur- 
pose of assisting in the defence of the yard against the insur- 
gents." From the 17th to the 20th — three days — was too short a 
period for the formation of a voluntary military organization, 
and there were no " insurgents " or other persons threatening 
the yard. The crowd that on the wharf jeei^ed at the Paumee as 
she passed up on the evening of the 30th, the committee of the 
Senate represents as cheering the steamer for her " deliverance 
of them from the perils and dishonor of a war against that Union 
which they loved." Many of that same crowd had, the night 
before, labored with great zeal and industry in bringing the kegs 
of powder from the U. S. magazine to the lighters which carried 
it to Richmond; and if their loyalty to the Union had been 
as intense as the committee represents, it would have con- 
veyed information to the navy-yard of what was taking place. 

1 Reiiort Com., No. 27— 27th Congress, 2d Sess. 



136 THE CONFEDERATE STATES NAVY. 

The averment of the Senate Committee in their report 
that "the officers of the yard were traitors in disguise, and 
continued nominally in the service of the government only 
that they might the more effectually compass their treason- 
able designs," has foundation only in the violence of the par- 
tisan passions of the committee. The officers alluded to were 
Capt. John R. Tucker, Commander Robert G. Robb, Lieut. C. 
F. M. Spottswood, and others, who, as long as the State (Vir- 
ginia) remained in the Union, desired to preserve the peaceful 
attitude of public affairs at Norfolk, and to that end, in per- 
fect honesty of purpose, and with fidelity to their oaths as 
United States officers, persuaded Capt. McCauley to do no act 
which would further complicate the situation at Norfolk. Not 
one of those officers would have surrendered the yard to any 
mob, or failed to defend it against unauthorized demand; but 
when the State of Virginia seceded from the Union, and as- 
serted her right to the yard, a very different question was 
presented. If the government at Washington would not de- 
clare war against a State, was it reasonable to expect officers 
of the navy to be quick to commence hostilities ? Capt. 
McCauley was instructed by Secretary Welles, on April 10th, 
that "it is desirable that no steps should be taken to give need- 
less alarm, but it may be best to order most of the shipping to 
sea or other stations"; and that as regarded the steamer Mer- 
rimac, "in case of danger from unlawful attempts to take 
possession of her, that she should be placed beyond their 
reach." Such carefully worded orders left to that officer the 
responsibility of determining what would be " unlawful at- 
tempts." The naval officers had witnessed arsenals, forts, and 
army surrendered to the demands of States throughout the 
South without even demur or objection by either the execu- 
tive or legislative authority of the United States; they had 
seen the flag of the Union fired upon, and the Star of the 
TFes^ driven from Charleston Harbor on the 8th of January, 
and neither President Buchanan nor President Lincoln ac- 
cepted the act as one of war, but both had submitted and 
continued negotiations looking toward a peaceful determina- 
tion of affairs. They had seen eight States secede from the 
Union and organize a separate and independent government 
without war, or even a preparation for hostilities by the United 
States. It was not within the duty of naval officers to inter- 
pret the proclamation of President Lincoln of April 15th, in re- 
gard to "combinations too powerful to be suppressed by the 
ordinary course of judicial proceedings," and calling on the 
States for 75,000 troops to " disperse" the" persons composing 
the combinations," as a declaration of war against the States. 
And when on the 16th of April, the next day after the publi- 
cation of that proclamation, Secretary Welles again wrote 
to Capt. McCauley, without even mentioning that call for 
troops, or intimating any purpose of the government to resist 



THE CONFEDERATE STATES NAVY. 137 

the demands of States, he alkided to "mob violence, organ- 
ized effort, or any assumed authority,'" he still avoided the 
use of language which would prescribe the officers' duty in 
the case of the State demanding possession of the navy-yard. 
The carefully worded orders of Secretary Welles might well 
have caused all the naval officers at Norfolk, whatever may 
have been their political opinions on the right of secession, 
to hesitate long before taking upon themselves the responsi- 
bility of hostilities which the government of Washington 
avoided, and to prefer destroying United States property to 
assuming the duty of either refusing the demand of the State 
of Virginia or of commencing hostilities. 

It was the unauthorized act of some of the people of Nor- 
folk which placed the first imperfect obstructions in the chan- 
nel; and, subsequently to the evacuation, the old ship United 
States was taken from the navy-yard by a tug and sunk at 
the mouth of the river. ' 

The burning of the navy-yard at Norfolk is almost a matter 
of inheritance; our forefathers, in the Revolution, burned the 
first navy-yard, to prevent it from falling into the hands of 
the British, the United States authorities again burned it, in 
1861, to deprive the State of Virginia of its use, and the fol- 
lowing year, for the third time, the yard was committed to the 
flames by the Confederate army. 

The connection of the State of Virginia with the navy-yard 
begun after its evacuation by the Federal officers, by assigning 
to its command Flag-officer French Forrest, who assumed com- 
mand, about April 25th, over all naval property of every kind; 
and at the same time Gen. Walter Gwynn superseded Gen. 
Taliaferro in command of the land forces. Gen. Gwynn was 
directed by Gen. Lee in exercising the command, to advise 
with, and as far as practicable to act, in relation to naval 
matters, in consonance with the views of the senior naval of- 
ficer present ; and it was further suggested to him that the in- 
terests of the State might be best served by employing naval 
oflScers in the construction and service of water batteries. The 
naval officers had laid out at Penner's Point a battery to mount 
twelve guns ; and on Seller's Point had marked out lines for 
three batteries of six guns each ; and they had prepared the 
grounds in front of the naval hospital for mounting fourteen 
guns on two faces, half of which, on April 27th, were ready for 
service, with navy furnaces for heating shot. This work was 
begun immediately after the evacuation, amid the greatest 
confusion and excitement caused by the movements of the 
Paivnee up and down Elizabeth River, as though meditating a 
visit back to Norfolk. Three guns and carriages were hastily 

1 It may be mentioned here, that Major ceed in cutting through her sides, and that 

Nat Tyler, in command of the party trying her final sinking was due to the suggestions 

to sink the old ship, broke and destroyed of an old sailor, to bore through from the 

two whole boxes of axes and did not sue- inside. 



138 THE CONFEDERATE STATES NAVY. 

moved from the navy-yard, and mounted in rear of the ground 
required to be broken for the battery ; 150 bales of cotton were 
sent over by Major Tyler to make a temporary cover for the 
men between the guns, should the Pawnee or Cumberland ven- 
ture back toward Norfolk. No such attempt was made, and 
the cotton was afterwards piled away to prevent its damage. 
At Fort Norfolk, Col. Talcott mounted guns to bear on the 
channel of Elizabeth River, and constructed a battery of five 
guns between the fort and the wharf. By moonlight, on Sun- 
day night, Col. Talcott and one assistant examined the ground 
on Craney Island, and Monday morning labor commenced to 
arrive from the plantations, until 120 working-men, with carts, 
constructed a battery for twenty guns — which covered all the 
channel-way from N. 58 W. to E. By the 27th April, batteries 
to mount sixty-one guns were under construction, and were 
soon after completed. Of these, fourteen were at the naval 
hospital, twelve at Penner's Point, and twenty on Craney 
Island ; at the same time, residents near Bushy Bluff began, 
and soon completed, a battery for four guns ; at Seller's Point 
a battery was afterwards erected. Capt. Dimmock, State 
Colonel of Ordnance, suggested to Gen. Lee the necessity for 
a laboratory to work upon all ammunition for the heavy 
pieces for stationary batteries, and that Norfolk was the 
most suitable place for the same, and that Capt. Minor, 
of the navy, approved of this suggestion ; but Norfolk was 
not considered a safe place at that time for such a work, 
and, on May 30th, Lieut. John M. Brooke, of the navy, acting 
Aide-de-camp to Gen. Lee, instructed Gen. Gwynn to re^ 
move from Norfolk all "materials," etc., such as powder, 
shot, cannon, pikes, and shells, as are not required for the 
defence of that city. The pikes were to do service with 
cavalry in the stead of sabres, of which there was a very great 
deficiency. 

Notwithstanding the seizure of the navy-yard at Norfolk, 
commercial and hostile intercourse continued between Nor- 
folk and Baltimore until April 30th, when Capt. Pendergrast, 
flag-officer commanding home squadron, announced that he 
had a sufficient naval force off Fortress Monroe for the pur- 
pose of carrying out President Lincoln's Proclamation of 
Blockade. From that date all communication, other than such 
as was surreptitiously carried on, ceased between Virginia and 
the United States. The Wm. Selden, of the Baltimore Steam 
Packet Company, carrying the mails between Norfolk and Bal- 
timore, having been allowed to pass in, notwithstanding an 
official announcement of effective blockade, was seized at 
Norfolk by the Confederate authorities. On May 1st, the 
blockade of the James River commenced. 

Commander Archibald B. Fairfax was put in charge of 
the ordnance department of the navy-yard, and he immedi- 
ately begun that important work of banding and rifling the 



THE CONFEDERATE STATES NAVY. 130 

thirty-two-pounders of fifty-seven and sixty-tliree hundred- 
weight, ' 

These banded guns were regarded by Capt. W. H. 
Parker as the ''most important improvement made in our 
ordnance during the war," and when placed on the small 
steamer Harmony enabled her to place herself out of the 
" range of the guns of the U. S. frigates in Hampton Roads, 
and yet succeeded in hitting her several times." It was 
Capt. Fairfax that fitted out the Confederate vessels in 
:N"orfolk. 

Brig. Gen. Benjamin Huger, of the volunteer forces of 
Virginia, was assigned to the command of the troops in and 
around Norfolk, and relieved Gen. Gwynn on May 24tli; and 
on the 27th reported to Gen. Lee that the enemy from Fortress 
Monroe had landed from seven steamers many troops at New- 
port News, and that other steamers with troops had arrived at 
Fortress Monroe. The movements were considered as threat- 
ening the Nansemond River, which extends far back into the 
country on the south side of the James to the town of Suffolk, 
where it is crossed by the Norfolk and Petersburg railroad. 
The effect of that, or any other movement by which Suffolk 
would be held, would have severed all communication between 
Norfolk and Richmond, isolated the former city, and regained 
the navy-yard for the United States. To guard against such a 
movement, Gen. Lee diverted Georgia and North Carolina troops 
from their march to Virginia to Norfolk, and ordered Lieut. 
John M. Brooke, of the navy, to Petersburg, and thence to Zuni, 
for the protection of the bridges and to observe the movements 
of the enemy — if any should be made to the south side of the 
James. The battery erected at Jamestown by Gen. Magruder 
was placed under the protection of the steamer, under the com- 
mand of Capt. James Barron, on May 28th. The position of 
the Federal detachment at Newport News, while threatening 
to the State authorities, was itself exposed and liable to assault. 
To that end. Col. Francis J. Thomas, commanding at Suffolk, 
Virginia, two Maryland companies — a regiment from North 
Carolina and two companies of cavalry — asked permission. 
May 31st, of Gen. Lee, to cross the James River and strike a 
blow and then retire : that he could bring a tug and a steam- 
boat into Nansemond River, which could transport his com- 
mand across. He was ordered by Gen. Lee to get the boats 
ready, but not to make the attack at once, unless completely 
prepared for success. The reinforcement of the detachment 
at Newport News postponed Col. Thomas' intended assault, 
and induced Gen. Lee, June 18th, to order Lieut. R. R. Carter, 

1 Of these bauded guns, Adiiiiral Louis cylindrical ring, and so rifled in the bore as to 

Goldsborough, U. S. N., vprote to Mr. Secretary admit of the use of round shot and ympe.as well 

AVelles : "His (the Confederate's) gun is the as shells, by the simple interposition of a junk 

thirty-two pounder of fifty-seven and sixty-three wad between the charge of powder and the shot 

hundred-weight, beautifully fortified at the or stand of grape. His ordnance ari'angements 

breech-end by a long and massive wrought-iron throughout exhibit great skill and ingenuity." 



140 THE CONFEDERATE STATES NAVY. 

commanding the Confederate' steam-tender Teaser, to unite 
with the batteries at Jamestown Island in defence of James 
River, and to be employed in obtaining intelligence of the 
movements of hostile vessels and the landing of troops on either 
side of the river. 

On May 30th, Flag-officer Forrest announced to Gen. Lee 
that "we have the Merrimac up, and just hauling her into 
the dry dock." By the 27tli of June, the sloop-of-war German- 
town was gotten afloat, and her fine battery of ten large guns 
were recovered from the bottom of the river uninjured, 
though a little rusty. The spars and rigging of the German- 
town were burned off, but the hull was found uninjured ma- 
terially; the Plymouth was being rapidly repaired, she was 
the least injured of any of the vessels. The hull of the Merri- 
mac was found not to be materially injured, and the machinery 
was thought at that early review of the ship not to require any 
very great repairs. On July the 25th, while there Avas no 
work being done on tlie Merrimac, all the machine shops were 
engaged, under Commodore Forrest, in repairing damages done 
by the fire, and getting ready for work on the vessels. The 
northern wall of the yard had been lined with many pieces of 
heavy ordnance, and the defences of Norfolk were nearly 
completed. 

While the military and naval authorities at Norfolk were 
putting the Elizabeth River in a state of defence to protect 
Norfolk, Portsmouth, and the navy-yard from assault by the 
U. S. forces, then assembling at Fortress Monroe, the James 
River, which opened a practicable route to Richmondj was 
also being prepared to prevent any ascent to the capital of the 
State, and afterwards of the Confederate States. Gen. Lee, on 
April 29th, ordered Col. Talcott to proceed up James River to 
the vicinity of Burwell's Bay, and select the most suitable 
point for the erection of a battery to prevent the ascent of the 
river by the enemy, and, after laying-off the works, to leave 
their completion to Lieut. C. Ap R. Jones of the Virginia navy, 
and then to proceed to the mouth of the Appomattox or to old 
Fort Powliatan, and select sites for defensive fortification to 
be constructed under the supervision of Commander J. W. 
Cooke. 

The battery at Fort Powhatan was constructed, and placed 
under the command of Capt. Harrison F. Cocke, who had re- 
signed his commission in the U. S. navy; and Lieuts. John 
Wilkinson and C. S. and George Noland, C. S. navy, were 
attached to the battery, which was supported by several com- 
panies of Virginia volunteers. It was situated a short distance 
below City Point, and mounted six or eight forty-two-pound 
guns on ships' carriages, which had been transported from the 
Norfolk navy-yard. When the position was considered no 

1 Theproclamationof Gen. Letcher of June 8th States the command of all the officers, seamen 
transferred to the authorities of the Confederate and marines of the Provisional Navy of Virginia. 



THE CONFEDERATE STATES NAVY. 141 

longer tenable, the guns were removed, and Lieut. Wilkinson 
was ordered to the command of a battery at Aquia Creek. 

Col. J. B. Magruder, of the Provisional Army of Virginia, 
was placed in command of the troops and military operations 
on the peninsula on May 21st, with directions to take measures 
for the safety of the batteries at Jamestown and Yorktown. 
Gen. Lee, on June 15th, wrote to Governor Letcher, that for 
the defence of James River two batteries and two steamers 
have been provided, mounting altogether forty guns, ranging 
in calibre from thiry-two-pounders to eight and nine-inch 
Columbiads ; that arrangements were also in progress for 
mounting sixty guns of different weight in the defences 
around Richmond, and a naval battery of six to twelve-pounder 
howitzers was in progress of organization. The two steamers 
mentioned by Gen. Lee were the Yorktown, late the Patrick 
Heni'ii, of the New York and Old Dominion Steamship Line, 
and the Jamestown, of the same line, afterwards called the 
Thomas Jefferson. 

The naval defences of James River were placed under the 
charge of Capt. George N. Hollins, C. S. navy, on July 10th, 
18G1, who was advised by Gen. Lee to push forward the 
armaments as fast as possible, and to continue the examina- 
tion of the river from Day's Point to Mulberry Point, with a 
view of ascertaining the best metliods of commanding its navi- 
gation. The batteries at Mulberry Point and on the point 
opposite, as well as interrupting, the navigation of Swash 
Channel, was called to the attention of Capt. Hollins. Under 
the advice of Lieut. Jones, of the navy, the defences at James- 
town Island were strengthened by the erection of a battery 
on the Point to command the entrance into the creek, and 
armed with two thirty -two -pounder (fifty -seven hundred- 
weight) guns. 

The Patrick Henry, though not at all fitted for fighting, 
had to be taken as the best that the State could do when she 
seceded. By taking off her cabins, strengthening her decks, 
Lieut. William Llewellyn Powell, ' her executive officer, was 
able to make " her answer pretty well." Lieut. Powell is be- 
lieved to have been the first officer to fully comprehend the 
necessity for shielding the ships with iron, and, urging this 
improvement upon the Secretary of the Navy, he obtained 
permission to make the experiment on the Patrick Henry. 
One-inch iron plates were put abreast her boilers, extending a 
foot, perhaps two, below the water-line, and ran a few feet 
forward and abaft her engines and boilers. One inch, though 
not much protection, was all the merchant-ship could bear; 
and iron shields, in the form of a V, on the spar-deck forward 
and abaft her engines, which, when fighting head or stern on, 
afforded good protection from raking shots, as well as afforded 

1 He resigned from the navy and died a brigadier-general at Fort Morgan before its fall. 



143 THE CONFEDERATE STATES NAVY. 

some protection to the walking-beam of that side-wheel 
steamer. 

The Jamestoivn, the sister-ship of the Yorktoivn, became 
the Thomas Jefferson, but was always known by the name of 
the Jamestoivn. The Jamestown, the Patrick Henry and the 
Teaser, a river tug mounting one gun, composed the C. S. 
James River squadron, which was under the command of 
Capt. John R. Tucker. However much may have been hoped 
for from this little fleet, its possibilities of usefulness were 
limited more by the discretion and dash of the commander 
than by the fighting power of the ships. The iron shield of the 
Patrick Henry was a protection, but the vulnerability of the 
ship was but little helped by the thin shield of iron over her 
engines and boilers. Capt. Tucker, however, was not the man 
to accept the excuse of the weakness of his fleet for not seek- 
ing the enemy. So, on the loth of September, he steamed down 
to Newport News to feel the enemy and put a limit to gun- 
boat excursions up James River. Off the point lay the U. S. 
steamer Savannah, the U. S. sloop Cumberland, the U. S. 
steamer Louisiana, and on the land the heavy batteries of 
the enemy as well as a battery of light artillery on the banks 
of the stream. Capt. Tucker had, on the 7th of the month, 
taken position, at Gen. Magruder's request, off Mulberry 
Island Point, where Harden's Point battery on the south closed 
the river to the enemy. Of this naval skirmish there is no 
report by Capt. Tucker, but the New York Herald correspond- 
ent gives the following "facts": 

" On the afternoon of Friday, the 13th inst., the Yorktown ca,me down 
James River, and, choosing her distance, opened fire upon the fleet, the 
shots striking near the Savannah, which ship returned her fire from her 
large guns — the sliot, however, falhng a Jong way short. She also threw 
shells from her lower-deck guns, which burst in the air not more than 
one-third of the distance to the steamer. The Cumberland sloop-of-war 
fired two or three times, but, finding the shot fell short, ceased firing. The 
Sawyer gun in our battery on shore was fired too, but the shot struck 
from a quarter to half a mile ahead of the steamer. In the meantime, 
the U. S. steamer Louisiana got under way and advanced about three- 
quarters of a mile towards the Yorktown and opened an effective fire 
upon her, which was continued for more than an hoar, the Yorktown di- 
recting all her tire at the Louisana, none of the shot, however, striking 
her, although several came very near. 

"The l"o;-/v?own was finally forced to retire by a cross-fire from the 
Louisiana and Lieut. Cooke's battery of light artillery, which had gone 
up the bank of the river until the steamer was in range." 

The gunboats from Newport News and Fortress Monroe, 
together with armed tugs, had become annoying in the James 
River, and Capt. Tucker, learning that they were in the habit 
of ascending the river at night and withdrawing in the 
morning, was induced to take the first favorable opportunity 
to surprise and attack them. The morning of the 2d of De- 
cember, being dark and suitable for the enterprise, he left his 



THE CONFEDERATE STATES NAVY. 143 

anchorage, off Mulberry Island, at 4 A. M., and proceeded 
cautiously down the river, all lights carefully concealed. At 
early daylight he discovered four steamers anchored in line, 
near the side of the frigates, but in supporting distance of 
them and the battery at Newport News. He rounded-to at a 
supposed distance of amile,and commenced the attack with his 
port battery and pivot guns, which was returned by tlie steam- 
ers and the battery on shore from rifled and other guns. Many 
of the rifled shells came near and over the Patrick He7wy , and 
one struck her, going through the pilot-house and exploding 
in the starboard hammock nettings, producing slight injury, 
and wounding one of the pilots and a seaman very slightly 
by the splinters. The engagement lasted two hours, when he 
returned to his anchorage, the enemy evincing no disposition 
to advance either during the engagement or afterwards. He 
expended twenty-eight shells and thirteen solid shot, some of 
which must have struck, but with what injury to the enemy 
he was unable to say. At the request of Gen. Magruder, the 
Patrick Henmj and Jamestown remained between Mulberry 
Point and Harden's Bluff batteries. 

By Act of Congress of December 24th, conferring army 
rank upon such officers of the nav}^ as were commanding bat- 
teries on shore, Commander R. F. Pinkney, commanding Fort 
Norfolk, Commander Charles F. Mcintosh, commanding Fort 
Nelson, and Commander W. L. Maury, commanding Sewell's, 
were appointed lieutenant colonels; and Lieuts. George W. 
Harrison, commanding Penner's Point battery, R. R. Carter, 
commanding Pig Point battery, were appointed majors, and 
B. P. Loyall, assigned to Roanoke Island, was appointed 
captain. ' 

The three batteries at Cedar Point, Barrel Point and 
Pagan Creek, were in charge of Commander R. L. Page until 
he was relieved and sent to Gloucester Point. Gen, Huger 
says the batteries at Dog's Point and Harden's Bluff were 
also under the command of naval officers. 

The months of January and February, 1862, witnessed no 
naval movements or engagements in the waters of Hampton 
Roads and James River, but the time was used to strengthen 
the defences on shore and to complete the work on the 
Merrimac or Virginia. The correspondence of Union offi- 
cers show very accurate information of the kind of change 
being made in the Merrimac, as well as the progress towards 
her completion. Gen. McClellan advised Gen. Wool, on Feb- 
ruary 21st, that " the iron-clad steam monitor and a large frig- 
ate will be at Hampton Roads within the time you specify"; 
to which Gen. Wool replied, that " five days " was "the time 

1 Brevet Capt. J. S. Taylor, formerly a lieuten- promotion " as a most valuable artillery ofBcer." 

ant in the U. S. navy, but who had not been ap- Another naval officer holding oonimissiou in 

pointed in the C. S. navy, but to a second lieu- the army, was Brevet Capt. Jas. E.Milligan, signal 

tenancy in the army, was commanding Lambert's officer — he was in the revenue service, resigned. 

Point battery, tien. Huger recommended him for and took service under the State of Virginia. 



144 THE CONFEDERATE STATES NAVY. 

stated when the Merrimac, Yorktoicn and Jamestown would 
attack Newport News," The information received of the 
Virginia by the U. S. Navy Department was such that Secre- 
tary Welles wrote toCapt. John Marston, March 7th, to " send 
the St. Laivrence, Congress and Cumberland immediately into 
the Potomac River ; use steam to tow them up. I will also 
try and send a couple of steamers from Baltimore to assist. 
Let there be no delay." The order came too late. The 
Virginia had done her work upon the Congress and Cumber- 
land so effectually that their sailing days were over forever. 



CHAPTER VIII 

THE FIRST mON-CLAD. 



THE honor of having planned a vessel so novel in form, 
and so effective in battle, was early the subject of dis- 
cussion in the Confederacy ; and ever since has remained 
unsettled and disputed. In the March, 1884, number of 
the Century, Lieut. John Taylor Wood, of the late C. S. navy, 
awards the honor to "Lieut. (George) John M. Brooke, an ac- 
complished officer of the old navy," who he says proposed to 
Secretary Mallory to make and rebuild this ship (the Merri- 
mac) as an iron-clad. His plans were approved, and orders 
were given to carry them out." 

Commander John M. Brooke testified before the Investi- 
gating Committee of the Confederate Congress that: 

"The Secretary and myself had conversed upon the subject of pro- 
tecting ships with iron-cladding very frequently, and at last I proposed 
to him a plan. That was early in June, 1861, just after the Secretary 
came here from Montgomery. He approved of the plan, and I asked him 
to send to Norfolk for some practical ship-builder to draw out a plan in 
detail. He sent for one, and one of the employees of the yard, whose 
opinion then I did not favor, except that I heard he was a regular con- 
structor there, was sent up. He said he knew nothing of drafting, and al- 
though he approved of the general plan, he could not make the drawing. 
This was what 1 wanted done chiefly. He was here a few days, and com- 
plained of being made sick by the water, and was therefore pei-mitted to 
return to Norfolk. I then determined to go on with the drawing myself, 
but asked the Secretary to send for the naval constructor at Norfolk, and 
naval engineer, so that they might be consulted in relation to the vessel. 
They came up, and this constructor brought with him a model. I should 
have said that the name of the constructor was J. L. Porter. This model 
is now one of the models in the Secretary's room. It consisted of a shield 
and hull, the extremities of the hull terminating with a shield, forming a 
sort of box or scow upon which the shield was supported. The Secretary 
directed the constructor. Chief Engineer Williamson, and myself to meet 
him at my office here. We met there and this model was examined by us 
all, and the form of the shield was approved. It was considered a good 
shield, and, for ordinary purposes, a good boat for harbor defence. The 
Secretary then called the attention of Mr. Porter and Mr. Williamson to 
the drawing, giving a general idea of the vessel I proposed. The differ- 
ence between the model and my drawing consisted in the one I proposed, 

10 (U5) 



14G THE CONFEDERATE STATES NAVY. 

having the ends prolonged and shaped Hke those of any fast vessel, and» 
in order to protect them from the enemy, were to be submerged two feet 
under water, so that nothing was to be seen afloat but the shield itself. 
The object of having these parts of the vessel submerged was to gain 
speed and to have buoyancy without exposing the hull, and to avoid in- 
creasing the draft of water. Mr. Porter and Mr. Williamson, after look- 
ing at the drawing, approved of it, and the Secretary directed us to get 
up a vessel on that plan. Mr. Porter's shield and the one I proposed were 
almost identical. Mr. Porter, being a draftsman, immediately drew a 
plan of such a vessel of comparatively light draft. I think she was to 
draw something over eight feet of water. Mr. Williamson and myself 
went to look for engines. We went to the Tredegar Works and inquired 
there, but there were no suitable engines to be had. Mr. Porter com- 
pleted the draft and it is now in my office. Mr. Williamson subsequently 
stated that the engines of the Merrimao, could be repaired and made 
valuable, but that they could not be used well in any other vessel unless 
she had equal draft of water, or nearly equal. Mr. Williamson proposed 
to put the shield on the Merrimac. Mr. Porter and myself thought the 
draft too great, but were nevertheless of the opinion that it was the best 
thing that could be done, with our means; and Mr. Porter was ordered by 
the Secretary to Norfolk to make the plan of the vessel in accordance 
with the plan which we had approved, and which I mentioned before as 
having been submitted to the Secretary. Mr. P. did so. He sent up 
drawings which were after same general description as those he made be- 
fore in accordance with my suggestion. Mr. Porter was directed to per- 
form all the duties of constructor in connection with alteration of the 
ship. Mr. Williamson was directed to attend to the engines, and 1 was 
directed to attend to having iron prepared at Richmond for her, and the 
work was then prosecuted with all the energy possible, in my opinion. It 
was a difficult matter to get iron from Richmond to Norfolk, there being 
over 700 tons of iron sent down in the course of her construction. After 
the vessel was launched, Mr. Porter stated to me that he had accident- 
ally omitted in her calculations some weights which were on board the 
ship, in consequence of which she did not draw as much water when, 
launched as he anticipated.'' 

Secretary Mallory, in a report to the Confederate Congress, 
of date March 29th, 18G2, says: that on the 10th day of June, 
18G1, Lieut. John M. Brooke, C. S. N., was directed to aid the 
department in designing an iron-clad war-vessel, and framing 
the necessary specifications: 

"He entered upon this duty at once, and a few days thereafter sub- 
mitted to the department, as the results of his investigations, rough draw- 
ings of a casemated vessel, with submerged ends and inclined iron-plated 
sides. The ends of the vessel and the eaves of the casemate, according to his 
plan, were to be submerged two feet; and a light bulwark or false boxy 
was designed to divide the water and prevent it from banking ui^ on the 
forward j^art of the shield with the vessel in motion, and also to serve as a 
tank to regulate the ship's draft. His design was approved by the depart- 
ment, and a practical mechanic was brought from Norfolk to aid in jjre- 
paring tlie drawings and specifications. 

" This mechanic aided in the statement of details of timber, etc., but 
was unable to make the drawings; and the department then ordered 
Chief Engineer Williamson and Constructor Porter from the navy -yard 
at Norfolk to Richmond, about the 23d of June, for consultation on the 
same subject generally, and to aid in the work. 

"Constructor Porter brought and submitted the model of a flat- 
bottomed, light-draft propeller, casemated battery, with inclined iron- 
covered sides and ends, which is deposited in the department. Mr. Porter 



THE CONFEDERATE STATES NAVY. 147 

and Lieut. Brooke have adopted foi* their casemate a thickness of wood 
and iron, and an angle of inchnation nearly identical. 

" Mr. Williamson and Mr. Porter approved of the plan of having sub- 
merged ends to obtain the requisite flotation and invulnerability, and the 
department adopted the design, and a clean drawing was prepared by Mr. 
Porter of Lieut. Brooke's plan, which that officer then filed with the de- 
partment. 

" The steam-frigate Merrimac had been burned and sunk, and her en- 
gine greatly damaged by the enemy, and the department directed Mr. 
Williamson, Lieut. Brooke and Mr. Porter to consider and report upon 
the best mode of making her useful. The result of their investigations 
was their recommendation of the submerged ends, and the inclined case- 
mates for this vessel, which was adopted by the department." 

The following is the report upon the Merrimac : 

"In obedience to your orders, we have carefully examined and considered 
the various plans and propositions for constructing a shot-proof steam 
battery, and respectfully report that, in our opinion, the steam-frigate 
Merrimac, which is in such condition from the effects of fire as to be use- 
less for any other purpose, without incurring very heavy expense in re- 
building, etc., can be made an efficient vessel of that character, mounting 
* * * heavy guns ; and from the further consideration that we cannot 
procure a suitable engine and boilers for any other vessel without building 
them, which would occupy too nuich time. It would appear that this is our 
only chance to get a suitable vessel in a short time. The bottom of the hull, 
boilers, and heavy and costly jiarts of the engine, being but little injured, 
reduce the cost of construction to about one-third of the amount which 
"would be required to construct such a vessel anew. 

"We cannot, without further examination, make an accurate estimate 
of the cost of the proposed woi'k, but think it will be about * * * the 
most of which will be for labor, the materials being nearly all in the 
navy -yard, except the iron plating to cover the shield. 

" The plan to be adopted in the arrangement of the shield for glanc- 
ing shot, mounting guns, arranging the hull, etc., and plating, to be in ac- 
cordance with the plan submitted for the approval of the department. 
" We are, with much respect, 

" Your obedient servants, 

" WILLIAM P. WILLIAMSON, 
"Chief Engineer Confederate States Navy; 
".JOHN M. BROOKE, 
" Lieutenant Confederate States Navy; 
"JOHN L. PORTER, 

" Naval Constructor." 

" Immediately upon the adoption of the plan, Mr. Porter was directed 
to proceed with the constructor s duties. Mr. Williamson was charged 
with the engineer's department, and to Mr. Brooke were assigned the 
duties of attending to and preparing the iron and forwarding it from the 
Tredegar Works, the experiments necessary to test the plates and to de- 
termine their thickness, and devising heavy rifled ordnance for the ship, 
with the details pertaining to ordnance. 

" These gentlemen labored zealously and effectively in their several 
departments. Mr. Porter cut the ship down, submerged her ends, per- 
formed all the duties of constructor, and originated all the interior ar- 
rangements by which space has been economized, and he has exhibited 
energy, ability and ingenuity. Mr. Williamson thoroughly overhauled 
her engines, supplied deficiencies, and repaired defects, and improved 
greatly the motive-power of the vessel. 

" Mr. Brooke attended daily to the iron, constructed targets, ascer- 
tained by actual tests the resistance offered by inclined planes of iron to 



148 THE CONFEDERATE STATES NAVY. 

heavy ordnance, and determined interesting and important facts in con- 
nection therewith, and which were of great importance in the construc- 
tion of the ship ; devised and prepared the models and drawings of the 
ship's heavy ordnance, being guns of a class never before made, and of ex- 
traordinary power and strength. 

" It is deemed inexpedient to state the angle of inclination, the char- 
acter of the plates upon the ship, the manner of preparing them, or the 
number, calibre and weight of the guns; and many novel and interesting 
features of her construction, which were experimentally determined, are 
necessarily omitted. 

" The novel plan of submerging the ends of the ship and the eaves of 
the casement, however, is the peculiar and distinctive feature of the Vir- 
ginia. It was never before adopted. The resistance of iron plates to 
heavy ordnance, whether presented in vertical planes or at low angles of 
inclination, had been investigated in England before the Virginia was 
commenced, and Major Barnard, U. S. A., had referred to the subject in 
his ' Sea-coast Defences.' 

" We were without accurate data, however, and were compelled to 
determine the inclination of the plates and their thickness and form by 
actual expei-iment. 

" The department has freely consulted the three excellent officers re- 
ferred to throughout the labors on the Virginia, and they have all exhib- 
ited signal ability, energy and zeal." 

To that report, and to articles in the Richmond Enquirer, 
claiming for Lieut. Brooke the honor of the plan of the Virginia, 
Naval Constructor John L. Porter, of the C. S. navy, imme- 
diately replied, through the Enquirer, that the "greatest in- 
justice " had been done to Engineer Williamson and himself 
by both the report of Secretary Mallory and the article of the 
Enquirer. Constructor Porter admits that Lieut. Brooke had 
"made an attempt to get up a floating battery at the Navy 
Department," and that the master ship-carpenter had been 
sent for to come up and assist him, but asserts that after try- 
ing for a week he failed to produce anything, and the master 
returned to his duties at the yard. He adds, that Secretary 
Mallory then sent for him to come to Richmond, at w^hich time 
he carried up the model of an iron-clad floating battery, w^ith 
the shield of the present Virginia on it, and before he ever 
sav^ Lieut. Brooke; and that model was then at the Navy Depart- 
ment. Constructor Porter says that the Secretary then ordered 
the Board, whose report is embodied in Secretary Mallory's 
report to Congress. As the report of that Board specifically 
mentions having "carefully examined and considered the 
various plans and propositions for constructing a shot-proof 
steam battery," it would appear that other plans and proposi- 
tions, as well as that of Constructor Porter's, had been ex- 
amined and considered. To this suggestion Constructor Porter 
replied: 

" If it is intended to convey the idea that we (the Board) were to ex- 
amine any plan of Lieut. Brooke, I never so understood it: neither did we 
act in accordance with any such idea, as our report will show. The re- 
port next refers to my model, which I carried up with me, the shield and 
plan of which is carried out on the Virginia ; but the report seems to 



THE CONFEDERATE STATES NAVY. 149 

have lost sight of the fact that the eaves and ends of my model were sub- 
merged two feet, precisely like the present Virginia. The ship was cut 
down on a straight line, fore and att, to suit this arrangei^^^ and the 
shield was extended over her just as far as the space insid^^Pwork the 
guns would admit of. Where the shield stopped, a strong deck was put in 
to finish out the ends, and i^lated over with iron, and a rough breakwater 
built on it to throw off the water forward. The repoi-t next states, that 
Mr. Porter approved of the plan of submerged ends, and made a clean 
drawing of Lieut. Brooke's plan, which that officer then filed with the 
department. How could I disapprove of my own model, which had sub- 
merged ends two feet ? And the only drawing I ever made of the Virginia 
was made in my office at this navy -yard, and which I presented to the de- 
partment on the 11th day of July, just sixteen days after this Board 
had adjourned, having been ordered to Richmond on other business. 
This drawing and plan I considered my own and not Lieut. Brooke's. So 
soon as I presented this plan, the Secretary wrote the following order, when 
everything was fresh in his mind concerning the whole matter : 

"Navy Department, \ 
" Richmond, July 11th, 18G2. S 
'■'■ Flag-officer F. Forrest: 

" Sir : You will proceed with all practicable dispatch to make the 
changes in the form of the Merrimac, and to build, equip, and fit her in all 
respects according to the design and plans of the constructor and engineers, 
Messrs. Porter and Williamson. 

[Signed] " S. R. MALLORY, 

"Secretary of the C. S. Navy.'' 

" What, I would ask, could be more explicit than this letter, or what 
words could have established my claims any stronger if I had dictated 
them. The concluding part of this report says : ' The novel plan of 
submerging the ends of the ship and the eaves of the casement, however, 
is the peculiar and distinctive feature of the Virginia.'' This may aU 
be true ; but it is just what my model calls for ; and if Lieut. Brooke pre- 
sented rough drawings to the department carrying out the same views it 
may be called a singular coincidence. And here I would remark, that my 
model was not calculated to have much speed, but was intended for har- 
bor defence only, and was of light draft, the eaves extending over the 
entire length of the model, and submerged all around two feet, sides and 
ends, and the line on which I cut the ship down was just in ac- 
cordance with this ; but if Lieut. Brooke's ideas, which were submitted 
to the Secretary in his rough drawings^ had have been carried out, to cut 
her ends down low enough to build tanks on to regulate the draft of the 
vessel, she would have been cut much lower than my plan required, for 
all the water which now covers her ends w^ould not alter her draft over 
three inches, if confined in tanks. All the calculations of the weights 
and displacements, and the line to cut the ship down, was determined by 
myself, as well as her whole arrangements. That Lieut. Brooke may 
have been of great assistance to the department in trying the necessary 
experiments to determine the thickness of the iron, getting up her bat- 
tery, and attending to the shipment of the iron, etc , I do not doubt, but 
to claim for him the credit of designing the ship is a matter of too much 
interest to me to give up. Engineer Williamson discharged his duties 
with great success ; the engine performed beyond his most sanguine ex- 
pectations, and these, with the improvement of the propeller, has in- 
creased her speed three miles per hour. 

" The Confederacy is under many obligations to Secretary Mallory for 
having approved the report of this Board in making the Merrimac a 
bomb-proof ship. Her performance has changed the whole system of 
naval defences so far as wooden ships ai'e concerned. Europe, as well as 
America, will have to begin anew ; and that nation which can produce 
iron -clad ships with greatest rapidity will be the mistress of the seas. 



150 THE CONFEDERATE STATES NAVY. 

"In this communication I disclaim any disrespect to the Secretary of 
the Navy wliatever ; he has not only been my friend in this government, 
but was a true and serviceable one under the U. S. governiuent, and has 
rendered me many acts of kindness, for which I have always esteemed 
him; but the present unpleasant controversy involves a matter of so much 
importance to me that I shall be excused for defending- my claim not only 
as the constructor but the originator of the plan of the Virginia. 

"JOHN L. PORTER, 
"Confederate States Navy Constructor.'' 

After the ship had been in progress of construction, Sec- 
retary Mallory wrote to Flag-officer Forrest, at the navy-yard, 
urging the "utmost dispatch" in the construction of the ship, 
and adds: 

"Chief Engineer Williamson and Constructor Porter, severally in 
charge of the two branches of this great work, and for whicli they will he 
held specially responsible^ will receive, therefore, every possible facility at 
the expense and delay of every other work on hand if necessary." 

Mr. Porter continues: 

" Of the gx*eat and skillful calculations of the displacement and weights 
of timber atid iron involved in the planning and construction of this great 
piece of naval architecture, and of her present weights, with everything on 
board, no other man than myself has, or ever had, any knowledge. If he 
has, let him show it; for while public opinion said she would never float, 
no one, save myself, knew to the contrary, or what she was capable of 
bearing. After the Merriinac was in progress for some time, Lieut. 
Brooke was constantly i:)roposing alterations in her to the Secretary of 
the Navy, and as constantly and firmly opposed by myself, which the Sec- 
retary knows. 

"To Engineer Williamson, who had the exclusive control of the 
machinery, great credit is due for having so improved the propeller and 
engines as to iiuprove the speed of the ship three knots per hour. 

" I never thought for a moment that, after the many difficulties I had 
to encounter in making these new and intricate arrangements for the 
working of this novel kind of ship, that any one would at;tempt to rob me 
of my just merits ; for, if there was any other man than myself who had 
any responsibility about her success or failure, I never knew it, only so 
far as the working of the machinery was concerned, for which Engineer 
Williamson was alone responsible." 

Tliese extracts are from letters published in the Enquirer 
on March the 8th, and March the 29th, 1862. In the Charleston 
(S. C.) Merciirii, of April the 8th, 18G2, a private letter from 
Constructor Porter says : 

" I received but little encouragement from any one while the Virginia 
"was progressing. Hundreds — I may say thousands— asserted she would 
never float. Some said she would turn bottom-side up ; others said the 
crew would suffocate ; and the most wise said the concussion and report 
from the guns would deafen the men. Some said she would not steer; 
and public opinion generally about here said she would never come out of 
the dock. You have no idea what I have suffered in mind since I com- 
menced her; but i knew what I was about, and persevered. Some of her 
inboard arrangements are of the most intricate character, and have caused 
me many sleepless nights in making them; but all have turned out right, 



THE CONFEDERATE STATES NAVY. 151 

and thanks are due to a kind Providence, whose blessings on my efforts I 
have many times invoked. 

'• I must say I was astonished at the success of the Virginia. She de- 
stroyed tlie Cumberland in fifteen minutes, and in thirty more the Con- 
gress was captured. The Minnesota would have shared the same fate, 
but she got aground, and the Virginia could not get at her.'' 

President Davis, in his " Rise and Fall of the Confederate 
Government," awards the honor to Lieut. Brooke ; Capt. Win. 
H, Parker, says that " it was claimed by Commander John 
M. Brooke and by Naval Constructor John L, Porter," and that 
Lieut. Wm. L. Powell was the first to appreciate the use of 
iron in naval warfare and to advise its adoption, and that, " in 
the case of the Merrimac. tlie originality consisted in the de- 
signs and not the use of iron." 

Weighing carefully all the evidence, it appears at this time 
that there was some similarity of plan between that offered 
by Lieut. Brooke and the model exhibited by Constructor 
Porter; but that the model, rather than the "rough draw- 
ings," received the approval of the Board and adoption by the 
department. That to Constructor Porter is due the honor of 
tlie plan — the only really original thought or idea about the 
ship ; — that to Engineer Williamson is due the credit of repair- 
ing and adapting the engines of the Merrimac to the propul- 
sion of the new Virginia, and that to Lieut. Brooke belongs the 
lienor of providing the iron sheathing and the remarkable 
battery by which her destructive work was accomplished. 

That division of the honor does not by any means relieve 
from responsibility for errors which arose from the divided 
authority between the Naval Constructor at Norfolk and the 
Bureau of Construction at Richmond. In consequence of this, 
the calculations in the displacement of the ship proved erro- 
neous, and Mr. Porter found himself 500 tons short, by 
reason of calculating for a different suit of armor from that 
Avhich was finally ordered for the ship, after the experi- 
ments made by the Ordnance Board on Jamestown Island. 
This increased her already great draft of water, and even- 
tually impaired her usefulness in action in Hampton Roads. 
And yet so great was her buoyancy that it required a very 
large amount of pig-iron as ballast to bring her down to the 
proper depth, which would submerge her ends beneath the 
water. Witiiout a complete submergence of her hull, the Vir- 
ginia would have been utterly worthless in action. 

Her appearance in the water '• was that of the roof of a 
house. Saw off the top of a house at the eaves (supposing it 
to have ordinary gable-ended shelving-sides roof), pass a 
plane parallel to the first through the roof some feet beneath 
the ridge, incline the gable-ends, put it in the water, and you 
have the Merrimac as she appeared. When she was not in 
action her people stood on the top of this roof, which was, in 
fact, her spar-deck." 



152 THE CONFEDERATE STATES NAVY. 

The Merrimac frigate, out of which the Virginia was con- 
structed, was built at Charlestown in 1855, and was pierced for 
forty guns, her last service in the U. S. navy had been with the 
Pacific squadron; she had been the sister-ship of the Mimie- 
sota and the Roanoke, and was lying in Elizabeth River, oppo- 
site the navy-yard, on the eventful night of April 20th, 1861, 
when the navy yard was burned, and the vessels scuttled and 
sunk. On April 25th, her battery was removed and dispatched 
to batteries, on Sewell's Point and other places, for the 
defence of Norfolk. On May 30th, the Merrimac was raised 
and pulled into the dry dock. 

The work of her transformation into the Virginia began 
immediately by cutting her down to the old berth-deck, to 
within three and a half feet of her light water-line. Both ends 
for seventy feet were covered over, and when the ship was in 
fighting trim were just awash. On the mid-ship section, for a 
length of 170 feet, was erected, at an angle of forty-five 
degrees, a roof of pitch-pine and oak, twenty-four inches 
thick, extending from the water-line to a highth over the 
gun-deck of seven feet. Both ends of this shielded roof 
were rounded so that the pivot guns could be used as bow and 
stern chasers or quartering. Over the gun-deck was a light 
grating, making a promenade about twenty feet wide, and 
nearly 170 long. 

The iron plating which covered the wood-backing was 
rolled at the Tredegar Iron Works at Richmond, and was 
two inches thick. The underlayer being placed horizontal, 
and the upper laid up and down — the two being four inches 
thick — were bolted through the woodwork, and clinched inside. 
The Virginia, thus armored, was further provided with a cast- 
iron prow, which projected four feet, but imperfectly secured, 
as the test of battle proved. Another defect was the unpro- 
tected condition of her rudder and propeller. The pilot-house 
was forward of the smoke-stack, and covered with the same 
thickness of iron as her sides. The same motive-power of the 
Merrimac propelled the Virginia, but it was so radically de- 
fective that both engine and boilers had been condemned in 
the last cruise of the Merrimac ; and when to those defects are 
added the injury sustained from the fire which burned and 
the water in which she was sunk, it was not possible for the 
limited resources at the command of the Confederate Bureau 
of Construction to do more than repair. Every effort was 
made to hasten the completion of the ship. Flag-officer For- 
rest, on January 11th, 1862, expressed his high appreciation of 
the voluntary offer of the " blacksmiths, finishers and strikers 
to perform extra work gratuitously in order to expedite the 
completion of the Merrimac.'''^ But notwithstanding every 

1 The agreement of the blacksmiths, and agree to do any work that will expedite the comple- 
strikers, and finishers, was as follows: " We, the tion of the Merrimac, free of charge, and continue 
undersigned blacksmiths, finishers and strikers, on until eight o'clock every night ; or any other 




ADMIRAL FRANKLIN BUCHANAN, 

CONFEDERATE STATES NAVT. 



THE CONFEDERATE STATES NAVY. 153 

exertion to finish the ship and to have her ready for action be- 
fore McClellan's advance from Washington to the peninsula, 
the unavoidable delay in preparing and transporting the plat- 
ing from Richmond to the Norfolk navy-yard prevented an 
earlier completion of the ship. The Tredegar Works at Rich- 
mond were the only shops within the Confederate lines where 
plates of the kind required could be rolled, and their limited 
resources were taxed in the preparation of every kind of war 
material. It was impossible for the very few experienced 
workmen who could be collected together, no matter how 
ready and willing, to do more than was accomplished, both at 
the Tredegar Works and at the navy-yard, to expedite the 
transformation of the Merrimac into the Virginia. In many 
instances the very tools required by the workmen had to be 
improvised and made; not only was the ship to be radically 
changed, but the Tredegar Works had also to be converted 
from an ordinary iron workshop, for the manufacture of the 
engines of locomotion in peaceful times, to those of destruction 
and defence in the midst of a terrible and exacting war. There 
were no patterns to follow in constructing tliis experimental 
iron-clad; the theory, drawings and calculations of the con- 
structor had to be verified as they proceeded, and errors, if 
any, corrected as the work progressed. 

And it is not the least remarkable fact in the history of 
the experiment, that the Virginia and the il/owf for should have 
been so very much alike in their general outline and form. 
The submerged hull and machinery and the protection of the 
battery were the same in both vessels, the difference being only 
in the round turret of the Monitor and roof -shaped casemate 
of the Virginia. 

The armament of the Virginia consisted of two seven- 
inch rifled guns, heavily reinforced around the breech with 
three-inch steel bands shrunk on; these were the first heavy 
guns so made, and were the work of Lieut, Brooke, and 
they were the bow and stern guns of the battery; there were 
also two six-inch guns of the same make, and six nine-inch 
smooth-bore broadside — ten guns in all. There was no 
Armstrong gun, as so often asserted, on the ship. Her en- 
tire battery was the work of Lieut, Brooke. 

work that will advance the interests of the Hodges, Alex. Davis, Thomas Guy, Smith Guy, 

Southern Confederacy. Michael Conner, Win. Perry, Patrick Shanasy, 

BLACKSMITHS AND STRIKERS. Lawsou Etheredgo, Joshua baily, Jas. Morand, 

James A. Farmer M. 8. ; Chas. Snead, let ^^il^s Foreman, Jos. West, Thos. Powell, Wm. 

Foreman: Wm. T. Butt, 2d Foreman; Pat. Park-s, Shephard, Jno, Curran, Opie Jordan, Wiley 

Jno. West, Jno. Cain, Jas. Watlield, H. Tatem, Howard. 

Wilson Guy, Miles Foreman, Hugh Minter, Jno. finishers. 

Green, Thos. Bloxom, Jas. Mitchell, Joseph Jno.B Rooke, Elias Bridges, Anderson Gwinn, 

Kickets, Thos. Franklin, Jas. Patterson, Wm. John Stoakes, E. H. Brown, Harvey Barnes, 

Gray, Jno. Moody, Hillory Hopkins, E. Wood- Lemuel Leary, William Jones, John Rhea, Wil- 

ward, H. Reynolds, Southey Rew, Julius Morien, liam Leary, .John Wilder Frederick Bowen, 

Jos. Askew, Anthony Butt, Thos. Bourke, Wm. Charles Sturdivant, Jesse Kay, William Shipp, 

Hosier,. David Wilkins, Jas. Wilbern, Wm. Rev- William Pebworth, Lawrence Herbert, T. I, 

nolds, Walter Wilkins, Thos. Kerby, Samuel Rooke, Calder Sherwood, George Collier, Henry 

Davenport, Jas. Larkin, Lewis Ewer, Jno. Davis, Hopkins, George Bear, Walter Thornton, Edward 

Jas. Watson, Sr., James Flemming, Samuel Walker, Thomas Dunn." 



154 



THE CONFEDERATE STATES NAVY. 



Such was the Virginia; her defects were many and of a most 
serious character. She was absolutely dependent for her move- 
ment on her defective machinery; fortius once out of order, she 
became helpless, while hurtful to her assailant only when her 
assailant came within the range of her battery. Her great draft 
of water rendered her action dependent on the tides, and menaced 
her helplessness should she move out of the narrow channel 
where the water was deep enough for her. Her ram was useless 
against a vessel drawing less water, which, by retiring into 




THE VIEGINIA (MERKIMAC) IN DEY-DOCK, AFTER BEING ARMOEED. ," 

shoal water, reduced the action to a duel of heavy guns, where '' 
the stoutness of iron sides would carry off the palm of victory./ 
The officers assigned to the Virginia, February, 1862, were: 

Flapr-officer, Capt. Franklin Buchanan ;i Lieutenant, Catesby Ap R. 
Jones; Executive and Ordnance OflRcers, Charles C. Simnis, R. D. Minor 
(flag), Hunter Davidson, John Taylor Wood, J. R. Eggleston and Walter 
Butt; Midshipmen, R. C. Foute, H. H. Manuaduke, H. B. Littiepage, 
W. J. Craig, J. C. Long and L. M. Rootes; Paymaster, James Semple; 



1 Frantlin Buchanan was born in Baltimore, 
Md., on the 11th of September, 1800. He was a 
grandson of Cxovernor McKean, of Pennsylvania, 
and a brother of Paymaster Buchanan, who was 
in thfe U. S. ship Congress when she was destroyed 
in the fight with the Virginia. When a youth, 
Franklin Buchanan resided in Pennsylvania, 
from which State he was appointed a midship- 
man. He entered tlie II. S. navy on the 28th of 
January, ISl."!; became a lieutenant January 13th, 
1825; master commander, September 8th, 1841; 
first superintendent of the Annapolis Naval 
Academy, 1845-7; captain, September 14th, 
1855. On the 19th of April, 1861, when the Sixth 
Massachusetts regiment was attacked on its pas- 
sage through Baltimore, Capt. Buchanan was 
in charge of the navy-yard at Washington. He 
immediately resigned his commission, but find- 
ing that Maryland did not secede, petitioned 
to recall his resignation, but was refused. 
On the 5th of September, 1861, he entered the 



service of the C. S. navy, and was assigned to 
duty as Chief of Orders and Details. He was 
ordered to the command of the Virginia on 
Februarj' 24th, 1862, and after she had been cut 
loose from her moorings and was on her way 
down the harbor, Capt. Bvictianan called " all 
hands to muster," and delivered the following 
spirited addi'ess to the crew: " Men, the eyes of 
your country are upon you. You are fighting for 
your rights — your liberties— your wives and chil- 
dren. You must not be content with only doing 
your duty, but do mnre than your duty ! Those 
ships "(pointing to the Union fleet) "must be 
taken, and you shall not complain that I do not 
take you close enough. Go to your guns !" How 
well the officers and gallant crew of thaf'nionster 
of the deejj" jjerformed their whole duty, the fol- 
lowing Images will tell. When Capt. Buchanan 
was severely wounded and taken below, a feel- 
ing of deep sadness pervaded the entire crew, 
but they soon rallied when Lieut. George Minor, 



THE CONFEDERATE STATES NAVY. 155 

Surgeon, Dinwiddin Phillips; Assistant Surj^eon, Algernon S. Garnett; 
Captain of Marines, Reuben Thorn; Engineers: H. A. Ramsay, Acting 
Chief; Assistants, John W. Tynan, Loudon Campbell, Benj. Herring, 
C. A. Jack and R. Wright; Boatswain, Charles H. Hasker; Gunner, C. B. 
Oliver; Carpenter, Hugh Lindsey; Clerk, Arthur Sinclair, Jr.; Volunteer 
Aide, Lieut. Douglas Forrest, C. S. army; Capt. Kevil, commanding de- 
tachment of Norfolk United Artillery; Signal Corps, Sergeant Tabb. 

Flag-officer Buchanan was ordered February 24th, 1862, to 
the command of the naval defences of the James River, and 
to hoist his flag on the Virginia, or any other vessel of the 
squadron, which was to consist of the Virginia, the Patrick 
Henry, the Jamestown, the Teaser, the Raleigh, and the Beau- 
fort. Secretary Mallory in his order added •. 

" The Virginia is a novelty in naval construction, is untried, and her 
powers unknown ; and hence the department will not give specific orders 
as to her attack upon the enemy. Her powers as a ram are regarded as 
very formidable, and it is hoped you will be able to test them. Like the 
bayonet charge of infantry, this mode of attack, while the most destruc- 
tive, will commend itself to you in the present scarcity of ammunition. 
It is one also that may be rendered destructive at night against the 
enemy at anchor. Even without guns the ship would, it is believed, be 
formidable as a ram. 

'• Could you pass Old Point and make a dashing cruise in the Poto- 
mac as far as Washington, its effect upon the public mind would be im- 
portant to our cause. 

" The condition of our country, and the painful reverses we have just 

suffered, demand our utmost exertions ; and convinced as I am that the 

*.,. opportunity and the means for striking a decisive blow for our navy are 

%»now, for the first time, presented, I congratulate you upon it, and know 

fhat your judgment and gallantry will meet all just expectations. 
"S, "Action, prompt and successful just now, would be of serious import- 

""■^anee to our cause." 

Of officers there were an ample supply, and they were 
among the best and bravest, the most skillful and experienced, 
which the navy of the United States had turned out. But the 
crew that was to work and fight this new kind of man-of- 
war, where were they to come from ? There had been no 

timself wounded and sent below, appeared on County, Maryland. He was the organizer and 
deck and delivered to tbera the following mes- founder of the Naval Academy at Annapolis; he 
sage from the flag-offlcer: "Tell Mr. Jones to co-operated in landing the troops at Vera Cruz, 
fight the ship to the last. Tell the men that I am under Gen. Scott, and was one of the leading 
Bot mortally wounded, and hope to be with spirits of the navy there at the capture of San 
them very soon." The cheers that greeted the Juan d'Ulloa; was among the first to step foot 
delivery of this messaye, it is said, resounded on the soil of Japan in the expedition of Com- 
far above the cannon's roar, and every man wds modore Perry, which opened the ports of that 
again quickly at his post, dealing death and erst forbidden land to the world at large, but 
destruction with their heavy guns. Congress with especial kindness to our own country — 
was in session when the engagement took place, and later was honored by a grateful President 
and shortly thereafter passea a bill creating the with the position of commandant of the navy- 
grade of admiral in the navy, to which position yard at Washington, overlooking the entire 
Buchanan was nominated by the President and affairs of the naval establishment of the coun- 
confirmed by the Senate on August 2l8t, 1862. try; and still later he was called by the warm 
He commanded the Confederate fleet in Mobile impulses of his Maryland brethren to be the 
Bay in August, 1864, on board of the iron-clad President of the Maryland Agricultural Col- 
Tennessee, where he was wounded and defeated lege — in all of which positions he not only 
by Admiral Farragut and taken prisoner. After acquitted himself with credit and honor, but 
the war he was president of the Maryland Agri- left a legacy of discipline and order and gentle- 
■cultural College. He died in May, 1874, at manlv bearing that leaves its impress to the 
^' The Rest," his splendid residence in Talbot present hour. 



156 THE CONFEDERATE STATES NAVY. 

merchant marine at the South to supply experienced sailors, 
and but few of the sailors of the U. S. navy were in Southern 
ports when the rupture of the Union occurred. To meet that 
pressing exigency, Lieut. Wood visited Gen. Magruder's army 
at Yorktown, and from a New Orleans regiment selected 
eighty sailors out of 200 volunteers who had seen service 
in the ships that visited New Orleans ; these with a few 
seamen from Norfolk who had escaped from the Confed- 
erate flotilla in Pamlico Sound at the fall of Roanoke 
Island, and with other volunteers from the army, a crew 
of 300 men was formed, which proved to be "as gallant and 
trusty a body of men as any one could wish to command, 
not only in battle, but in reverse and retreat." 



CHAPTER IX. 
THE NAVAL BATTLE IN HAMPTON ROADS. 



THE first Confederate iron-clad, so unlike in every respect 
to any other afloat, the officers and men strangers to 
each other and new to every part of the ship, was im- 
mediately launched from the dock into battle, and from 
what was supposed to be an experimental trial of sailing and 
floating capacity into the fiercest fight of modern times. Dis- 
charging workmen as the Virginia moved out into the chan- 
nel, Flag-officer Buchanan turned her prow into waters swarm- 
ing with enemies, and covered with the line-of -battle ships 
that had never lowered their flag to an enemy. Immediately 
her defects became apparent; not more than five knots an hour 
could be got out of her, and she obeyed her rudder so reluc- 
tantly that from thirty to forty minutes were required to turn 
her. Her draft of twenty-two feet confined her to a narrow 
channel, and deprived her of every advantage attainable by 
manoeuvring. But, in that unmanageable water-logged vessel, 
Capt. Buchanan, on the 8th of March, 1863, steamed slowly down 
Elizabeth River, accompanied by the steam-tugs Beaufort, 
Lieut. Commanding W. H. Parker, 2a\d.t\\e Raleigh. Lieut, Com- 
manding J. W. Alexander, to make her "trial trip" a trial of 
battle. The movement was hailed with huzzas from citizens 
and soldiers, from wharves and batteries; but silently, and with- 
out response, the gallant ship and her escorts, followed by Com- 
mander Forrest and staff, plowed their way toward the enemy. 
Down the deep channel of the Elizabeth River, passing Con- 
federate batteries at Craney Island and on the right bank, the 
Virginia and her escort reached Hampton Roads at Sewell's 
Point. At Fortress Monroe lay the Minnesota, 40 guns ; the 
Roanoke, 40 guns, and the St. Laivrence, 50 guns ; together 
with the gunboat Dragon, the gunboat Mystic, the gunboat 
Whitehall, ' the gunboat Oregon, which was destroyed by a 
shell ; the gunboat Zouave, which was seriously damaged and 

1 The Whitehall had three kiiled, and was burned by a shell from a Confederate gunboat, 

(157) 



158 THE CONFEDERATE STATES NAVY. 

forced to retire from action, and the Cambridge. At Newport 
News, riding at anchor, was the Ctimberland, 30 guns, and the 
Congress, 50 guns. In addition to this formidable battery of 
guns afloat must be added the batteries at Newport News and 
the guns on the land side of Fortress Monroe, and the great 
gun in position at the Rip-raps. Notwithstanding the informa- 
tion which leaked through the lines as to the progress that was. 
making upon the Virginia at the navy-yard, her appearance, 
if not. unexpected, was at least unprepared for. The Congress 
and the Cumberland lay at anchor off Newport News, with 
boats hanging to lower booms, washed clothes flying in the 
wind from the rigging, and no indication whatever of prepa- 
ration or readiness for battle, until the Virginia was within 
three-quarters of a mile, when every man was astir, boats 
were dropped astern^ booms got alongside, and the ships were 
cleared for action. 

Into that circle of great guns from line-of-battle ships, 
shore batteries, and gunboats, whose concentrated fire could 
be directed to almost any position in the Road, Captain 
Buchanan led his little fleet, comprised of the Virginia, 10 
guns; the Beaufort, 1 gun; and the Raleigh, 1 gun; when in 
action to be reinforced by the Patrick Henry, 12 guns. Com- 
mander John R. Tucker; the Jamestoivn, Lieut, Command- 
ing J. N. Barney, 2 guns; the gunboat Teaser, Lieut. Command- 
ing W. A. Webb, 1 gun. Total, 27 guns, against an armament 
of over 300 guns, of which 100 could be brought into action 
at every moment, and on every point. 

At Sewell's Point, Capt. Buchanan turned the Virginia^ 
with the gunboat escort, towards Newport News, to engage the 
"frigates Cumberland and Congress, gunboats and shore bat- 
teries."' Reserving fire until within less than a mile, Lieut. 
Charles C. Simms, with the forward pivot gun of theVirginia, 
opened the engagement with the Cumberland, and the action 
became general almost immediately. To reach her selected 
foe the Virginia had to pass the Congress, to which she gave 
a broadside, and received an equally liberal compliment. From 
the Cumberland, the Congress, the gunboats and shore batter- 
ies, there was now poured upon the Virginia and her little 
escort the concentrated fire of 100 heavy guns at short 
range. Standing on, the Virginia brought her ramming 
powers into action, and struck the Cumberland under the star- 
board forechannels, delivering the fire of her bow pivot gun at 
the very moment of crushing through the sides of the Cumber- 
land. The destruction was very great, "killing ten men at gun 
No. 1, among whom was Master's Mate John Harrington, and 
cutting off both arms and legs of Quarter Gunner Wood. As 
the Merrimac rounded-to and came up, she again raked the 
Cumberland with heavy fire. At this fire sixteen men at gun 

1 Report of Flag-officer Franklin Buchanan; date, March 27th, 1862. 



THE CONFEDERATE STATES NAVY. 150 

No. 10 were killed or wounded, and all were subsequently car- 
ried down in the sinking ship. ' 

The blow, hardly perceptible on the Virginia, had been re- 
ceived by the Cumbe/rland nearly at right angles. Heading up 
stream, to turn the gallant but very slow-moving ship, enabled 
Lieut. Wood to bring the after pivot gun into action, which 
was turned upon tlie Congress just as she slipped her anchor, 
loosed her bow topsail, and run up her jib, to effect escape. 

The effort was unavailing; the Congress grounded, and 
the Virginia, at a distance of 300 yards, riddled her sides. Not- 
withstanding that the hole in the side of the Cumberland was 
" big enough to drive a horse and cart through," Lieut. Morris 
continued as gallant a fight as the records of any navy offer; 
slowly sinking, deck after deck was submerged, the forward 
magazine drowned, the after magazine was used to fight the 
ten-inch gun; but in thirty-five minutes the ship canted to 
port, and her gallant officers and men delivered their parting 
fire and immediately leaped into the water, and the Cumber- 
la7id sank with the " American flag flying at the peak."^ 

Before the waters of Hampton Roads had closed over the 
Cumberland, the dark smoke of the Jamestown squadron was 
seen, as the ships and boats hurried under press of steam to 
the scene of battle. Dashing past the Federal shore batteries, 
Capt. John R. Tucker led the van in the Patrick Henry, closely 
followed by the Jamestoiun, Lieut. Commanding Barney, and 
the little Teaser, Lieut. Webb, puffing with all the energy of a 
short-winded tug. Making a gallant run past the batteries, they 
" were exposed to a heavy fire. Their escape was miraculous, 
as they were under a galling fire of solid shot, shell, grape and 
canister, a number of which passed through the vessels with- 
out doing any serious injury, except to the Patrick Henry. 
through whose boiler a shot passed, scalding to death four 
persons and wounding others. Lieut. Commanding Barney 
promptly obeyed a signal to tow her out of the action. As 
soon as damages were repaired, the Patrick Henry returned 
to her station and continued to perform good service during 
the remainder of that day and the following." 

The part taken by the little James River squadron is not 
the least remarkable part of that great fight. It was lost sight 

1 Moore's Rebellion Record, Vol. IV., p. 273. The Cumberland was commanded by Capt Rad- 

<>„„„,„„ „ „ „ .. .. cliffe, who was detailed to attend a Court of In- 

2 OFFICERS OF THE - CUMBERLAND." q^j^y „„ board the flag-ship Roanoke. When 

The following is a list of the ofilcers onboard the fight commenced be mounted a horse and 
the Cumberland during the fight :— First Lieut. rode rapidly to Newport News, but only reached 
George Morris, commanding; Second Lieut, there in time to find his vessel sinking. 
F. O. Selfridge; Sailing Master, Mr. Stivison; Commandant William Smith had previously 
Chaplain, Rev. Mr. Leiijhardt. drowned; Boat- commanded the Cumherlarid, hut was detached 
swain, Edward Bell; Gunner, Eugene Mack; and ordered to the command of the Sabine, of 
Carpenter, William L. Leighton; Sailmaker. the Gulf blockading fieet. While waiting trans- 
David Bruce; Master's Mate, John Harrington, portation he remained on board the Cumber- 
Killed; Master's Mate, Wyman; Master's land, and as a volunteer gave valuable asslst- 

Mate, — — O'Neil: Paymaster's Clerk, Hugh ance. Lieut. Morris, who, by the absence 

Knott; Acting Master, Randall; Acting of Capt. Radcliffe, was in command, by the 

Master. Kennison; Master Smith, Victor general testimony of his brother officers did 

M. Smith; Marine Officer, Charles M. Hayward. his duty in the most gallant manner. 



160 THE CONFEDERATE STATES NAVY. 

of in the battle of the iron-clad giants, but in the days of oak 
walls would have been recorded with honorable mention 
among the acts of bravery and seamanship which illustrate 
a navy. Capt. Pendergrast, of the Congress, reported that: 
"■ In the meantime the Patrick Henr^j and Thomas Jefferson, 
rebel steamers, approached us from up the James River, firing 
with precision, and doing us great damage. Our two stern 
guns were our only means of defence. These were soon dis- 
abled, one being dismounted, and the other having its muzzle 
knocked away. The men were knocked away from them with 
great rapidity, and slaughtered by the terrible fire of the 
enemy." 

Capt. Wm. Watson, of the gunboat Dragon, reports that: 

" Arriving' at the Minnesota, took position and opened fire on the 
Yorktoum and Jamestown. Kept it up until dark, when we received orders 
to cease firing, and lay by the ship until morning. At 2 A. M. tried to 
tow the Minnesota off the bottom, and succeeded only to ground in an- 
other and more exposed place. Made fast for the night. Second day, at 
8 A. M., we were ordered to take up position as best we could, and opened 
fire on the Yorktown and Jamestown with good effect ; could plainly see 
our shells bursting on the enemy. At 12 M. received orders to go alongside 
of the Minnesota, and be ready to assist in towing her off. Made fast on 
the port side, being in direct line of the Merrimac's batteries. At the 
same moment received two shots from her, one taking effect in the boiler, 
blowing up the vessel, together with the captain and three men; seriously 
wounding Charles J. Freese ; badly scalding Ben. S. Hungerford, and 
breaking the legs of — McDonald, which will have to be amputated. Re- 
ceived orders to get on board the Minnesota. Vessel on fire. Shortly after 
received orders to get bags and hammocks on board of the Whitehall.'''' 

Capt. Balsir, of the gunboat Whitehall, reported that, 
"although her heavy batteries had no effect on the iron mon- 
ster Virginia, still the rebel steamers Yorktoivn and James- 
town will remember the accurate gunnery of the Whitehall 
for some time to come." Capt. Van Brunt, of the Minnesota, 
reported that, " at 4 P. M., the Merriniac, Virginia, Jamestown 
and Patrick Henry bore down on my vessel. Very fortunately, 
the iron battery drew too much water to come within a mile 
of us. She took a position on my starboard bow, but did not 
fire with accuracy, and only one shot passed through the ship's 
bow. The other two steamers took their position on my port 
bow and stern and their fire did most damage in killing and 
wounding men, inasmuch as they fired with rifled guns; but 
with the heavy gun that I could bring to bear upon them, I 
drove them off, one of them apparently in a crippled state." 

Mrs. Susan Archer Weiss, an eye-witness, describes "the 
saucy Teaser " as follows: " By this time the Jamestown and 
Patrick Henry had joined the Merrimac, taking a position 
which concealed her from our view. We were told afterward 
bj" Federal officers that the little Teaser (commanded by Capt. 
Webb) pushed her way in between the Patrick Henry and 
Jamestown, and advancing close to the shore fired her one gun 



THE CONFEDERATE STATES NAVY. 161 

in iace of the battery of sixty guns. Probably her insignifi- 
cance saved her, for now every shot seemed concentrated upon 
the Meri'imac, and the air and the very ground where we 
stood seemed trembhng with tlie roar of shot and shells. So 
dense was the smoke that we could discern nothing except 
that the Confederate vessels were constantly shifting their 
position in front of the fleet, which was now lying close in 
shore." 

While the battle between the Virginia and the Federal 
ships at Newport News was in progress, the small fry of Capt. 
Buchanan's squadron — the Roanoke and the Raleigh — gal- 
lantly attacked the Congress, ''killing and wounding many of 
her crew." Witnessing the easy destruction of the Cumber- 
land, Lieut. Pendergrast, upon whom the command of the 
Congress devolved on the death of Lieut. Joseph B. Smith, set 
her fore and top sails, and, with the assistance of the g'unboat 
Zouave, drew the vessel ashore, where it was impossible, on 
account of her draft, for the Virginia to ram her to pieces. 
The movement was necessary, for Capt. Buchanan says: 

"Having sunk the Cumberland, I turned our attention to the Con- 
gress. We were some time in getting our proper position, in consequence 
of the shoalness of the water, and the great difficulty of managing the 
ship when in or near the mud. To succeed in my object, I was ohhged to 
run the ship a short distance above the batteries on James River in order 
to wind her. During all the time her keel was in the mud, of course she 
moved but slowly. Thus we were subjected twice to the heavy guns of 
all the batteries in passing up and down the river, but it could not be 
avoided. We silenced several of the batteries, and did much injury on 
shore. A large transport steamer alongside the wharf was blown up, one 
schooner sunk, and another captured and sent to Norfolk. The loss of 
life on shore we have no means of ascertaining. " 

But there was no escape for the Congress even in shoal 
water, for "at half -past two the Mei^rimac took a position 
astern of us at a distance of 150 yards, and raked us fore and 
aft with shells, while one of the smaller steamers kept up a fire 
on our starboard quarter."^ 

The movement of the Virginia to get into position for at- 
tacking the Congress was mistaken for retreat, and was loudly 
cheered by the gunners and crew of the frigate; but their mis- 
take was corrected, when, in a few moments, from her raking 
position the Virginia opened on the Congress, carrying car- 
nage, havoc and dismay through the ship, and causing a white 
flag to be displayed at the gaff, half-mast and main. 

The report of Lieut. Pendergrast says: 

" Seeing that our men were being killed without the prospect of any 
relief from the Minnesota, which vessel had run ashore in attempting to 
get up to us from Hampton Roads, not being able to get a single gun to 
bear upon the enemy, and the ship being on fire in several places, upon 
consultation with Commander Wm. Smith we deemed it proper to haul 

1 Report of Lieut. Penclergi-ast. 
11 



1G2 THE CONFEDERATE STATES NAVY. 

down our colors without any further loss of life on our part. We were 
soon boarded by an officer of the Merrimac, who said he would take 
charge of the ship. He left shortly afterwards, and a small tug came 
alongside, whose captain demanded that we should surrender and get out 
of the ship, as he intended to burn her immediately. A sharp fire with 
muskets and artillery was maintained from our troops ashore upon the 
tug, having the effect of driving her off. 

" The Merrimac again opened fire on us, although we had a peak to 
show that we were out of action. 

"After having fired several shells into us, she left us and engaged the 
Minnesota and the shore batteries; after which. Lieutenant Pendergrast 
states, the wounded were taken ashore in small boats, the ship having 
been on fire from the beginning of the action from hot shot fired by the 
Merrimac.''' 

Upon this point there is a difference of report as well as of 
opinion. Capt. Buchanan says that, on seeing the white flag, 

" Our fire immediately ceased, and a signal was made for the Beaufort 
to come within hail. I then ordered Lieut. Commanding Parker to take 
possession of the Congress, secure the officers as prisoners, allow the crew 
to land, and burn the ship. He ran alongside, received her flag and sur- 
render from Commander Wm. Smith and Lieut. Pendergrast, with the 
side-arms of those officers. They delivered themselves as prisoners-of-war 
on board the Beaufort, and afterwards were permitted, at their own re- 
quest, to return to the Congress, to assist in removing the wounded to the 
Beaufort. They never returned, and I submit to the decision of the de- 
partment whether they are not our prisoners. While the Beaufort &.n6. 
Raleigh were alongside the Congress, and the surrender of that vessel had 
been received from the commander, she having two white flags flying, 
hoisted by her own people, a heavy fire was opened upon them from the 
shore and from the Congress, killing some valuable officei's and men. 
Under this fire the steamers left the Congress; but, as I was not informed 
that any injury had been sustained by those vessels at that time, Lieut. 
Commanding Parker having failed to' report to me, I took it for granted 
that my order to him to burn her had been executed, and waited some 
minutes to see the smoke ascending from her hatches. ])uring this delay 
we were still subjected to the heavy fire from the batteries, which was 
always promptly returned." 

It is probably true, as suggested by Admiral Porter, ' that 
the garrison at Newport News did not comprehend the state of 
affairs on the Congress when it opened fire on that ship, and 
the Beaufort and the Raleigh, which were engaged in remov- 
ing the Federal wounded from the burning Congress. But 
Admiral Porter errs in saying that, "although the white flag 
was still flying, the Merrimac ( Virginia) opened fire on the Con- 
gress. This certainly would have been inhuman, since the crew 
of the Co7igress were not responsible for the acts of the troops 
on shore." Capt. Buchanan's report gives full explanation : 

" The steam-frigates Minnesota and Roanoke, and the sailing frigate 
St.Lawrence, had previously been reported as coming from Old Point; but, 
as I was determined that the Cong7'ess should not again fall into the hands 
of the enemy. I remarked to that gallant young officer. Flag Lieut. Minor, 
' That ship must be burned.' He promptly volunteered to take a boat and 

1 The Naval Hist, of the Civil War, p. 125. 



THE CONFEDERATE STATES NAVY. 103 

burn her, and the Teaser, Lieut. Commanding Webb, was ordered to cover 
the boat. Lieut. Minor had scarcely reached within fifty yards of the 
Congress when a deadly fire was opened upon him, wounding him severely 
and several of his men. On witnessing this vile treachery, I instantly re- 
called the boat and ordered the Congress to be destroyed by hot shot and 
incendiary shell. About this period I was disabled, and transferred the 
command of the ship to that gallant, intelligent officei-, Lieut. Catesby 
Jones, with orders to fight her as long as the men could stand to their 
guns." 

In the effort to remove the wounded from the Congi^ess, 
Lieut. Taylor and Midshipman Hutter of the Raleigh had been 
killed, notwithstanding the white flag' floated from the masts 
of the Congress. This fire from the shore batteries killed and 
wounded a number of Federal men on the Congress, and be- 
came so hot and destructive as to compel the Beaufort and the 
Raleigh to retire with only thirty wounded prisoners, and to 
leave the rest to share the fate of the burning ship, in which 
over 150 perished. The inhumanity which Admiral Porter 
imagined to exist in the conduct of Capt. Buchanan, finds its 
actual existence in the rash and absurd folly of the shore 
batteries attempting defence of the Congress at a time when 
she was on fire, had surrendered, and her wounded were being 
removed. It was this unnecessary slaughter of friend as well 
as foe that Capt. Buchanan regarded as " vile treachery," to 
be punished by burning the ship, which, having surrendered, 
was yet being defended by shore batteries. 

Very great indignation was felt and expressed by the Con- 
federates that their kindness to the captured officers of the 
Congress should have been availed of by them to escape, after 
surrendering their swords and themselves as prisoners-of-war. 
Lieut. Wood, having been ordered by Commander Buchanan to 
go alongside the Congress to " take the officers and wounded 
men prisoners, to permit the others to escape, and then to 
burn the ship," promptly placed the Beaufort alongside the 
burning frigate, and sent an officer to direct the commander 
of the Congress to come to him. In a few minutes, Lieut. 
Austin Pendergrast came down the side of the Congress, ac- 
companied by Capt. William Smith, who was acting as a vol- 
unteer, "These two officers," Lieut. Wood says, "landed 
on the hurricane deck of the Beaufort where I was, and sur- 
rendered the ship. As they were without side-arms, I thought 
it proper to request them to return to their ship and get them. 
This they did, though Pendergrast delivered to me a ship's 
cutlass instead of the regulation sword. I now told Pender- 
grast my orders, and asked him to get his officers and 
wounded men on board as quickly as possible, as I wanted to 
burn the ship. He said there were sixty wounded men on 
board the frigate, and begged me not to burn the vessel. I 
told him my orders were peremptory. While we were 
engaged in this conversation, the wounded men were being- 
lowered into the Beaufort, and just then the Raleigh came 



164 THE CONFEDERATE STATES NAVY. 

alongside. Lieut. Taylor came on board and said that Capt. 
Alexander had sent him to me for orders. I directed him to 
take the Raleigh to the starboard side of the Congress and 
assist in getting off the wounded men. I had scarcely given 
him the order when a tremendous fire was opened on us from 
the shore by a regiment of soldiers — Medical Director Shippen 
sa3^s it was the Twentieth Indiana. At the first discharge 
every man on the deck of the Beaufort, save Capt. Smith and 
Lieut. Pendergrast, was either killed or wounded. Four 
bullets passed through my clothing, one of which carried ofi" 
my cap cover and eye-glass, and another slightly wounded me 
on the knee. Lieut. Pendergrast now begged me to hoist the 
white flag, saying that all his wounded men would be killed. 
I called his attention to the fact that they were firing on the 
white flag, which was flying at his mainmast-head, directly 
over our heads. I said I would not hoist it on the Beaufort; 
in fact, I did not feel authorized to do so without consulting 
Commander Buchanan. I said,' Tell your men to stop firing.' 
He replied, ' They are a lot of volunteers, and I have no control 
over them.' This was evident. The lieutenant then requested 
permission to go on board the Congress with Capt. Smith, and 
assist in getting the wounded down. This I assented to. 
Capt. Smith and Lieut. Pendergrast did not return, but escaped 
to shore; and, after surrendering themselves prisoners-of-war, 
took advantage of the permission given for the humane pur- 
pose of saving their wounded, and violated their implied 
parole and escaped." 

It must be said that the Congress, not having hauled her 
colors down, as is usual in naval warfare, the right to continue 
fire until the colors are struck is not altered by flying the 
white flag. That does not of itself constitute a surrender — it 
implies a parley, during which firing ceases temporarily, to as- 
certain the object of the white flag. Under these circumstances 
were Capt. Smith and Lieut. Pendergrast prisoners-of-war, 
and were they justified in escaping, or if they escaped from 
the burning ship to save their lives, were they not in military 
honor and custom bound to have returned to their captors? 
Their position was not the same as that of Capt. Semmes at the 
sinking of the Alabama. Smith and Pendergrast had been in 
the actual possession of their captor, and on board his ship, and 
had surrendered their swords in token of their capture. Capt. 
Semmes never was within the power of Capt.Winslow of the 
Kear'sarge. From the deck of the Beaufort, Smith and Pender- 
grast were jjermitted to go to the Congress for a specific pur- 
pose of helping to save their own wounded men. Capt. 
Semmes leaped into the ocean, preferring the risk of drowning 
to capture by Capt. Winslow. The officers of the Congress had 
come on board the ship of their captor, and surrendered their 
swords, and the opportunity to escape, which they embraced, 
was extended to them in the office of humanity, but was taken 



THE CONFEDERATE STATES NAVY. 165 

advantage of by them to the discredit of the honor of Ameri- 
can sailors. 

In the fight between the Virginia and the Congress and 
the Cumberland, the former receiv^ed no material injury ex- 
cept the loss of ram in the side of the Cumberland, and the 
breaking off the muzzle of two of the broadside guns. Her 
armor was not the least damaged, as the balls that struck 
glanced off, " having no more effect than peas from a pop-gun," 
though she was the focus upon which the fire of more than 
100 heavy guns was concentrated for over three hours. But 
everything outside was swept away by the fire to which she 
was exposed. One anchor, the smokestack, and steampipes, 
stanchions, railings, boat-davits, and flag-staff were all shot 
away, and finally a boarding pike bore her colors in triumph 
out of the fight. Her loss was two killed and eight wounded, 
among the latter Capt. Buchanan, so seriously as to be com- 
pelled to transfer the command to Lieut. Jones, and, with 
Lieut. Minor, to be carried the next day to the naval hospi- 
tal at Norfolk. The loss in the Confederate fleet aggregated 
in killed and wounded twenty-one. 

The Minnesota, the Roanoke, and the St. Laivrence, upon 
seeing the approach of the Confederate fleet from Norfolk, 
were not slow to get underway. Each of these ships grounded 
before coming within short range — the Minnesota so firmly 
as not to be got afloat for four tides; the Roanoke grounded 
also, but was soon gotten off with the assistance of tugs, 
which towed her round; and the St. Lawrence in tow of the 
Cambridge, passed the Roanoke, but she also grounded, but 
was gotten off; '• after which," Capt. Purviance reported, "a 
powerful broadside from the spar and gun decks of the St. 
Laivrence, then distant about half a mile, thrown into the 
Merrimac, induced her to withdraw, whether from necessity 
or discretion, is not known." The parting broadside of the 
St. Laivrynce was merely coincident with the withdrawal of 
the Virginia. Capt. Buchanan says : 

" The ships from Old Point opened their fire upon ns. The Ifinnesota 
grounded in the north channel, where, unfortunately, the shoalness of the 
channel prevented our approach. We continued, however, to fire upon 
her until the pilots declared that it was no longer safe to remain in that 
position, and we accordingly returned by the south channel (the middle 
ground being necessarily between the Virginia eind Ifinnesota, and the St. 
Lawrence and the Roanoke having retreated under the guns of Old Point), 
and again had an opportunity of opening upon the Minnesota, receiving: 
her heavy fire in return; and shortly afterwards upon the >S^. Laivrence, 
from which vessel we also received several broadsides." 

The St. Lawrence carried off a token from the Virginia — 
"one of her projectiles of formidable dimensions." Capt. Pur- 
viance says: 

" An eighty-pound shell penetrated the starboard quarter about four 
inches above tbe water-line, passed through the pantry of the ward -room. 



166 THE CONFEDERATE STATES NAVY, 

and into the state-room of the assistant surgeon on the port side, com- 
pletely demolishing the bulkhead, and then struck a strong iron bar which 
secured the bull's-eye of the port. It returned into the ward-room ex- 
pended. It fortunately did not explode, and no person was injured. The 
damage done by this shot proved the power of the projectiles which she 
employed, and readily explained the quick destrut-tion of our wooden and 
antiquated frigates. Our position at this time was one of some anxiety." 

The St. Lawrence was gotten off by the gunboat Young 
America. The ship's carpenter of the Minnesota reported the 
damage done to that frigate as follows : 

" Port side received one shell on after-quarter at the water-hne, which 
cut through the plankmg; one shell between main and mizzen rigging, 
below air-port-line, whicla passed thi'ough chief engineer's state room, 
crossing and tearing up the deck over the cock-pit, and striking the clamp 
and knee in carpenter's state-room, where it exploded, carrying away the 
beam clamp and knee, and completely demolishing the bulkheads, setting 
tire to the same and ripping up the deck. One shell passed through ham- 
mock netting abaft of main rigging, striking the spar deck on starboard 
side, cutting through four planks, then ricochetting, carrying away trunk 
and axle of gun-carriage, and wounding water-ways. Two shells passed 
through No. 8 port, carrying away planking, timbers and deck clamps, 
and splintering several beams and castings. One shell passed through 
forward part of No. 6 port, carrying away planking timber and upper sill. 
One shell under fore-rigging, which cut away sheet cable, penetrating 
planking timber and splintering deck clamps. One shell on starboard side 
carried away hammock nettings and gangway boards. There are several 
wounds on port side received from fragments of exploding shell. One 
shell passed throiigh the mainmast fourteen feet above deck, cutting away 
one-thu'd of the mast and bursting some of the iron bands. One shell 
struck the spar deck in starboard gangway, cutting it up. One passed 
from port to starboard gangway, forward of mainmast, where it exploded, 
wounding two boats." 

Darkness had closed over the water, and put an end to 
further fighting for that day. The Confederate fleet steamed 
proudly and triumphantly back to its anchorage, having 
sent a thrill of joyful enthusiasm throughout the length and 
breadth of the Confederate States, dismay and disgrace all 
over the United States, and revolutionized naval construction 
throughout the world. From that anchorage, and by the 
blaze of the burning Congress, the crews of the Confederate 
vessels saw waving from the masts of the sunken Cumberland 
the flag of the United States, and heard the booming of the 
guns of the burning Congress, until her magazine, exploding, 
scattered over the waters of the Roads the fragments of the 
frigate ; the stranded Minnesota lying riddled, the Roanoke, 
St. Lawrence, Mystic, and other gunboats, huddled under the 
guns of Fortress Monroe, and no flag but the Stars and Bars 
waving in defiance over all the waters of the Hampton 
Roads. 



CHAPTER X. 
THE VIRGINIA (MERRIMAC) AND MONITOR. 



AT daybreak on Sunday, March 9th, 1862, the positions of 
the various vessels in Hampton Roads were as follows: 
Off Sewell's Point lay the Confederate fleet: theVirginia, 
the Patrick Henry, the Jamestown, the gunboats Raleigh 
and Teaser. Off Newport News the masts of the Cumberland 
rose above the waters of Hampton Roads, and the floating 
debris of the Congress told the story of the battle of the 8th. 
In the north channel, hard and fast aground, lay the Minne- 
sota, with her sides well riddled, while, close beside, the queer- 
looking Monitor guarded the stranded frigate. Towards Fort- 
ress Monroe, the Roanoke, the St. Laivrence, and the many gun- 
boats of the Federal fleet kept at a respectful distance from the 
dreaded Virginia. The central figure in the picture was un- 
questionably the Monitor, of whose construction and reputed 
prowess full particulars had been received by the Confederate 
authorities. Whatever her merits might prove, the fact that 
she was iron-clad was sufficient, after the previous day's expe- 
rience, to make her visit inopportune and undesired to the 
viciftors of the night before. Beside the towering frigate, the 
little Monitor presented the appearance of a pigmy beside a 
giant. A "tin can upon a shingle," or a " cheese box on a 
plank," were the familiar similes that greeted her appearance. 
But though small and insignificant in appearance, she was 
known to be the product of American inventive genius, of 
American energy, industry and enterprise. The officers who 
were to engage her in battle w^ere too familiar with the re- 
sources, the energy, and the skill of Northern enterprise to 
doubt her prowess or to expect an easy victory. But whatever 
she might prove herself to be, she was there, watching and 
guarding the prize of yesterday's victory, and must be fought, 
, let the result be what it would. Lieut. Jones, commanding the 
I Virginia, was not the man to decline any contest after yester- 
day's triumph — still less to retire before testing the endurance 
and capabilities of that last product of Yankee inventiai: 

(167) 



168 THE CONFEDERATE STATES NAVY. 

anVithout waiting longer than necessary for an early breakfast 
P^^ Tbout eight and a quarter o'clock, the Virginia led the way 
^,^[-^' he second trial of strength and endurance, followed by the 
:\;^^,.vrick Heni'y, the Jamestoivn, the Raleigh and the Teaser, 
and steamed straight for the Minnesota. The battle was to be 
fought below the " middle ground" — in the deeper channel of 
the lower Roads, nearer to Fortress Monroe and the Rip-raps, 
and immediately off the Confederate Battery at SewelFs Point. 
Moving very slowly, the Virginia made straight as the chan- 
nel would permit for the Minnesota and the Monitor, and 
opened fire from her bow pivot gun, and, closing the distance, 
delivered her starboard broadside at shorter range. The Monitor 
promptly accepted the challenge and stood boldly for the Vir- 
ginia, passing her and delivering the fire of her eleven-inch 
gun directly upon the armored side of the Virginia. Both 
vessels turned and approached each other — the Monitor firing 
with the greatest deliberation at intervals of seven or eight 
minutes, and the Virginia oftener from her greater inimber of 
guns. It was soon apparent to both commanding officers that 
each had found a foeman worthy of his ship, and that the test 
was to be the strength of their country's iron rather than of 
the seamanship or courage of her sailors. The poetry of a 
naval battle was not there; it was simply a game of enormous 
iron bolts hurled upon thick iron plates from iron guns of here- 
tofore unknown dimensions. The contest was not between 
ships, but between metal monsters with impenetrable sides. 

The Virginia was working badly, the Monitor beautifully. 
The damage to the smokestack of the Virginia in the fight of 
the day before impeded the making of steam, and Chief En- 
gineer Ramsay reported great difficulty in obtaining the nec- 
essary draft for his boilers. In addition to this, the great 
draft of the Virginia caused her to touch bottom and drag 
in the mud. Her twenty-tin-ee feet of draft confined her to 
a narrow channel, while the Monitor^ s twelve - feet draft 
enabled her to take any position she desired. The Monitor 
was the better boat — more obedient to her helm, more easily 
turned, and equally invulnerable, but not without apparent 
embarrassments. Her pilot-house, immediately in front of 
her turret, impeded the fire of her guns; and her commander, 
shut off in the pilot-house from her executive officer in the 
turret, had to pass his order through speaking-tubes, whicli 
were broken early in the action, and afterward by two lands- 
men, who were so unfamiliar with the technical communica- 
tions that they were often misunderstood. Nevertheless, the 
Monitor was the superior ship in all the essentials necessary 
in action. It was not long before the experience of battle < 
showed to Lieut. Jones the impossibility of perforating the tur- 
ret, and he directed his fire upon the pilot-house with better 
results, and soon a shell from the Virginia " struck the for- 
^Vird side of the pilot-iiouse, directly in the sight-hole or slit. 



THE CONFEDERATE STATES NAVY. 16& 

and exploded, cracking the second iron-log, and partly lifting 
the top, left an opening. Worden was standing immediately 
behind this spot, and received in his face the force of the blow, 
which partly stunned him, filling his eyes with powder and 
utterly blinded him,"* and the command devolved on Lieut. 
S. D. Greene. 

Two hours of hard blows from the Virginia had made no 
impression on the Monitor, and the same amount of pounding 
had done no greater injury to the Virginia ; and the battle 
continued at close quarters for some time, at less than fifty 
yards, without apparent damage to either side. ^ Under these 
circumstances, Lieut. Jones determined to try the same 
engine of destruction that the day before had broken through 
the wooden walls of the Cumberland; and, if not able to break 
in the sides of the Monitor, to run her down, or to fasten on 
to her and board her. Owing to the defective stearing-gear 
of the Virginia, this required nearly an hour of manoeuvring 
for position, which was mistaken by observers for retreat, or 
evidence of damage inflicted; and when at last the oppor- 
tunity offered, there was not room enough for the ship to get 
that headway which might have crushed the Monitor with the 
weight, if not by the blow, of the Virginia; so, when the ships 
came together, the agile, swift-turning Monitor eluded the 
blow, which amounted to nothing more than a small indenta- 
tion. The ram of the Virginia liad been broken off in the 
Cumberland, but it is very doubtful if under any headway 
that the Virginia could have acquired in that narrow channel 
of the Roads, any prow would have done material damage to 
the Monitor. Neither was it found practicable to board the 
Monitor, as was intended by Lieut. Jones, as she dropped 
astern before the boarders could get on board. 

During this duel, from nine to eleven o'clock, between the 
iron-clads, the Yorktovm and Jamestoivn participated, and re- 
ceived the fire of the Monitor and Minnesota. The latter vessel 
had received from the steamer Rancocas 100 solid shot, which 
she used against the Virginia, but with no perceptible injury 
to her iron sides. The Virginia used shells exclusively, the 
only solid shot that she carried being of large windage for 
use as hot shot; but as the solid shot from the Monitor and 
Minnesota did not injure the four-inch iron sides of the Vir- 
ginia, it is not probable that solid shot from the guns of the 
Virginia would have done any more injury upon the nine- 
inch iron bulwarks of the Monitor. In the close contact of 
less than forty yards, the rapid firing of both ships enveloped 
them in dense clouds of smoke, almost totally concealing the 
contestants, from which they would emerge in their evolutions 
to receive the cheers of their respective friends, with their flags 
flying, to indicate that no victory had been won by either side. 

1 Commanders. D. Greene, in CewJurw, March, - Greene and Wood, in the Century, March, 

1885: p. 761. 1885. 



170 THE CONFEDERATE STATES NAVY. 

As the ships steamed round each other for position, the Vir- 
ginia would turn her guns upon the stranded Minnesota and 
endeavor to destroy her. One of these sliots took effect in the 
steamer Dragon, lying alongside the frigate, and exploded her 
boiler. 

In the ineffectual effort of the Virginia to ram the 
Monitor, the latter delivered two shots from her eleven-inch 
guns directly and squarely upon the armored sides of the 
former, the effect of which was to knock down all the crews 
of the after-guns, and the concussion producing bleeding from 
nose and ears; the impact of these solid shots forced in the 
wooden backing of the shield two or three inches, and if such 
shots had been repeated at the same spot might have broken 
through and penetrated into the ship. 

The battle raged almost continuously for four hours, and 
about 13 M. terminated without material damage to either ship, 
and certainly without decisive victory for either flag. So far as 
damage done can indicate success, the Virginia could claim 
the pahn of victory. She had sunk the Cumberland, burned 
the Congress, riddled the Minnesota, destroyed the Dragon, 
burned the Whitehall, injured the Roanoke and St. Lawrence, ' 
and left her mark upon tlie Monitor. More than thirty 
prisoners had been captured, and over 250 of her enemies 
killed and wounded. Not a vessel of the Confederate squadron 
had been disabled, or even seriously injured. The Patrick 
Henry was compelled to haul out of the fight of the first day 
for a few hoars to repair damage, but was at her post during 
all of the second day's fight ; the clean sweep made of every- 
thing outside of the Virginia, and the loss of flag-staff and of 
one mast in the fleet, was the total damage done the Confed- 
erate ships. 

Whether the 3Ionitor or the Virginia first withdrew from 
action is yet unsettled. Lieut. Jones says: "At length the 
Monitor withdrew over the middle ground where we could not 
follow, but always maintaining a position to protect the Min- 
fiesota,"'^ which was the objective of Lieut. Jones' fight on the 
9th. " To run our ship ashore on a falling tide would have 
been ruin. We waited her return for an hour; and at 2 P. M. 

1 Chief Engineer Allan C. Stinors of the well into her oak. She will not try that again. 

Monitor reported, March 9th, 18G2 : "We were She gave us a tremendous thump, but did not 

struck twenty - two times, pilot - hoiise twice, injure us iu the least. We are just able to find 

turret nine times, side armor eight times, deck the point of contact. 

three times. The only vulnerable point was the " The turret is a splendid structure. I don't 

pilot-house. One of your great logs (nine by think much of the shield, but tbe pendulums 

twelve inches thick) is broken in two. The shot are fine things, though I cannot tell you how 

struck just outside of where the captain had his they would stand the shot, as they were not 

eye, and it has disabled him by destroying his hit. 

left eye, and temporarily blinding the other. "You were very correct in your estimate of 

The log is not quite iu two, but is broken and the efl'ect of shot upon the man on the inside of 

pressed inwards one and a half inches. [The the turret when it was struck near him. Three 

' log ' alluded to is made of wrought iron of the men were knocked down, of whom I was one ; 

"best material.] She tried to run us down and the other two had to be carried below; but I was 

fiink us, as bhe did the C«m6eWa«d yesterday, but not disabled at all, and tlie others recovered 

ehn got the worst of it. Her bow passed over before the battle was over." 
our deck, and our sharp upper edge side cut 

through the light iron shoe upon her stern, and - Century, March, 1885, p. 744. 



THE CONFEDERATE STATES NAVY. 171 

steamed to Sewell's Point, and thence to the dock-yard at 
JSTorfolk, our crew thoroughly worn out from the two fights." 
Although there is no doubt that the Monitor^ first retired — for 
Capt. Van Brunt, commanding the Minnesota, so states in his 
official report — " the battle was a drawn one, so far as the two 
vessels engaged were concerned. But in its general results 
the advantage was with the Ilonitor." On the other hand, 
Commander Greene, ' after explaining the reasons for the 
Monito}^ retiring temporarily from action, immediately after 
the wounding of Capt. Worden, says: "During this time 
the Merrimac, which was leaking badly, had started in the 
direction of the Elizabeth River, and on taking my station in 
the pilot-house and turning the vessel's head in the direction 
of the Merrimac, I saw that she was already in retreat. A 
few shots were fired at the retiring vessel and she continued 
on to Norfolk. I returned with the Monitor to the side of the 
Minnesota.'' 

A more disinterested observer of the fight than Lieut. 
Green, and yet one quite as likely to be as observant of all 
that transpired between the two iron-clads, was Commander 
Van Brunt, of the Minnesota. The destruction of that frig- 
ate was the prime object of Lieut. Jones, and the Monitor 
was the only barrier that interposed between the destroyer of 
the Cumberland and the Congress, and the stranded frigate. 
The voluntary testimony of a witness whose opportunity of 
observation was the best, whose interests were antagonistic 
to the Virginia, and whose motives were anything than par- 
tial to his enemy, ought to receive greater weight than that 
of Lieut. Green shut up in the pilot-house, excited by the 
contest, and personally and professionally interested in the 
result of the fight. The official report of Commander Van 
Brunt on this point is as follows: 

" By the time she had flred her third shell the little Monitor'hsiA come 
down upon her, placinjj: herself between us, and compelled her to chanj^e 
her position; in doing which she grounded, and again 1 poured into her 
all the guns which could be brought to bear upon her. As soon as she got 
off she stood down the bay, the little battery chasing her with all speed, 
when suddenly the Merrimac turned around and i*an full speed into her 
antagonist. For a moment I was anxious, but instantly I saw a shot 
plunge into the iron roof of the Ilei'rimac, which surely must have dam 
aged her, for some time after the rebels concentrated their whole battery 
upon the tower and pilot-house of the 3Ionitor, and soon after the latter 
stood down for Fortress Monroe, and we thought it probable she had ex- 
hausted her supply of ammunition or sustained some iiijury. Soon after 
the 3Ierrimac and the two other steamers headed for my ship, and I then 
felt to the fullest extent my condition. I was hard and innuovably 
aground, and they could take position under my stern and rake me. I had 
expended most of my solid shot, my ship was badly crippled, and my 
officers and men were worn out with fatigue; but even in this extreme 
dilenniia I determined never to give up the ship to the rebels, and after 
consulting my officers, I ordered every preparation to be made to destroy 

1 Century, March, 1885, p. 760. 



172 THE CONFEDERATE STATES NAVY. 

the ship after all hope was gone to save her. On ascending the poop deck 
I observed that the enemy s vessels had changed their course and were 
heading for Craney Island." 

We have italicized the v^ord "latter" to call attention to 
the statement of Commander Van Brunt, that it was the 
3fo7iitor which " stood down for Fortress Monroe" — her house 
of refuge, and her place of safety. Upon seeing the 3fonitot^ 
standing down for Fortress Monroe, he realized that the 



THE " MERlilMAC " IN PllOFILE. 



destruction of his own ship was now possible, and he prepared 
himself to destroy her, when to his surprise he observed the 
Virginia to have changed her course for Craney Island. 

Commander Foxhall Parker, in a paper read before the Naval 
Institute on "The Monitor and the 3Ierrimac,'' perpetuates errors 
in regard to the fight, which repeated publications have ex- 
posed, and which he ought to have avoided. After describing 
the wounding of Capt. Worden. and Lieut. Green's assuming 
command, and bringing the Monitor back into action, Com- 
mander Parker continues : "as the Monitor turned, however, 
so did the Merrimac, and, to the surprise of all not on board 
of her, she steamed at full speed for Norfolk, * * * wholly 



jl^ 



THE "monitor" in PROFILE. 



leaving the battle-field, and seeking slielter under the rebel 
batteries, thus by all the laws of war acknowledging herself 
vanquished." It is only necessary, in refutation of that state- 
ment, to refer to the above extract from the report of Com- 
mander Van Brunt, "whose officers and crews, Commander 
Parker says, were anxious spectators, as we may well conceive, 
of this novel combat, upon w^hose issue the fate of their own 
ship depended." The statement of an officer as deeply inter- 
ested in the result of the conflict as Capt. Van Brunt was, and 
an eye-witness of the scene, will outweigh with history the 
fancy sketch of one who wrote to please the popular prejudice 
rather than to relate the facts as they actually occurred. 

Capt. W. H. Parker, of the C. S. N., who^commanded the 
Beaufoi^t in both battles, wrote under date, College Station, 



THE CONFEDERATE STATES NAVY. 173 

Prince George County, Md., February 9th, 1875, to Com- 
mander Catesby ap R. Jones, that: 

^' The Beaufort and Raleigh were canal boats running on the Albe- 
marle Canal and Sound. Armament — one rifled thirty -two -pounder 
(banded). The Beatifort had also one twenty -four-pounder carronade. 
Crew and officei's about thirty-five men. I perfectly understand that your 
narrative was intended to give an account of the proceedings of the 
Virginia only. It is truthful and correct, and such is the universal 
opinion. All I wanted was to show that I was not in command of a mere 
Tug boat on that eventful day. If I had seen your M^. before you pub- 
lished it, I don't know that I could have suggested anything you have not 
said. I think your account is just what it should be, and reflects credit 
upon you. In my opinion it will kill Worden's claim without any further 
testimony. Foxhall [a brother of W. H. Parker] tells me he wrote his 
narrative from Worden's notes and at his request. No doubt Worden put 
it out as a 'feeler.' When Foxhall (last month) showed me Worden's 
printed petition (for prize money) I said, ' Well ! Fox I thought well of 
Worden and am sorry he has put his name to a lie !' I think Fox regrets 
havmg written his article. I had a letter from Selfridge (a lieutenant on 
the Cumberland) on the subject. He wanted to know if the Cumberland 
was not entitled to as much credit (if any) as the Monitor. I answered 
him 'just about as much.' Major John Lee, of Washington, has written 
also. I referred him to your account, and told him Worden's assertions 
were hardly worthy a serious denial. Dr. Pinkney swears Worden shall 
not get the milhon he asks for, and indeed he has brought a hornet's nest 
about his ears. If I had any hope that honor and truth would ever again 
be valued in this country I should say Worden would live to regret his 
action. . ^^^y ^^^^y y^^^g^ ^^ ^^^^ ^ Parker." 

Prof. Soley says : " Seeing the Monitor draw off. Van 
Brunt, under the supposition that his protector was disabled 
and had left him, prepared for the worst, and made ready to 
destroy his ship. But, at this point, the Merrimac withdrew to 
Norfolk. As she moved off. Green fired at her twice, or at 
most three times. He then returned to the Ilinnesota, and re- 
mained by her until she got afloat. To have followed the 
Merrimac under the batteries of Sewell's Point would have 
been running a greater risk than the circumstances would 
warrant, considering the important interests in Hampton 
Roads, of which the Monitor afforded the sole protection," But 
if the Virginia had been defeated by the Monitor, and was in 
retreat to Norfolk, was it not the imperative duty of the com- 
mander of the Monitor to have followed the Virginia and 
destroyed her, or disabled her further, and would not that 
destruction have been the best and most complete protection to 
all the " important interests " at Hampton Roads ?' 

1 In a letter to the New York Graphic, in 1879, up to Newport News to look out for the Virginia. 
Commodore John Marston, U. S. N., claims the Capt. Worden cheerfully acquiesced, and the re- 
credit of saving the coimtry by disobej-ing suit is kuown. "Where," asks the Commodore, 
orders. At the time of the arrival of the Monitor • • would the United States at this moment have 
in Hampton Koads, the Commodore was in com- been if I had not disobeyed my orders ? There 
mand at that point, and says he had an impera- was nothing to prevent the Merrimac going to 
tive order to send the Monitor to Washington. Philadelphia, New York, or Boston, and the fall 
The Virginia having already come down, sunk of either of those cities would have been the 
the Cumberland and burned the Congress, the signal for Europe, but especially for Eng- 
Commodore resolved to disregard the order, at land, to acknowledge the independence of the 
the risk of his commission, and send the J/oniioc South." 



174 THE CONFEDERATE STATES NAVY. 

In a report made on this battle by Lieut, (afterward Ad- 
miral) Worden, he says : 

" The J/er/•^mac having been thus checked in her career of destruc- 
tion, and driven back crippled and discomfited, the question arises, 
should slie have been foUowed in her retreat to Norfolk ? Tliat such a 
course would comuiend itself very temptingly to the gallantry of an 
officer and be dilficult to resist, is undeniable ; yet I am convinced that 
under the condition of aflairs then existing at Hampton Roads, and the 
great interests at stake there, all of which were entirely dependent upon 
the Monitor, good judgment and sound discretion forbade it. It must be 
remembered that the pilot-house of the Monitor was situated well forward 
in her bows, and that it was considerably damaged. In following in the 
wake of the enemy it would have been necessary, in order to fire clear of 
the pilot-house, to have made broad ' yaws ' to starboard or port, involv- 
ing, in the excitement of such a chase, the very serious danger of ground- 
ing in the narrow portions of the channel and near some of the enemy's 
batteries, whence it would have been very difficult to extricate her; pos- 
sibly involving her loss. Such a danger her commanding officer would 
not, in my judgment, have been justified in encountering, for her loss 
would have left the vital interests in all the waters of the Chesapeake at 
the mercy of future attacks of the Merrimac. Had there been another 
iron-clad in reserve at that point to guard those interests, the question 
would have presented a different aspect, which would not only have jus- 
tified him in following, but perhaps made it his imperative duty to do so. 

" The fact that the battle with the Merrimac was not more decided 
and prompt was due to the want of knowledge of the endurance of 
the eleven-inch Dahlgren guns with which the Monitor was armed, and 
which had not been fully tested. Just before leaving New York, 1 received 
a peremptory order from the Bureau of Ordnance to use only the pre- 
sci'ibed service charge, viz., fifteen pounds, and I did not feel justified in 
violating those instructions at the risk of bursting one of the guns, which, 
placed as they were in turret, would almost entirely have disabled the 
vessel. Had I been able to have used thirty-pound charges, which experience 
has since shown the guns capable of enduring, there is little doubt in my 
mind that the contest would have been shorter and the result more de- 
cided. Further, the crew had been but a few days on board, the weather 
bad, the mechanics at work on her up to the moment of sailing, and suffi- 
cient opportunity had not been afforded to practice them propeiiy at the 
guns, the mode of manipulating which was entirely novel." 

Are these reasons satisfactory, if the Virginia was be- 
lieved to have been defeated, crippled and discomfited ? 
Were the channels too narrow for the Monitor, drawing only 
twelve feet ? And what was the fleet then floating the flag of 
the United States in Hampton Roads and guarding those in- 
terests ? There were in Hampton Roads, besides the Monitor, 
2 guns, the Roanoke. 40 guns; the Minnesota, 48 guns; the St. 
Lawrence, 50 guns; Brandyu'ine, 50 guns; Cambridge, 5 guns; 
Mount Vernon. 3 guns; Mystic, 4 guns; Mount Washington, 4 
guns; Braziliera, G guns; S. R. Spaulding, 3 guns; Young 
America, 2 guns; Delaivare, 2 guns, and Charles Phelps, 1 gun. 
— Total, 220 guns. Surely, a fleet strong enough to protect the 
interests in Hampton Roads from a '"crippled and discomfited" 
vessel of 10 guns, which they said retreated to dry dock ! The 
Congress, 50 guns; Cumberland, 24 guns; Whitehall. 2 guns; 
Dragon ixnd Zouave, each 1 gun, had been destroyed; but, with 



THE CONFEDERATE STATES NAVY. 175 

the exception of the Minnesota, all the above were afloat and 
quite able to protect the Roads from the James River squadron. 
But if the Monitor was the victor on the memorable 9tli 
of March, and the Virginia was ''crippled and discomfited" 
and forced to fly to Norfolk, what necessity was there for the 
following order ? 

" Navy Department, March 10th, 1863. 

" It is directed by the President tliat the Jlonitor be not too mnch ex- 
posed, and that in no event shall any attempt be made to proceed with 
her unattended to Norfolk. If vessels can be procured and loaded with 
stone and sunk in the channel, it is important that it should be done. 

" The ISan Jacinto and Dakota have sailed from Boston to Hampton 
Roads, and the Sabine, in tow of Baltic and a tug from New York. Gun- 
boats will be ordered forthwith. Would it not be well to detain the Ilin- 
nesota until other vessels arrive ? 

" Captain G. V. Fox, " Gideon Weli.es. 

'■'■Assistant Secretary of the Navy, Fortress llonroe.'''' 

These preparations for a stone blockade against the Vi?-- 
ginia look like precautionary measures against another such 
victory over the Virginia. 

There are other official records, cotemporaneous with the 
fight, which show that the Federal authorities did not believe 
the Virginia defeated or disabled. Assistant Secretary Fox 
wrote to Secretary Welles, March 8th, 1863, 9 P.M., that "nearly 
all here are of the opinion that the Merrimac is disabled. I 
was the nearest person to her, outside of the Monitor, and I 
am of opinion she is not seriously injured." Assistant Secre- 
tary of War, P. H. Watson, on March 9th, wrote to Henry B. 
Fen wick, of New York, that: 

"The Merrimac, an armor-clad vessel belonging to the rebels, issued 
from Norfolk yesterday, and captured several of the United States block- 
ading vessels, and threatens to sweep our whole flotilla from Chesapeake 
Bay. Under these circumstances, it is of the last importance to cajiture 
or destroy the Merrimac, and the whole wealth and power of the United 
States will be at command for that purpose. As this movement was an- 
ticipated, and the subject of discussion between you and myself last De- 
cember, you have, no doubt, thought of various modes by which it could 
be met and overcome most promptly. The Secretary of War desires you 
quietly to call a meeting of from three to nine persons, at your discretion, 
of the best judgment in naval engineering and warfare, to meet imme- 
diately at your father's house, or some other convenient and suitable 
place, and to sit as a committee to devise the best plan of speedily accom- 
plishing the capture or destruction of the Merrimac. 1 would suggest the 
name of Abram S. Hewitt as a member of the committee. You will 
bear in mind that every hour's delay to destroy the Merrimac may result 
in incalculable damage to the United States, and that the plan or plans 
for her destruction should be submitted at the earliest hour practicable 
for the approval of this department, to the end that their execution may 
not be unnecessarily delayed a moment. To enable you to communicate 
hourly with this department, the Telegraphic Company is directed to 
transmit all messages from you at the expense of the government. Ac- 
knowledge this dispatch the moment you receive it. Spare no pains or 
expense to get the committee together immediately. Act with the utmost 
energy. You and each member of the committee will consider this whole 
matter confidential." 



176 THE CONFEDERATE STATES NAVY. 

Evidently the War Department at "Washington did not 
believe the fiction that the Virginia had been defeated, dis- 
comfited and disabled. On the same day, Gen. McClellan tele- 
graphed to the commanding officers at Fort Delaware, Fort 
Mifflin, Fort Trumbull, New York Harbor, Newport, R. I., 
Boston and Portland, Me., that "the rebel iron-clad steamer' 
il/erWmac has destroyed two of our frigates near Fort Monroe, 
and finally retired last night to Craney Island. She may suc- 
ceed in passing the batteries and go to sea. It is necessary 
that you place your fort in the best possible condition for de- 
fence, and do your best to stop her should she endeavor to run 
by. Anything that can be effected in the way of temporary 
batteries should be done at once." From Baltimore, Gen. Dix 
telegraphed Col. Warren, commanding Fort Federal Hill: "She 
(the 3Ier7-imac) may pass Fort Monroe and come here. You 
will make the same arrangements which would be necessary 
if we were in the presence of an enemy." Secretary Stanton 
telegraphed the Governors of New York and Massachusetts, 
that "the opinion of the naval commanders here is that the 
Merrimac will not venture to sea, but they advise that imme- 
diate preparations be made to guard against the danger to our 
ports, by large timber rafts protected by batteries. They re- 
gard timber rafts, guarded by batteries, as the best protection 
for temporary purposes." Com. Dahlgren, at Washington, 
telegraphed Gen. Hooker, " the Merrimac got out of harbor, 
and had pretty much used up our ships at Hampton Roads. It 
is impossible to say what she may attempt ; but, as a proper 
precaution, it is proposed to be ready to block the channel of 
this river in the event of an attempt to enter it. By direction 
of the President, it has been agreed on by Gen. McClellan, 
Gen. Meigs, and myself, the Secretary of War present, to fill 
some canal-boats and other crafts, and tow them down near 
the place where it would be advisable to sink them. I wish 
you would, therefore, send up some steamers to tow them 
down. You have, no doubt, received my dispatch to send 
some fast vessel to observe the mouth of the Potomac. Let 
this duty be well looked to." Com. Dahlgren urged upon 
the President the necessity of blocking the Potomac, and to 
Gen. McClellan wrote : "I am making arrangements to place 
an eleven-inch gun and some ten-inch mortars on Giesborough 
Point, and that the steamer Sophia will leave G Street wharf in 
ten minutes, having in tow eight canal-boats loaded with suffi- 
cient stone to sink them; another steamer with eight more 
will leave in the course of the night." These are but a por- 
tion of the official records which show the fright and con- 
sternation produced by the Vii^ginia, which, it was alleged, 
had been defeated, discomfited and disabled. "The perform- 
ances of the Merrimac,'' says Gen. McClellan, " placed a new 
aspect upon everything, and may probably change my whole 
plan of campaign just on the eve of execution." On March 




LIEUTENANT COMMANDER WILLIAM HARWAR PARKER, 

CONFEDERATE .STATES NAVT. 



THE CONFEDERATE STATES NAVY. 177 

9th, Assistant Secretary Fox wrote to Secretary Welles, " the 
performance of the Monitor to-day against the Merrimac 
shows a slight superiority in favor of the Monitor. She is an 
ugly customer, and it is too good luck to believe we are yet 
clear of her." The steamer Commodore was directed to be 
held for a messenger to recall Gen. Burnside from the North 
Carolina Sound, and Secretary Welles ordered the Oneida, 
and ''any vessels you have," to be sent to Hampton Roads. 
'•Send the Wachusett to Hampton Roads; have the work on 
the other gunboats carried on day and night with all force pos- 
sible to put on them, and when ready send them to Hamp- 
ton Roads." " If Chocura and Penobscot have not sailed, 
send them to Hampton Roads as soon as steam can be gotten 
up; also the Marblehead, or any other gunboat ready." To 
Commodore Hiram Paulding, commandant at the New York 
Navy Yard, he telegraphed March 17th: " Send what gunboats 
3^ou have at the yard to Hampton Roads at once." To Capt. 
Wm. L. Hudson, commandant at the Boston Navy Yard, he 
telegraphed at the same time: " Send what gunboats you have 
at the yard to Hampton Roads at once." And as Secretary 
Welles was in despair crying for gunboats to be sent to Hamp- 
ton Roads, Dahlgren and Meigs were running canal boats 
loaded with stone down the Potomac. 

"' The possibility of the illerrfmac appearing again paralyzes 
the movements of this army by whatever route is adopted," 
was the opinion of Gen. Barnard expressed to Assistant Secre- 
tary Fox; and if the Virginia had been turned towards Fort- 
ress Monroe, Meigs and Dahlgren would have filled the Potomac 
brimfuU of stone; while McClellan and Wool relied on filling 
the channel between Craney Island and Sewell's Point as the 
surest means of sealing up the terrible Virginia; and " to take 
the battery at Sewell's Point, it would require the Monitor. 
Neither of us (Wool and Goldsborough) think it would do to use 
the Monitor for that service, lest she should become crippled. 
She is our only hope against the Mer^rimac.'" It was actually 
proposed by Secretary Stanton to let the destruction of the 
Merrimac out by contract, and to that end John Tucker, Assist- 
ant Secretary of War, wrote to Com. Vanderbilt, New York, 
March 15th, 18G2: "The Secretary of War directs me to ask 
you for what sum you will contract to destroy the Merrimac, 
or prevent her from coming out from Norfolk — you to sink or 
destroy her if she gets out — answer by telegraph, as there is no 
time to be lost." To which Mr. Vanderbilt replied that he 
could " make no satisfactory reply to the inquiry made of him, 
but will be in Washington on Monday next to confer with the 
department."' 

In the meantime. Com. Vanderbilt presented the steamer 
Vanderbilt to the government, and on March 20th, Secretary 

1 Off. See, Series 1, Vol. IX. p. 15-31. 
12 



178 THE CONFEDERATE STATES NAVY. 

Stanton wrote to him at New York: "The President desires to 
turn to the utmost account your patriotic and generous gift to 
the government of tlie great steamship Vanderbilt, and to use 
and employ that ship for protection and defence against the 
rebel iron-clad ship Merrimac.''^ Two days afterward, on the 
22d, Secretary Stanton wrote to Major Gen. John E. Wool, com- 
manding at Fortress Monroe: "■ The steamship Vanderbilt sailed 
from New York last night for Fortress Monroe. She has been 
given to tliQ, War Department and accepted by the President, 
and is designed to serve and be employed under tlie instruc- 
tions of this Department for the convoy and protection of gov- 
ernment transports at Fortress Monroe and especially for the 
destruction of the Merrimac.'''^ Secretary Stanton, on the 
27th. gave Cornelius Vanderbilt a letter of introduction to Gen. 
Wool and he proceeded to Fortress Monroe to '"aid in the de- 
struction of the Merrimac." He also placed at his disposal, 
beside his own steamer (the Vanderbilt), which had arrived 
at Fortress Monroe, the steamer Matamora.^ Assistant Sec- 
retary of War P. H. Watson, writing from Cherrystone, Va., 
on March 28th, 18G2, to Hon. E. M. Stanton, Secretary of 
War. said : " Yesterday afternoon I visited the Vanderbilt, 
and found her preparations are far advanced and that she 
is at any moment ready for action. Her steam is kept con- 
stantly up. There are seven steamers here, all ready to act 
as rams, with more or less efficiency, but by their combined 
operations abundantly able to destroy the Merrimac. In my 
judgment it is impossible for the Merrimac to come down to 
Fortress Monroe without being sunk by the rams. She can run 
up James River; she can attack Newport News, and do what 
she pleases above Fortress Monroe, as the channel above is too 
narrow and crooked to admit of the steam rams being worked 
against her with effect ; but while remaining up there out of 
our reach she can do us no harm. Commodore Goldsborough 
is fully awake to the importance of destroying the Merrimac^ 
and has a clear comprehension of the manner in which that 
can best be done with the means at his command. I think he 
will do his duty both skillfully and bravely, and I have no 
doubt with success. Mr. Vanderbilt fully approves Commo- 
dore Goldsborough's plan of battle, and desires the steamer 
Vaiiderbilt to remain under Goldsborough's command.^ I 
have directed her so to remain until otherwise ordered by you. 
The large guns are not made available as they ought to be. 
The fifteen-inch gun is not yet ready to be used with any effici- 
ency, although it is mounted upon a carriage. It is important 
to have the great gun made available immediately for defence 
against the Merrimac."' On April 7th, 1862, Gen. McClellan 

1 Official Records, Series 1, Vol. XI. Part III. ^ Gen. Wool had turned the Vanderbilt over to 
p. 26. The italics are ours. Flag-officer Goldsborough on March 24th, which 

met with the disapproval of Secretary Stanton on 

2 Ibid. p. 29. the 27th.— O^. Rec. Ser. 1, Vol. XI. Part ni. p. 43. 

s Ibitl p. 43. ^ lOid, p. 46. 



THE CONFEDERATE STATES NAVY. 179 

in despair, wrote to Geii. Wool : " I wish the Merriniac would 
come out, so that we could get our gunboats up the James 
River;" and Commodore Goldsborough, in reply, said: ''I 
dare not leave the Merrimac and consorts unguarded. Were 
she out of the way everything I have here should be at work 
in your behalf ; but as things stand you must not count upon 
my sending any more vessels to aid your operations than those 
I mentioned to you/" Gen. Wool on April 11th, in a letter 
to Secretary Stanton, said: ''The Merrimac, Jamestown^ 
Yorktown. and several gunboats and tugs appeared between 
Newport News and Se well's Point. The only damage done us 
is the capture of three small vessels, one empty, one loaded 
with hay, and the other loaded, it is said, with coal. * * No 
effort was made to prevent the capture."^ At 5 p. m., in the 
same afternoon, Gen. Wool telegraphed to the Secretary: 
''Merrimac came down toward the Monitor and Stevens. The 
latter fired four or five rounds and the Merrimac one round, 
when she, with her consorts, returned to Craney Island."^ 

Flag-officer Goldsborough, in a letter to Mr. Lincoln, on May 
9th, said : ' ' On the Merrimac s appearance outside of the wrecks 
[at Se well's Point], the Monitor had orders to fall back into 
fair channel way, and only to engage her seriously in such a 
position that this ship [the Mirmesota], together with the mer- 
chant vessels intended for the purpose, could run her down. 
If an opportunity presented itself, the other vessels were not 
to hesitate to run her down, and the Baltimore, an unarmed 
steamer of light draught, high speed, and with a curved bow, 
was kept in the direction of the Monitor expressly to throw 
herself across the Merrimac, either forward or aft of her plated 
house. But the Merrimac did not engage the Monitor, nor did 
she place herself where she could have been assailed by our 
ram vessels to any advantage, or where there was any pros- 
pect whatever of getting at her."* 

It was probably fortunate that the ships fitted up for the 
purpose of running the Virginia down did not make a serious 
attempt. Their own destruction, instead of that of the 
Virginia, would most likely have been the consequence. 

^Off.Rec. Ser. 1, Vol. XI. Part HI. pp. 77, 80. manded byC. S. u:ival officers, said: "Theircan- 

uon are managed aud served with surprising ac- 

2 Ibid, pp. 88, 89. curacy, exceeding anything I have heretofore 

known, and there is every indication of a most 

^ Ibid p. 89. J. S. Missroon, of the Wacliusett, determined resistance." Ibid, p. 123. Speak- 
wri ting to Gen. McClellan, on Ajiril Hth, 1862, ing of the gallant aud efficient services rendered 
said he had received intelligence from a " con- by some of the naval officers under his com- 
traband " who was "moC intelligent," and who mand. Major Gen. J. B. Magruder, in his of- 
came on board from Gloucester, in a canoe, ficial report of operations on the Peninsula, 
"that the battery at Gloucester Point is com- under date of May 3d, 1862, says: '• That ac- 
manded by Jeff Page, late of the U. S. navy, a complished officer, Capt. Thomas Jefferson Page 
good officer; Richard Page, also formerly of of the navy, successfully applied the resources 
navy, in command of one of the upper works at of his genius and ripe experience to the defence 
Gloucester; that they are very sanguine of sink- of Gloucester Point. My thanks are due to Capt. 
ing vessels, and have iiracticed their firing, Chatard of the navy, for valuable services as 
which is very accurate; says Page (Jeff) can kill inspector of batteries, and to Lieut. Col.Noland, 
a dog at a mile." Ibid, p. 99. This .same officer, late of the navy, the efficient Commander of the 
on April 23d, writing to Commodore Golds- batteries at Mulberry Island Point." 
borough about the batteries in the neighbor- 
hood of Yorktown, which were nearly all com- •• Ibid, p. 155. 



180 THE CONFEDERATE STATES NAVY. 

In further corroboration and explanation of the stone 
blockade of the Potomac, and of the extraordinary proposi- 
tion of the U. S. Secretary of War to contract ivith Vanderhilt 
for the destruction of the Virginia, ex-Secretary Welles wrote 
to the Philadelphia Times, of December 3d, 1877, as follows: 

" On the evening of that memorable Sunday I received from Dahl- 
gren, wlio was in command of the navy-yard, a message, stating that he, 
and all the force he could command, were employed in loading and pre- 
paring the boats which had been sent to the yard. He supposed by my 
order and with my approval, although he had received no word from me. 
I replied that I had purchased no boats, given no orders, and that if I 
rightly apprehended the object and intention of the work in which he 
was engaged, I did not approve it. When I called on the President the 
next morning Stanton was already there, stating some grievance, and, as 
I entei-ed, he turned to me and inquired my reason for countermanding 
his orders. He proceeded to state that he had directed the purchase of 
all the boats that could be pi'ocured iii Washington, Georgetown and 
Alexandria, which were being laden with stone and earth, under the 
direction of Col. Meigs and l)ahlgren, with a view of sinking them at 
Kettle Bottom Shoals, some fifty miles or more below, in order to prevent 
the ascension of the Merrimae. That while the officers whom he had de 
tailed, he supposed with my approval, were actively engaged, they had 
been suddenly stopped by an order from me to Dahlgren. He was still 
complaining when Dahlgren, and I believe Meigs also, came in, and I then 
learned that great preparations had been made to procure a fleet of boats, 
which were to be sunk at Kettle Bottom to protect Washington. I 
objected, and said I would rather expend money to remove obstacles than 
to impede navigation; that the navy had labored through the fall and 
winter to keep open this avenue to the ocean; that the army had not 
driven the rebels from the Virginia shore, nor assisted us in this work, 
though they had been greatly benefitted by our efforts in the transporta- 
tion of their supplies, forage, etc.; that to our shame there was but a 
single railroad track to the capital, though we had here an army of more 
than 100,000 to feed, and that I should not consent to take any of the naval 
appropriation to cut off water communication, unless so ordered by the 
President ; but should protest against obstructing the channel of the river. 
Our conversation was very earnest, and the President attentively listened, 
but with an evident inclination to guard in every way against the Merri- 
'?nac, but yet unwilling to interrui:)t ocean communication, so essential to 
Washington. Giving the interview a pleasant turn, he said it was evident 
that Mars not only wanted exclusive control of military operations (Stan- 
ton had manifested much dissatisfaction with McClellan as General-in- 
chief), but that he wanted a navy, and had begun to improvise one. 
Having already got his fleet, the President thought he might as weD be 
permitted to finish his work, but he must not destroy communication 
on the Potomac or cripple Neptune. The boats purchased might be 
loaded and sent down the river, but not sunk in the channel until it was 
known the Merrimae had entered the river or was on its way hither. 
Whatever expense was incurred must be defrayed by the War Depart- 
ment. With this understanding Dahlgren was authorized to supervise 
and assist Stanton's squadron. 

"In addition to his fleet of canal boats, scowboats and other craft, 
Cornelius Vanderbilt, who owned several large steamers, a man of well- 
known energy and enterprise, was invited by Stanton to Washington for 
consultation and advice. He was informed that the egress of the Merri- 
mae must be prevented, and the vessel destroyed whenever she appeared : 
that the War Department did not rely upon the Monitor, but proposed 
to stop and destroy her independent of the navy, and that he had more 
confidence in the cap)ability, suggestions and prowess of individuals like 



THE CONFEDERATE STATES NAVY. 181 

Vanderijilt, who depended on their own resources, than on naval officers, 
who were circumscribed by their education and trained to a particular 
service. He concluded by asking the great steamboat chief if he could in 
any way destroy or overcome the Merrimae. 

" Grratiiied with the suunnons, and complimented by the confidence 
expressed in his superior ability by the Secretary of War, Vanderbilt re- 
sponded that he could destroy the Merrimae, and was ready to do so, but 
he wanted the Monitor out of the way, and must be permitted to do the 
work subject to no control of naval officers or any interference from them 
or from naval vessels. If they would all get out of the way he would run 
down the J/err/moc with his big ship 'Vanderbilt.' The employment of 
this great ship corresponded with Stanton's ideas of power and force. He 
was delighted, and went with Vanderbilt to the President, who assented 
to the scheme, but was unwilling to dispense with the Monitor, which had 
done so well, and suggested that an encounter of the large wooden steamer 
with the armored ship might result in the destruction of the Vanderbilt 
instead of the Merrimae. In that event a good sale would be made of the 
Vanderbilt, and the government might be compelled to pay largely for 
the experiment without being benefitted. Vanderbilt replied that he 
would take the risk; that he was anxious to assist the government; that 
he had already offered his vessel to the Secretary of the Navy on his own 
terms, and would have given her to him, btit the Secretary wouldn't take 
her; he would make a present of her to the President, requiring, however, 
that the engineers and employees on board should be retained at present 
wages. Pleased with the suggestion that the Merrimae might be run 
down, and thus a double security provided against her, not only the Van- 
derbilt, but the Baltie, and one or two other large merchant steamers, were 
chartered and stationed in Hampton Roads." 

Mr. Welles is a competent witness in favor of the Vii-giaia's 
victory, though it must be confessed that he ceases to be en- 
tirely reliable when he comes to relate subsequent events. 
Continuing his narrative, he says : 

" These immense vessels, lofty and grand, were anchored near Fortress 
Monroe, where they remained for two months, at no small expense, await- 
ing the appearance of the Merrimae, but no opportunity occurred to ran 
her down; that vessel, in her conflict with the Mo7iitor, sustained serious 
injury, and her officers, dreading more the novel craft which she had en- 
countered on the 9th of March than the large wooden steamers, never 
again descended Ehzabeth Riv^er to the Roads.'' 

Indisputable evidence exists to contradict the statement 
of Mr. Welles that the Virginia '' never again descended Eliza- 
beth River to the Roads," in the established facts that she 
captured prizes from under the guns of the Monitor, Vander- 
bilt, and the forts, that she drove off the fleet from Sewell's 
Point, and repeatedly offered battle in the Roads. The Hon- 
orable Secretary seems, in 1877. to have forgotten a letter he 
wrote of date November 7th, 1874, to G. V. Fox, in relation to 
this same fight. That letter was as follows : 

"Hartford, Nov. 7th, 1874. 
"My Dear Sir: Your favor of the 2d inst., in the Catesby Jones nar- 
rative, I duly received and read with interest. You ask me whether you 
had better give it to the press. I see no objection, if his name goes with 
it. Of course, his statement is tinged with his feelings and views, for 
which allowance will be made. But he is a man of character, and pre- 
sents the case as he understands it. I am always glad to read the 



182 THE CONFEDERATE STATES NAVY. 

statements of reliable men anion*; the secessionists, and they are often 
quite as truthful as representations and histories on our side. 

" Truly yours, Gideon Welles. 

'^G. V. Fox, Boston." 

In 1876, ex-Assistant Secretary of the Navy G. V. Fox 
prepared an account of the Monitor for an encyclopaedia in 
which he gave a short and fair description of the fight in 
Hampton Roads. Tlie proof sheets Mr. Fox sent to Com- 
mander Catesby Jones, who immediately wrote to Mr. Fox 
the following letter: 

"New York, .June 20th, 1876. 

" 1\Iy Dear Fox: Your Monitor article has been forwarded to me 
from Selma. Thanks for it. It is by far the fairest Northern account 
of the fight that I have seen. There are, however, some errors which I 
will mention, knowing how desirous you are that it shall be a true history. 

"You say the Merriinac 'was armed with an approved broadside 
battery of i-ifled guns.' 

" Each broadside consisted of three smooth-bore guns and but one 
rifle gun. 

" Of the first day's fight, you say: 'By five o'clock the battle was 
over.' 

" It continued at least one and a half hours later. We fought until 
it was so dark that we could not see to jjoint the guns with accuracy. We 
did not leave the vicinity of the Congress until after the pilots had several 
times urged me to seek an anchorage, and, in fact, did not leave until 
they would not be responsible if we did not. 

" Of the second day's fight you say: 'Once whilst the vessels were 
thus separated, the Merrimac fired three shells at the Minnesota.'' Do 
you refer to the time when the 3Ionitor i"an into shoal water to hoist up 
shot as stated by Worden ? And again you say: ' When near noon the 
Monitor hauled off.' * * * This movement laid open the Minnesota to 
another attack from the Merrimac, but her commander did not, as previ- 
ously, avail himself of it.' You also say that 'the Merrimac fired forty- 
six shells at the Monitor and four at the Minnesota.'' 

"The unavoidable inference being, that we only fired at the Minne- 
sota, when the 3Ionitor had hauled off, l^ut this is very erroneous. We fre- 
quently fired at the Minnesota whilst we were fighting the Monitor, and 
we actually fired more shell at the wooden vessel on tlie second day than 
we did at the iron-clad. I had intended to have incorporated in my nar- 
rative the exact expenditure of powder and shell, but lost it, and as the 
gunner's memory was entirely at fault, I did not allude to the matter at 
all. 

"On the first day you say ' It was full sea thereat 1.56 P. M., and 
whilst the Camherland was' riding ' to the last of the flood the Merrimac 
ran into her.' 

" When we ran into the C/innberland, she had canted with her head 
toward the Newjiort News side, so that on approaching her, we did not 
have to change our course in order to give her a fair blow. 

" On the second day you say we passed the bar ' at meridian three 
hours before high water.' Are you not mistaken as to the time of high 
water ? I think you must be. If not, the pilots misled me. We only de- 
termined to leave when we did, because they said if we did not, we could 
not leave until the next day. The tide was running flood when the fight 
commenced. I wanted to ^g\\t the Minnesota with our starboard battery, 
two of the guns on the port side being disabled, but owing to the flood- 
tide we had to keep the vessel's head down stream, and fire at the Minne- 
sota with the port battery. We certainly would not have returned to 
Norfolk had I have supposed it wanted three hours of high water. My 
impression too is that it was ebb tide when we arrived at the Navy Yard 



THE CONFEDERATE STATES NAVY. 183 

which would not have been the case if you are right. The pilots were 
very cautious, and would not consent to move tlie vessel except under the 
most favorable conditions of tide, etc. 

"As all Confederate accounts called our vessel the '■Virginia,' it would 
have been well to have mentioned it, or, at the next centennial the two 
names may be believed to refer to different vessels. 

"You incorrectly state that we lightened one inch for twenty -four tons 
consumption, it should be for fifteen tons ; but the prow and anchor being 
lost from the bows caused her to come up much more forward than aft. 

"You say we were 'under repairs 'more than a month. It did not 
require that length of time to repair her. We were endeavoring to com- 
plete her, but could not. She never was completed. 

" My name is incorrect. 

" I have written hurriedly amid interruptions, but believe I have no 
more to say. Address, etc. 

"Catesby ap R. Jones. 

"G. V. Fox, Boston.' 

To this criticism ex-Secretary Fox replied as follows : 

" Boston, Aug. 2d, 1876. 

"My Dear Commander : I received both of your letters. When your 
first arrived I had packed up my things for the Beach and could not 
reply, by authority, to your criticisms. I am not keeping house and 
when I leave the hotel 1 give up ray rooms and stow away my things. 
However I will do the best I can, taking up your remarks seriatim. 

"'Approved battery of rifle guns.' I gave the battery at first as 
you sent it, and should have left out ' rifle guns ' or put in rifle and smooth 
bore. ' By five o'clock the battle was over,' I have not been able to obtain 
uniformity upon this point, and will seek more light. The number of 
shot fired by the Merrimac I feel sure you gave me, but cannot get your 
letters before fall. See Van Brunt's report, and the different officers' re- 
ports of the Minnesota. If you can give me any more authentic proof 
ui)on this subject, should like it. The high tides are from the Coast Sur- 
vey office, taken actually on that day at Old Point, and computed for 
JST. News and Norfolk, therefore you must have rammed the Cumberland 
before 1.56 p. M., immediately after which the Congress surrendered. I 
^ave three hours to finishing her. I never wrote your name as it is printed. 
I will put it M. and Virginia. The histories all use Merriinac. I could 
not get a proof until it was printed, and now the first edition is out, but it 
will be followed immediately by another which I shall be happy to cor- 
rect where I can see any way to do so- My account differs from all North- 
ern accounts as well as the Count de Paris', but it accords with the views 
I stated to Mr. Lincoln and Gen. McClellan after I had witnessed the con- 
test. 

" The exact truth about all these matters is what I am seeking for, 
the source is immaterial. Where there is a conflict I must use the best 
judgment 1 possess to endeavor to reconcile them. The log-books I found 
not to be of much use. Give me all your criticisms at your leisure and 1 
will investigate each one carefully. 

" Yours truly, 

"G. V. Fox." 



"Boston, Aug. 3d, 1876. 
"Dear Commander : Capt. Selfridge, who was a lieutenant on board 
the Cumberland, writes me that the Merrimac struck the Cumberland 
three times, the last one being the mortal blow. Is that so ? 
" I wrote you yesterday. 

"Yours truly, 

" G. V. Fox." 



184 THE CONFEDERATE STATES NAVY. 

Later in 1876, on December 23d, Mr. Fox again wrote to 
Commander Jones as follows : 

"Boston, Dec. 23d, 1876. 

" Dear Commander: I have yours of the 19th inst. When I was in 
New York the other day, I called at the Cyclopaedia office, and they told 
me that any corrections I wish to make could be Inserted whenever they 
printed another edition, which happened every year almost. They con- 
fined me to the same space, because they print say 500 copies to an edition, 
then sell those and are ready to use the same plates for another 500. They 
insert corrections by cutting out a space of metal and inserting another. 
I have all your letters and other correspondence tied up in a bundle, and 
whatever fact you send me I Avill look into it and correct it unless the 
weight of evidence on the other side throws it into a doubt. 

" With regard to the displacement and rise per ton, I got the figures 
from old John Lenthal. I enclose the article. You can go over it very 
carefully at your leisure and send me the facts as they seemed to you. 

" If we divest ourselves of passion, and meet the political difficulty 
with the calmness and good judgment I witnessed at Columbia, S. C, 
where the provocation to fling discretion to the winds is greater than any 
State has hitherto been subjected to, then we shall pull through. If we 
lived in a hereditary form of government, and were subjected to the 
wrongs which now threaten us, an appeal to arms would be the proper 
course, but the multiplicity of our elections enable us to overthrow a 
government after a while, no matter how much cheating goes on. The 
South are setting our people a great example, and winning esteem from 
the North in spite of prejudice. 

" Whichever party makes a blunder by forcing matters in the next 
three months will disappear from history. The experiment of an appeal 
to force, to remedy political troubles, has not resulted satisfactorily to 
any section or to our common country. A happy Christmas to you and 
Mrs. J. 

" Sincerely, 

" G. V. Fox." 

It will be seen from the above letter that the Encyclopsedia 
article on the Monitor was subject to repeated emendations 
and alterations. When it appeared first in 1874, its publication 
drew from Mr. J. Ericsson the following letters of protest: 

" New Y'ork, Nov. 24th, 1874. 

"Mt Dear Sir: I am quite at a loss to understand why you have 
opened a fresh discussion about the Ilonitor and Merrimac fight, so 
happily disposed of by several patriotic writers, to the satisfaction of the 
country — I may say to the satisfaction of the whole world. No one knows 
better than yourself the shortcomings of that fight, ended at the moment 
when the crew had become well trained and the machinery got in good 
working order. Why ? Because you had a miserable executive officer 
who, instead of jumi^ing into the pilot-house when Worden was blinded, 
ran away with his impregnable vessel. The displacement of the top 
plate of the pilot-house, which I had designed principally to keep out , 
spray in bad weather, was really an advantage by allowing fresh air to 
enter the cramped iron-walled cabin — certainly that displacement offered 
no excuse for discontinuing the fight, the revolving turret and the good 
steering qualities of the Monitor rendering it unnecessary to fire over the 
pilot-house. 

" Regarding the rebel statement before me, I can only say that if pub- 
lished it will forever tarnish the lustre of your naval administration, and 
amaze our people who have been told that the Merrimac was a teri-ible 
ship, which but for the Monitor would have destroyed the Union fleet, 
and burnt the Atlantic cities. 




COMMANDER CATESBY AP R. JONES, 
CONFEDEEATE STATES NAVY. 



THE CONFEDERATE STATES NAVY. 185 

" In fact, that the Monitor had saved the country. Need I say that 
Jones' statement will be published in the professional journals of all civ- 
ilized countries, and call forth sneers and condemnation from a legion of 
Monitor opponents. 

"Poor Count Platen, and Alderspanes, the criticism and blame that 
will be heaped upon them by the present king's party will be insupport- 
able. How the changes will be rung on the statement of the Merrimac's 
commanding oiHcer that the Cumherland could have sunk his vessel (ad- 
mitted to be ' unseaworthy,' the hull being covered by only one-inch 
plating), yet the Monitor was unable to inflict any damage, not a man on 
board the Merrimac wounded or killed. But the tinarmed Cumherland 
. destroyed two guns, killing and wounding several of the Merrimac'' s 
crew. 

" Again, the Monitor, when challenged to come out,' hugged the shore 
under the guns of the fort.' Counter statements, even if believed, would 
never be published. But I have said enough. Should the rebel state- 
ment be published its effect will be more damaging than probably any 
incident of my life. 

" Please find your several documents enclosed, 

"Yours truly, "J. Ericssoi^. 

" P. S. — The original written under strong emotion, being nearly un- 
intelligible, I forward the copy. 

"Yours, "J. Ericsson." 

"The rebel statement before " Mr. Ericsson, was the ac- 
count of the fight between the Monitor and tlie Virginia,\yrit- 
ten by Commander Catesby ap R, Jones, and published in the 
Southern Historical Society Papers, p. 05 to 75, No. 2-3, Vol. 
XI., which is as follows: 

" When on April 21st, 1861, the Virginians took possession of the 
abandoned navy-yard at Norfolk, they foand that the Merrimac had 
been burnt and sunk. She was raised; and on June 23d following, the 
Hon. S. R. Mallory, Confederate Secretary of the Navy, ordered that she 
should be converted into an iron-clad, on the plan proposed by Lieut. 
John M. Brooke, C. S. N. 

" The hull was 275 feet long. About 160 feet of the central portion 
was covered by a roof of wood and iron, inclining about thirty-six degrees. 
The wood was two feet thick; it consisted of oak plank four inches by 
twelve inches, laid up and down next the iron, and two courses of pine; 
one longitudinal of eight inches thickness, the other twelve inches 
thick. 

" The intervening space on top was closed by permanent gratings of 
two inch square iron two and one-half inches apart, leaving openings for 
four hatches, one near each end, and one forward and one abaft the 
smoke-stack. The roof did not project beyond the hull. There was no 
knuckle as in the Atlanta, Tennessee and our other iron clads of later and 
improved construction. The ends of the shield were rounded. 

"The armor was four inches thick. It was fastened to its wooden 
backing by one and three-eighths inch bolts, countersunk and secured 
by iron nuts and washers. The plates were eight inches wide. Those 
first made were one inch thick, which was as thick as we could then punch 
cold iron. We succeeded soon in punching two inches, and the remaining 
plates, more than two-thirds, were two inches thick. They were rolled 
and punched at the Tredegar Works, Richmond. The outside course was 
up and down, the next longitudinal. Joints were broken where there 
were more than two courses. 

" The hull, extending two feet below the roof, was plated wdth one- 
inch iron; it was intended that it should have had three inches. 



186 THE CONFEDERATE STATES NAVY. 

"The prow was of cast-iron, wedj^e-shape, and weighed 1,500 pounds. 
It was about two feet under water, and projected two feet from the stem; 
it was not well fastened. 

" The rudder and propeller were unprotected. 

" The batterj' consisted of ten guns, four single-banded Brooke rifles, 
and six nine-inch Dahlgren shell guns. Two of the rifles, bow and stern 
pivots, were seven-inch, of 14,500 poixnds; the other two were six four-inch 
(thirty -two pounds calibre), of 9,000 j^ounds, one on each broadside. The 
nine-inch gun on eacli side nearest the furnaces was fitted for firing hot 
shot. A few nine-inch shot, with extra windage, were cast for hot shot. 
No other solid shot were on board during the fight. 

" The engines were the same the vessel had whilst in the United 
States navy. They were radically defective, and had been condemned 
by the United States government. Some changes had been made, not- 
withstanding which, the engineers reported that they were unrehable. 
They performed very well during the fight, but afterwards failed several 
times, once whilst under fire. 

"' There were many vexatious delays attending the fitting and equip- 
ment of the ship. Most of them arose from the want of skilled labor, and 
lack of proper tools and appliances. Transporting the iron from Rich- 
mond also caused much delay ; the railroads were taxed to sujiply the 
army. 

" The crew, 320 in number, were obtained with great difficulty. With 
few exceptions they were volunteers from the army; most of them were 
landsmen. Their deficiencies were, as niueli as possible, overcome by the 
zeal and intelligence of the officers; a list of them is appended. In the 
fight one of the nine inch guns was manned by a detachment of the J^or- 
folk United Artillery. 

"The vessel was by the Confederates called Virginia. She was put 
in commission during the last Aveek of February, but continued crowded 
with mechanics until the eve of the fight. She was badly ventilated, very 
uncomfortable, and very unhealthy. There was an average of fifty or 
sixty at the hospital, in addition to the sick list on board. 

" The Flag-officer, Franklin Buchanan, was detained in Richmond in 
charge of an important bureau, from which he was only relieved a few 
days before the fight. There was no captain; the ship was commissioned 
and equipped by the executive and ordnance officer, who had reported 
for duty in November. He had by special order selected her battery, and 
was also made responsible for its efficiency. 

"A trial was determined ujion, although the vessel was in an incom- 
plete condition. The lower part of the shield forward was only im- 
mersed a few inches, instead of two feet as was intended; and there was 
but one inch of iron on the hull. The port-shutters, etc., were un- 
finished. 

"The Virginia was unseaworthy, her engines were unreliable, and 
her draft, over twenty- two feet, prevented her from going to AVashing- 
ton. Her field of operation was therefore restricted to tiie bay and its im- 
mediate vicinity; there was no regular concerted movement with the 
army. ^ 

" The frigates Congress and Cumberland temptingly invited an at- 
tack. It was fixed for Thursday night, March 6th, 1862 ; the pilots, of 
whom there were five, having been previously consulted. The sides were 
slushed, supposing that it would increase the tendency of the projectiles 
to glance. All preparations were made, including lights at obstructions. 
After dark the pilots declared that they could not pilot the ship during 
the night. They had a high sense of their responsibility. In justice to 

1 There was, however, an informal under- in order that his command might be concen- 

standiug between Gen. Magruder, who com- trated near Hampton when our attack should 

mandea the C<mfederate forces on the Penin- be made. The movement was prevented in 

sula, hud tlie executive officer, to the etl'ect that consequence of a large portion of the command 

Gen. Magruder should be kept advised by us, having been detached just before the fight. 



THE CONFEDERATE STATES NAVY. 187 

them it should be stated that it was not easy to j^ilot a vessel of our great 
draft under favorable circumstances, and that the difficulties were much 
increased by the absence of lights, buoys, etc., to which they had been 
accustomed. 

"The attack was postponed to Saturday, March 8th. The weather 
was favorable. We left the navy-yard at 11 A. M., against the last half 
of the flood tide, steamed down the river past our batteries, through the 
obstructions, across Hampton Roads, to the mouth of James River, 
where, off Newport News, lay at anchor the frigates Cnmbeiiand and 
Congress, protected by strong batteries and gunboats. The action com- 
menced about 3 p. M. by our firing the bow-gun^ at the Cumberland, less 
than a mile distant. A powerful fire was immediately concentrated upon 
us from all the batteries afloat and ashore. The frigates Minnesota, Roan- 
oke and St. Lawrence with other vessels, were seen coming from Old Point. 
We fired at the Congress on passing, but continued to head directly for 
the Cumberland^ which vessel we had determined to run into, and in less 
than fifteen minutes from the firing of the first gun we rammed her just 
forward of the starboard foe chains. There were heavy spars about her 
bows, probably to ward off torpedoes, through which we had to break 
before reaching the side of the ship. The noise of the crashing timbers 
was distinctly heard above the din of battle. There was no sign of the 
hole above water. It must have been large, as the ship soon commenced 
to careen. The shock to us on striking was shght. We immediately 
backed the engines. The blow was not repeated. We here lost the prow, 
and had the stem slightly twisted. The Cumberland' fought her guns 
gallantly as long as they were above water. She went down bravely, 
with her colors flying. One of her shells struck the sill of the bow-port 
and exploded; the fragments killed two and wounded a number. Our aft 
nine-inch gun was loaded and ready for firing, when its muzzle was struck 
by a shell, which broke it off and fired the gun. Another gun also had 
its muzzle shot off ; it was broken so short that at each subsequent dis- 
charge its port was set on fire. The damage to the armor was slight. 
Their fire appeared to have been aimed at our ports. Had it been con- 
centrated on the water-line we would have been seriously hurt, if not 
sunk. Owing to the ebb-tide and our great draft we could not close with 
the Congj-ess without first going up stream, which was a tedious operation, 
besides subjecting us twice to the full fire of the batteries, some of which, 
we silenced. 

" We were accomi>anied from the yard by the gunboats Beaufort, 
Lieut. Commander W. H. Parker, and Raleigh, Lieut. Commander J. W. 
Alexander. As soon as the firing was heard up James River, the Patrick 
Henry, Commander John R. Tucker, Jamestown, Lieut. Commander 
J. N. Barney, and the gunboat Teaser, Lieut. Commander W. A. Webb, 
under command of Capt. John R. Tucker, stood down the river, joinmg 
us about four o'clock. All these vessels were gallantly fought and han- 
dled, and rendered valuable and effective service. 

"The prisoners from the Congress stated that when on board that 
ship it was seen that we were standing up the river, that three cheers 
were given under impression that we had quit the fight. They were soon 
undeceived. When they saw us heading down stream, fearing the fate of 
the (Jumberland, they slipped their cables, made sail, and ran ashore bows 
on. We took a position off her quarter, about two cables' length distant, 
and opened a deliberate fire. Very few of her guns bore on us, and they 
were soon disabled. The other batteries continued to play on us, as did 
the Minnesota, then aground about one and one-half miles off. The St. 
Lawrence also opened on us shortly after. There was great havoc 
on board the Congress. She was several times on fire. Her gallant 

1 It killed and wounded ten men at tlie after 2 she was a sailing frigate of 1,726 tons, 

l^ivot RUi) of the Cumberland. Tlie second sliot mounting two ten-inch pivots and twenty-two 

fired from the same gun Isilled and wounded nine-inch guns. Her crew numbered 370; her 

twelve men at her forward pivot gun. loss in killed and wounded was 121. 



188 THE CONFEDERATE STATES NAVY. 

commander, Lieut. Joseph B. Smith, > was struck in the breast by the frag- 
ment of a shell and instantly killed. The carnage was frightful. Nothing 
remained but to strike their colors, which they did. They hoisted the 
white flag, half-masted, at the main and at the spanker gaff. The Bean- 
fort and Raleigh were ordered to burn her. They went alongside and 
secured several of her officers and soiue twenty of her men as i^risoners. 
The officers urgently asked permission to assist their wounded out of the 
ship. It was granted. They did not return. A sharp fire of musketry 
from the shore killed some of the prisoners and forced the tugs to leave. 
A boat was sent from the Virginia to burn her, covered by the Teaser. 
A fire was opened on them from tlie shore, and also from the Congress, 
with both of her white flags flying, wounding Lieut. Minor and others. 
We replied to this outrage upon the usages of civilized warfare by re- 
opening on the Co W(7y6;AA' with hot shot and incendiary shell. Her crew 
escaped by boats, as did that of the Cumberland. Canister and grape 
would have prevented it; but in neither case was any attempt made to 
stop them, though it has been otherwise stated, possibly from our firing 
on the shore or at the Congress. 

" We remained near the Congress to prevent her recapture. Had she 
been retaken, it might have been said that the Flag-officer permitted it, 
knowing that his brother- was an officer of that vessel. 

"A distant and unsatisfactory fire was at times had at the Min- 
nesota. The gunboats also engaged her. We fired canister and grape 
occasionally in reply to musketry from the shore, which had become an- 
noying. 

"About this time the Flag-officer Avas badly wounded by a rifle-ball, 
and had to be carried below. His bold daring and Intrepid conduct won 
the admiration of all on board. The Executive and Ordnance officer, 
Lieut. Catesby Ap R. Jones, succeeded to the command. 

"The action continued until dusk, when we were forced to seek an 
anchorage. The Congress was riddled and on fire. A transport steamer 
was blown up. A schooner was simk and another captured. We had to 
leave without making a serious attack on the 3Iinnesota, though we fired 
at her as we passed on the other side of the Middle Ground, and also at 
the l^t. Lawrenae.'^ The latter frigate fired at us by broadsides, not a bad 
plan for small calibres against iron-clads, if concentrated. It was too dark 
to aim well. We anchored off our batteries at Sewell's Point. The squad- 
ron followed. 

" The Congress* continued to burn ; ' she illuminated the heavens, 
and varied the scene by the firing of her own guns and the flight of her 
balls through the air,' until shortly after midnight, 'when her magazine 
exploded, and a column of burning matter appeared high in the air, to be 
followed by the stillness of death.' [Extract from report of General Mans- 
field, U. S. A.] One of the pilots chanced, about 11 p. m., to be looking 
in the direction of the Congress., when there passed a strange looking 
craft, brought out in bold relief by the brilliant light of the burning 
ship, which he at once proclaimed to be the Ericsson. We were therefore 
not surprised in the morning to see the Ilonitor at anchor near the 3Iin- 
nesota. The latter ship was still aground. Some delay occurred from 
sending our wounded out of the ship; we had but one serviceable boat 
left. Admiral Buchanan was landed at Sewell's Point. 

"At 8 A.M. we got under way, as did the Patrick Henry., Jamestown., 
and Teaser. AVe stood towards the 3Iinnesota and opened fire on her. 
The pilots were to have placed us half-a-mile from her, but we were not at 

1 His sword was sent by flag of truce to his of the fourth lieutenant was also in the II. S. 
father, Admiral Joseph Smith. army. The father of one of the midshipmen 

was in the U. S. navy. 

■I ^I^^ "^,*^® ^^^ attendants of civil war, di- 3 a. sailing frigate of fifty guns and 1,726 tons. 
vjded famdies, was here illustrated. The Flag- 
officer's brother was paymaster of the Congress. ■> A sailing frigate of 1,867 tons, mounting fifty 
The first and second lieutenants had each a guns. She had a crew of 434, of whom there 
brother in the United States Army. The father were 120 killed and missing. 



THE CONFEDERATE STATES NAVY. 189 

any time nearer than a mile. The Monitor^ cominencecl firing when 
about a third of a mile distant. We soon approached, and were often 
within a ships lenp:th; once while passing we fired a broadside at her only 
a few yards distant. She and her turret appeared to be under perfect 
control. Her light draft enabled her to move about us at pleasure. She 
once took position for a short time where we could not bring a gun to bear 
on her. Another of her movements caused us great anxiety; she made 
for our rudder and propeller, both of which could have been easily dis- 
abled. We could only see her guns when they were discharged ; immedi- 
ately afterward the turret revolved rapidly, and the guns were not again 
seen until they were again fired. We wondered how proper aim could be 
taken in the very short time the guns were in sight. The Virginia, however, 
was a large target, and generally so near that the Monitor's shot did not 
often miss. It did not appear to us that our shell had any effect upon 
the 3Ionitor. We had no solid shot; musketry was fired at the look-out 
holes. In spite of all the care of our pilots we ran ashore, where we re- 
mained over fifteen minutes. The Patrick Henry and Jamestown, with 
great risk to themselves, started to our assistance. The Monitor and Min- 
nesota were in full play on vxs. A small rifle-gun on board the Minnesota, 
or on the steamer alongside of her, was fired with remarkable precision. 

" When we saw that our fire made no impression on the Monitor, we 
determined to run into her if possible. We found it a very difficult feat 
to do. Our great length and draft, in a comparatively narrow channel, 
with but little water to spare, made us sluggish in our movements, and 
hard to steer and turn. When the opportunity jd resented all steam was 
put on; there was not, however, sufficient time to gather full headway 
before striking. The blow was given with the broad wooden stem, the 
iron prow having been lost the day before. The Monitor received the 
blow in such a manner as to weaken its effect, and the damage was to her 
trifling. Shortly after an alarming leak in the bows was reported. It, 
however, did not long continue. 

"Whilst contending with the Monitor, we received the fire of the 
Minnesota,- which we never failed to return whenever our guns could be 
brought to bear. We set her on fire and did her serious injury, though 
much less than we then supposed. Generally the distance was too great 
for effective firing. We blew up a steamer alongside of her. 

" The fight had continued over three hours. To us the Monitor ap- 
peared unharmed. We were therefore surprised to see her run off into 
shoal water where our great draft would not permit us to follow, and 
where our shell could not reach her. The loss of our prow and anchor, 
and consumption of coal, water, etc., had lightened us so that the lower 
part of the forward end of the shield was awash. 

" We for some time awaited the return of the Monitor to the Roads. 
After consultation it was decided that we should proceed to the navy - 
yard, in order that the vessel should be brought down in the water and 
completed. The pilots said if we did not then leave, that we could not 
pass the bar until noon of the next day. We therefore at 12 M. quit 
the Roads and stood for Norfolk. Had there been any sign of the 
Monitors willingness to renew the contest, we would have remained to 
fight her. We left her in the shoal water to which she had withdrawn 
and which she did not leave until after we had crossed the bar on our 
way to Norfolk. 

" The official report says: ' Our loss is two killed and nineteen 
wounded. The stem is twisted and the ship leaks; we have lost the 
prow, starboard anchor, and all the boats; the armor is somewhat dam- 
aged, the steam-pipe and smoke-stack both riddled, the muzzles of the 

1 She was 173 feet long and forty-one feet wide. - She was a screw steam frigate of 3,200 tons, 

She had a revolving circialar iron turret eight mounting forty-three guns of eight, nine and 

inches thick, nine feet bigh and twenty feet in- ten-inch calibre. She fired 145 ten-inch, 319 

side diameter, in which were two eleven-inch nine-inch, and thirty-four eight-inch shot and 

guns. Her draft was ten feet, less than half that shell, and 5,567 pounds of powder. Her draft 

of the Virginia. was about the same as the Viryinia. 



190 THE CONFEDERATE STATES NAVY. 

two guns shot away; the colors were hoisted to the smoke-stack, and 
several times cut down from it.' None were killed or wounded in the 
fifrht with the Monitor. The only damaj^e she did was to the armor. 
She fired forty-one shots. We were enabled to receive most of them 
obliquely. The effect of a shot striking obliquely on the shield was to 
break all the iron, and sometimes to displace several feet of the outside 
course; the wooden backing would not be broken through. When a 
shot struck directly at right angles, the wood would also be broken 
through, but not displaced. Generally the shot were much scattered; 
in three instances two or more struck near the same place, in each case 
causing more of the iron to be displaced, and the wood to bulge inside. 
A few struck near the water-line. The shield was never pierced; though 
it was evident that two shots striking in the same place would have 
made a large hole through everything. 

"The ship was docked; a prow of steel and wrought iron put on, and 
a course of two-inch iron on the hull below the roof extending in length 
180 feet. Want of time and material prevented its completion. The 
damage to the armor was repaired; wrought iron port-shutters were fitted, 
etc. The rifle guns were supplied with bolts of wrought and chilled iron. 
The ship was brought a foot deeper in the water, making her draft 23 feet. 

"Commodore Josiah Tatnall relieved Admiral Buchanan in com- 
mand. On the nth of April he took the Virginia down to Hampton 
Roads, expecting to have a desperate encounter with the J/bmtor. Greatly 
to our surprise, the Ilonitor refused to fight us. She closely hugged the 
shore under the guns of the fort, with her steam up. Hoping to provoke 
her to come out, the Jamestown^ was sent in, and captured several prizes, 
but tlie Ilonitor would not budge. It was proposed to take the vessel to 
York River, but it was decided in Richmond that she should remain near 
Norfolk for its protection. 

" Commodore Tatnall commanded the Virginia forty-five days, of 
which time there were only thirteen days that she was not in dock or in 
the hands of the navy-yard. Yet he succeeded in impressing the enemy 
that we were ready for active service. It was evident that the enemy very 
much overrated'^ our power and efficiency. The South also had the same 
exaggerated idea of the vessel. 

" On the 8th of May a squadron, Including the Monitor, bombarded 
our batteries at Sewell's Point. We immediately left the yard for the 
Roads. As we drew near, the Monitor and her consorts ceased bombard- 
ing, and retreated under the guns of the forts, keeping beyond the range 
of our guns. Men-of-war from below the forts, and vessels expressly fit- 
ted for running us down, joined the other vessels between the forts. It 
looked as if the fleet was about to make a fierce onslaught upon us. But 
we were again to be disappointed. The Monitor and the other vessels did 
not venture to meet us, although we advanced until projectiles from the 
Rip-raps fell more than half a mile beyond us. Our object, however, was 
accomj^lished; we had put an end to the bombardment, and we returned 
to our buoy. 

" Norfolk was evacuated on the 10th of May. In order that the ship 
might be carried up the James River, we commenced to lighten her, but 
ceased on the pilots saying they could not take her up. Her shield was 
then out of water ; we were not in fighting condition. We therefore 
ran her ashore in the bight of Craney Island, landed the crew, and set the 
vessel on fire. The magazine exploded about half -past four on the morn- 
ing of the 11th of May, 1862. The crew arrived at Drury's Bluff the 
next day, and assisted in defeating the Monitor, Galena and other vessels 
on the 15th of May. 

" Connnodore Tatnall was tried by court-martial for destroying the 
Virginia, and was ' honorahly acquitted ' of all the charges. The court 

1 French and English men-of-war were present. 2 Some of ihe Northern papers estimated her 

The latter cheered our gunboat as she passed to be equivalent to an army corps, 
with the prizes. 



THE CONFEDERATE STATES NAVY. 191 

stated the facts, and their motives for acquitting him. Some of them are 
as follows : ' That after the evacuation of Norfolk, Westover on James 
River became the most suitable position for her to occupy ; that while in 
the act of lightening her for the purpose of taking her up to that point, 
the pilots for the first time declared their inability to take her up. That 
when lightened she was made vulnerable to the attacks of the enemy. The 
only alternative, in the opinion of the court, was to abandon and burn the 
ship then and there, which, in the judgment of the court, was deliberately 
and wisely done.' " 

List of officers of the C. S. iron-clad Virginia, March 8th, 
1SG3 : 

Flag-oflBcer, Franklin Buchanan ; Lieutenants, Catesby Ap R. Jones 
(Executive and Ordnance oflBcer , Charles C. Sims, R. D. Minor (flagi, 
Hunter Davidson, J. Taylor Wood, J. R. Eggleston, and Walter Butt; 
Midshipmen, Foute, Marmaduke, Littlepage, Craig, Long, and Roots; 
Paymaster, James Semple; Surgeon, Dinwiddle Phillips; Assistant Sur- 
geon, Algernon S. Grarnett; Captain of Marines, Reuben Thorn; Engineers, 
H. A. Ramsey, Acting-Chief; Assistants, Tynan, Campbell, Herring, Jack 
and White; Boatswain, Hasker; Gunner, Oliver; Carpenter, Lindsey; 
Clerk, Arthur Suiclair, Jr.; Volunteer Aide, Lieutenant Douglass Forrest, 
C. S. A.; Captain Kevil, commanding detachment of Norfolk United 
Artillery; Signal Corj^s, Sergant Tabb. 

The folio vv^ing letter from Commander Jones to the Hon. 
A. H. Stephens was intended to set Idstory right from the 
errors into which even Vice-President Stephens has fallen: 

" Selma., Alabama, Dec. 21st. 1875. 

" Dear Sir: A few days since my attention was called to that portion 
of your history of the United States that relates to the contest between 
the Virginia and Monitor. You will excuse the Commander of the Vir- 
ginia for saying that you have done her scant justice. Your history states 
that ' the Monitor attacked the Virginia and so damaged her that she 
was compelled to retire to her moorings.' This conveys an erroneous im- 
pression. The Virginia did not return to Norfolk until after the Monitor 
had put an end to the fight by running off into shoal water beyond the 
reach of our guns. 

" I would refer you to a detailed account of the fight giving some 
facts not previously made known. It was written by me, at the request 
of tlie Southern Historical Society, and published in the December (1874* 
number of the Southern Magazine of Baltimore. It has been endorsed by 
all of our officers that I have seen or heard from who participated in the 
fight or witnessed it. 

"In regard to the Monitor''s running into shoal water, it is admitted 
by Admiral Worden, in his official report and in an article published last 
year by Commander Parker, U. S. navy, which was written at the request 
of Wox'den and after consulting with him. I enclose a copy of a letter 
from Ericsson, the inventor and builder of the Monitor., with the under- 
standing that it is not to be published, as the writer never supposed that 
I would see it. It was sent to me by G. V. Fox, Assistant Secretary of 
the U. S. navy during the war, to whom it was addressed. It fully sus- 
tains my narrative. 

"If you have not seen my article, I can send it to you with Parker's and 
other Northern versions of the fight. 

" Your prominence in the Confederacy and your able vindication of it 
since the war has endeared you to the whole South. And no one from our 
section is as well known or as highly esteemed in the North as yourself. 
FuU credit wiU be given to your history. It is even more taught in the 



192 THE CONFEDERATE STATES NAVY. 

schools here. I must therefore ask that you make a change in your ac- 
count of the fight between the Virginia and Monitor. 

"The above has been written to you as a historian, I would now, 
in connection with the same fight, write you as a member of Con- 
gress. 

" Parker's article mentioned above was very generally published and 
commented upon by the Northern press. I have understood it was written 
to pave the way for a preposterous claim made Vjy Admiral W. for prize- 
money. Strange to say, he succeeded at the last session in obtaining favor- 
able reports from the Naval Committees of the Senate and House. Each 
of them introduced a bill to give as prize-money a sum equal in amount to 
the value of the Virginia, not less than a $1,000,000. 

" Further action in Congress was prevented, I am told, by the oppor- 
tune fjublication of my narrative. 

" The law of prize is that a vessel capturing one of equal or superior 
force is entitled to the value of the captured vessel. And when the vessel 
is sunk, as in the case of the Kearsage and Alabama, it is customary for 
Congress to grant a sum to be divided as prize-money. I have not seen 
Worden's petition, and am at loss to know upon Avhat ground he asks for 
prize-money. He cei'tainly did not capture or sink the Virginia. The 
fight continued for over three hours, and though he commanded the bet- 
ter vessel, he was the first to quit the fight. In my testimony before Com- 
mander Tatnall's court-martial, I said that the Monitor ought to have 
sunk the Virginia in fifteen minutes. In my narrative I refrain from ex- 
pressing any opinion as to lack of skill on the part of the Monitor, but it 
may be inferred from the facts I give. I would call your attention to an 
article in the November ('74) number of the Southern Magazine of Balti- 
more, in reply to Commander Parker, by Col. Morris, who witnessed the 
fight. He dwells upon the only material point of difference in the official 
reports. I have written in regard to Worden's claim for pi'ize-nioney as it 
is probable that he would agam petition Congress. 

" I was pleased to hear that your health had improved, and hoping 
that it may now be quite restored, 

" I am with respect and esteem, 
" Yours truly, 

" Catesbt ap R, Jones. 
" Hon. Alex. H. Stephen^s, 

" Crawfordsmlle, Oa.'''' 

During the winter of 1864-5, Capt. Wm. F. Lynch, C. S. 
nav}'. was detailed by the Navy Department to write a report 
on the battles and combats fought or participated in by the 
Confederate States navy. Commodore Lynch wrote to Flag- 
officer Tucker, then commanding the C. S. naval forces at 
Charleston, for information in relation to the battle of Hamp- 
ton Roads, and the subsequent repulse of the U. S. squadron 
at Drury's Bluff; Flag-officer John R. Tucker having, as Com- 
mander Tucker of C. S. S. Patrick Henry, been present at both 
of these engagements. Commander James H. Rochelle was 
at the same time executive officer of the Patrick Henry. When 
Flag-officer Tucker received Capt. Lynch's letter, Lieut. Ro- 
chelle was in command of the Confederate iron-clad Palmetto 
State, at Charleston, and Flag-officer Tucker requested him 
to give his recollection of the principal events connected with 
the Patrick Henry. In compliance with this request Lieut. 
Com. Rochelle prepared and sent to Flag-officer Tucker the 
following able and interesting letter: 



THE CONFEDERATE STATES NAVY, 193 

" CONFEDERATK STEAMSHIP ' PALMETTO STATE,' ) 

"Charleston, S. C, January 80th, 1865. ) 
*' Flag-offlcer John R. Tucker, 

" Commanding Afloat at Charleston, S. C. 

" Bear Sir : I am glad to learn from you that Commodore Lynch has 
been directed by the department to prepare a narrative of the memorable 
and gallant deeds of the Confederate navy ; judging from the former works 
of the Commodore, I think we may congratulate ourselves that the navy 
has fallen into good hands, and feel confidence that the proposed book 
will not only be a valuable contribution to the history of this giant war, 
but also a pleasant addition to the literature of the day. Hitherto there has 
been no effort made to popularize the navy, our officers, trained in an illus- 
trious and exclusive service, have looked with a feeling akin to contempt 
on both the praise and blame of the periodical press; hence the only records 
of the navy are to be found in dry and terse official dispatches, exceedingly 
uninteresting to unprofessional readers, and unintelligible to tlie great 
mass of the people. Let us hope that the forthcoming work will be popular 
Avith the people, remove many of the prejudices against our service, and 
assist the present generation to the just conclusion that the Confederate 
navy has done well its part, notwithstanding the almost complete lack in 
the Confederate States of all the necessary constituents of naval strength. 
Among the naval events that Commodore Lynch will be called upon to re- 
late, the career of the Confederate steamship Patrick Henri/ will, perhaps, 
claim a prominent place, and if you think there is anything in this letter 
which will aid the Commodore to a fuller understanding of the services of 
that vessel, you are quite at liberty to send it to him. 

"The Patrick Henry, a side-wheel steamer of beautiful model and of 
about fourteen hundred tons burthen, was called the Yorktown before 
the war, and was one of a line of steamers running between Richmond 
and New York. She was considei-ed a fast boat, and deserved the reputa- 
tion. When the Commonwealth of Virginia seceded from the Union this 
vessel was, fortunately, in James River. She was seized by the State, 
and the Governor and Council determined to fit her ©ut as a man-of-war. 
She was taken up to the wharf at Rocketts, Richmond, and the com- 
mand conferred upon Commander John Randolph Tucker, late an officer 
of the U. S. navy, who had resigned his commission in that service in con- 
sequence of the secession of Virginia, his native State. Naval Construe 
tor Josei)h Pearce, with a number of mechanics from the Norfolk navy- 
yard, commenced the necessary alterations, and in a short time tlie passen- 
ger steamer Yorktoi})n was converted into the very creditable man-of-war 
steamer Patrick Henry, of 10 guns and 150 oflHcers and men. ^ The ves- 
sel l:)eing properly equipped, so far as the limited resources at hand could 
be used, proceeded down James River and took a position off Mulberry 
Island, on which point rested the right of the Army of the Peninsula 
under Magruder. It was dull work laying at anchor off Mulberry Island; 
the officer and crew very rai-ely went on shore, the steamer being kept 
always with banked fires, and jjrepared to repel ah attack which might 
have been made at any moment, the Federal batteries at Newport News 
and the guard vessels stationed there, the Congress, Cumberland, and 
several gunboats being plainly in sight. After a while the monotony 
became so irksome that Commander Tucker took the Patrick Henry down 
the river to within long range of the Federal squadron and opened on 
them with his two heavy guns with the hope of inducing a single gun- 
boat to ascend the river and engage vessel to vessel. The challenge was 
not accepted, and the enemy having moved a field battery of rifled guns 
up the bank of the river, and taken a secure position from which they 

1 At the battle of Hampton Roads the officers Surgeon, John T Mason ; Paymaster, Thomas 
of the Patrick Henry were, as well as can be re- R. Ware; Passed Assistant Surgeon, Frederick 
membered at the present (1887; time. Com- Garretson; Acting Master, Lewis Parish; Lieut, 
mander John Randolph Tucker, commandin<,': of Marines, R. H. Henderson; Midshipmen, 
Lifiit. James Henry Rochelle, Executive officer; John Tyler Walker, A. M. Maaou, M. P. Good- 
Lieut. Wm. Sharp, Lieut. Francis Lyell Hoge; wyii. 
13 



194 THE CONFEDERATE STATES NAVY. 

opened an annoy in j^ fire, the vessel was steamed slowly back to lier station 
off Mulberry Island. The Northern jjapers stated that in this little affair, 
which took place on September 13th, 1861, the fire of the Patrick Henry 
did considerable damage to the frigate C'ow^ress. About this time intel- 
ligence was received that one or two of the Federal gunboats came up the 
river every night on i)icket duty and anchored about a mile and-a-half 
above tiieir squcidron at Newport News. Here was a chance; so on the 
night of the 1st of December, 1801, the Patrick Henry again went down 
the river, keeping a sharp look-out for the expected picket boat. Not a 
sign of a vessel was seen, and when day broke there were the Federal 
squadron and batteries looming up against the dawn with all the gun- 
boats quietly at anchor near the larger vessels. As the Patrick Henry 
could not have returned tmseen. Commander Tucker opened fire. The 
Federals were evidently taken by surprise, and it was some minutes be- 
fore they replied to the fire. They soon got to their guns, however, and 
the sun as it rose was greeted with a roar of artillery that shook the win- 
dows in Norfolk and roused the people of that then gay city from their 
slumbers at a most inconvenient hour. 

" The Federal fire was well directed, and one officer and several men 
were wounded on board the Patrick Henry. One gunboat in particular, 
commanded by Lieut. H. K. Davenport, was noted for the precision with, 
which she used her rifled guns. The old sailing master of the Patrick 
Henry^ a seauian of sixty winters and many gales, was much pleased with 
the nianner in which Davenport used his guns. He said to some one 
standing near him, ' look at that black, ugly little craft yonder, well, 
whenever you see a puff of smoke go up from her, look out, for, as sure as 
you are born, there will be a blue pigeon about.' The skirmish having 
continued for an hour or more, and nothing to be gained by prolonging 
it, the Patrick Henry returned to her usual anchorage. 

"In February, 18G3, the ladies of Charles City, a county bordering 
on James river, desired to present to the Patrick Henry a flag which they 
had made for her, as an evidence of their confidence in the vessel, and 
their appreciation of the services she had done them by keeping maraud- 
ing expeditions from 'ascending the river to pillage, plunder, and perhaps 
destroy the famous old country seats that are to be found on its banks. 
But the flag was destined never to be presented, such stirring times were 
at hand that the few hours necessary for the ceremony could not be 
spared. The iron-clad Virginia was about to make an attack upon the 
Federal batteries and vessels at Newport News, and the Patrick Henry 
was ordered to participate in the battle. 

" The day before the attack was to be made, the Patrick Henry was 
moved down to Day's Neck, and an anchorage taken, from which any ves- 
sel coming out from Norfolk could be seen. 

"The 8th of March, 18G3, was a bright, placid, beautiful day, more 
like a May than a March day. All eyes on board the Patrick Henry 
were watching for the Virginia. About one o'clock in the after- 
noon she came steaming out from behind Craney Island, attended by 
her satellites — the gunboats Beaufort and Raleigh. Grand, and strong, 
and confident, a Hercules of the waters, she moved straight upon the 
enemy. 

"It was not necessary to 'call all hands up anchor' on board the 
Patrick Henry, the anchor was ' raised with a run,' and under a full head 
of steam the vessel sped on her way to aid her powerful friend.^ 

ThePa?ricA://ewrv was rigged asabrifrantine; came the schoolship of the Naval Academy in 

square yards to the foremast and fore-and-att 1SG;3, her square-rigged foremast was replaced, 

sails alone for the mainmast. At Norfolk, when so that the midshipmen could be exercised in 

she was about to be employed in running by tlie reefing and furling and such other exercises aa 

batteries of Newport News at night, it was were practicable on board a vessel in harbor, 

thought best to take both of her masts out, in A bowsprit was also put in and rooms or cabins 

order to make her less liable to be discovered by were erected on the hurricane-deck, as appears 

the enemy. Signal poles, carrying no sails, in the engraving in the chapter on the Naval 

were established in their place. When she be- Academy to be found elsewhere. 



THE CONFEDERATE STATES NAVY. 195 

•' The Confederate vessels in James River formed ' in line ahead ' as 
they approached the batteries at Newport News. The Patrick Henry, 
10, Commander Tucker, leading; ne^tcsune the Jamestown, 2, Lieut. Com. 
Barnev ; and next the Teaser, 2, Lieut. Com. Webb. The Fm/mm reached 
the scene of action first ; amidst the iron hail which fell harmlessly on her 
armor, she ran into and sank the Cumberland; a hearty cheer from the 
James River vessels greeted her success. But there was no time to give 
up to exultation, the long line of the Newpoi-t News batteries were close 
at hand, and in order to reach the naval combat it was necessary to pass 
them. T\iQ g,vi\is, of t\\Q Patrick Henrys wei-e elevated for a range of 800 
yards, that being the distance at which the pilots expected to pass the 
batteries. 

" And now the hush which preceded the shock of battle settled alike 
on Federal and Confederate. Throiigh the embrasures of the Federal 
batteries glimpses could be caught of the men at their guns, but not a 
sound came from them. As the Patrick Henry ranged up abreast of the first 
battery she delivered her fire, and the flash from her guns had scarcely 
vanished when the Federal works were wrapped in smoke, and their pro- 
jectiles came hissing through the air. The first shots from the Patrick 
Henry went over the batteries, her guns having been elevated for a range 
of 800 yards, consequently she was passing the batteries at less than that 
distance, and to this circumstance is to be attributed her not having been 
sunk or disabled by them. The enemy supposed she would pass as far 
from them as the channel would allow, and had elevated their guns for 
that range ; the vessel passing closer than they thought she would, their 
shot for the most part passed over her. She was struck, however, several 
times during the passage ; one shot passed through the crew of No. 3 gun, 
wounding two men and killing one, a volunteer from the army, who had 
come on board to serve only for the fight. His last words as he fell were, 
' Never mind me, boys.' 

" Having passed the batteries with less damage than was expected, the 
Patrick Henry became engaged in the thick of the fight ; Avhilst the for- 
ward guns were engaging one enemy, the after-guns were firing at another. 
The situation of the Confederate wooden vessels at this time seemed des- 
perate. The Newport News batteries were on one side ; on the other, 
the frigates Minnesota, St. Lawrence and Roanoke were coming up from 
Old Point Comfort, and in front the beach was lined with field batteries 
and sharpshooters. Fortunately for the Confederate wooden vessels, the 
Minnesota, St. Lawrence and Roanoke grounded, and the smaller vessels 
which accompanied them, warned by the fate of the Cumberland, returned 
to Old Point. The 3Iinnesota, though aground, was near enough to take 
part in the action, and opened a heavy fire on the Confederate squadron. 

" About this time Flag-officer Buchanan hailed the Patrick Henry, 
and directed Commander Tucker to burn the Congress, which vessel had 
run ashore, hauled down her ensign, and hoisted a white flag. The gun- 
boats Raleigh, Beaufoi't and Teaser had attempted to burn her, but had 
been driven off by a heavy artillery and infantry fire from the Federal 
troops on the beach. The pilots of the Patrick Henry declared that that 
vessel could not get alongside the Congress in consequence of an inter- 
vening shoal. This determined Commander Tucker- to approach the 

1 When the Patrick Henry -wuh first put in com- - The name of my dear and deeiily-lamented 

mission, her battei-y consisted of ten medium friend, Admiral John Randolph Tucker, has 

3'2-pounders in broadside, one 10-inch shell gun been necessarily so frequently mentioned in 

pivoted forward, and one 8-inch solid shot gun this letter as commander of the Patrick Henry, 

pivoted aft. The 8-inch solid shot gun was that it will not be out of place to say a, few 

the most effective gun on board, and did good words as to his career. 

service both at the battle of Hampton Roads During the course of his honorable and event- 

and the repulse of the Federal squadron at ful life Admiral Tucker served in three navies, 

Drury's Bluff. The captain of this gun was an rendering gallant, faithful and important serv- 

excellent seaman gunner, named Smith. He ices to eacli of them, but probably the most 

was promoted to boatswain, and served under brilliant, if not the most important, of all his 

Commander Rochelle on board of the Palmetto services was rendered whilst he commanded tlio 

Slate a,t Charleston, S. C. Patrick Henry. Born in Alexandria, Va., in the 



196 THE CONFEDERATE STATES NAVY. 

Cowfirrf,95 as near as the shoal "would permit, and then to send his boats and 
burn lier; the boats were prepared for tlie service, and the boats' crews 
and officers to command them held ready, whilst the vessel was steaming 
into the Congress. This movement of the Patrick Henry placed her in 
the most imminent peril; she was brought under the continuous and con- 
centrated fire of three points; on her port-quarter were the batteries of 
Newport News, on her port-bow were the field-batteries and sharpshooters 
on the beach, and on her starboard -bow the Minnesota. It soon became 
evident that no wooden vessel could long float under such a fire; several 
shots struck the hull; a piece was shot out of the walking beam; as the 
sponge of the after-pivot gun was being uiserted in the piece, the handle 
was cut in two by a shot. * * * Half in pi-ayer and half in despair at be- 
ing unable to perform his duty, the sponger exclaimed, 'Oh, Lord ! how 
is the gun to be sponged ? ' and he was much relieved when the quarter- 
gunner of his division handed him a spare sponge. This state of things 
could not last long; a rifled shot from the field batteries penetrated the 
steam-chest, the engine-room and fire-room were filled with steam, five or 
six of the firemen were scalded to death, the engineers were driven up on 
deck, and the engines stopped working. The vessel was enveloped in a 
cloud of escaped steam, and the enemy, seeing that some disaster to the 
engines or boilers had occurred, increased his fire. At this moment, no 
one knew what had happened, the general impression being that the 
boiler had exploded; and it is an unmistakable evidence of the courage 
and discipline of the crew that the fire from the Patrick Henry did not 
slacken, but went on as regularly as before the damage. As the vessel 
was drifting towards the enemy the jib was hoisted to pay her head 
around, and the Jamestown, Lieut. Commanding Barney, gallantly and 
promptly came to her assistance, and towed her from her perilous posi- 
tion. The engineers soon got one boiler to work— the other was so badly 
damaged that they were unable to repair it at the time — and with the 
steam of one boiler alone, the Patrick Henry returned to the conflict. 
Night, however, soon closed in, and as in the darkness it was impossible 
to distinguish friend from foe, hostilities ceased, the victory of this day 
being without dispute with the Confederates. 

" During the battle the shores of the Confederate side of the ' Roads ' 
were lined with spectators from Norfolk and the adjacent camps, who 
seemed greatly to enjoy the ' historical piece ' that was enacted before 
them. 

year 1812, he entered the navy of the United manded, with the commission of rear-admiral. 
States as a midshipman in 1826, and made his the combined fleets of the two republics. His 
first cruise in the frigate Branrfywine. In 1837 he last service was the exploration and survey of 
was ijromoted to the rank of lieutenant, and in the upper Amazon and its tributaries, being 
1855 to that of commander. During the Mexican President of the Peruvian Hydrographic Corn- 
war he commanded the bomb-brig 5<rom6oh. In mission of the Amazon. 

1861, wben commanded so to do by the Virginia He died of disease of the heart, at his resi- 

Couvention, ho resigned his commission in the dence in Petersburg. Virginia, on the 12th of 

U. S. navy and entered the Confederate service, June, 1883, and was buried by the side of his 

with the rank of commander. He commanded wife, in the cemetery at Norfolk, 

the S. steamer Patrick Henry at the naval con- It would require a volume to do anything like 

flict in Hampton Roads; and at Drury's Blufl", justice to the character and career of this most 

having landed his crew and mounted the prin- noble and gallant man. His firmness on all oc- 

«ipal guns of his vessel on the bluff, lie materially casions of duty was of proof, though no one 

aided in repulsing the Federal squadron. Soon was more gentle in the ordinary intercourse of 

after the battle of Drury's Bluff he was pro- private life. None served with him without 

moted to the rank of captain, and ordered to feeling that he was a man fitted for high desti- 

Charleston, where he commanded the Confeder- nies, for he was of a nature, an experience, and 

ate naval forces as flag-of&cer of the station. a professional skill, well calculated to command 

When Charleston was evacuated he returned to resjaect and inspire confidence. In the coitrse 

Drury's Bluff, which station he commanded of my life I have had many opportunities of 

until Riclimund was evacuated, when he re- hearing character discussed among sea officers; 

ported with his command to Gen. Lee. Hisserv few escape criticism of some sort or other for 

ices in the civil war ended at Sailor's Creek, their professional acts, and fewer still as men, 

where, after a most gallant resistance, he sur- yet I do not remember a single instance in 

rendei'ed to Gen. Keifer; who some years after which I have ever heard a whisper of com- 

the close of the war i-etumed him his sword. x'laint against the professional or private con- 

During the war between the Republics of duct of John liandolph Tucker. J. H. B., 

Peru and Chili and Spain, Admiral Tucker com- 1886. , 



THE CONFEDERATE STATES NAVY. 197 

"The night after the battle the Confederate squadron anchored under 
Sewell's Point, at the mouth of tlie harbor of Norfolk. There was little 
time for sleep that night, for the conflict was to be renewed the next 
morning, and it was necessary to make many repairs and preparations. 
Soon after midnight a column of fire ascended in the darkness, followed 
by a terrific explosion. The Federal frigate Congress, which had been on 
fire all the evening, had blown up, the fire having reached her magazine. 

"At the fu*st peep of dawn, on the 9th of March, the Confederate 
squadron was under way, it having been determined to destroy the Min- 
nesota, that frigate being still aground near Newport News. As the day- 
light increased the Min^iesota was discovered in her old position, but the 
Minnesota was not the only thing to attract attention; close alongside of 
her there lay such a craft as the eyes of a seaman does not delight in; an 
immense shingle floating on the water, with a gigantic cheese-box rising 
from its centre; no sails, no wheels, no smoke-stack, no guns, at least, none 
that could be seen. What could it be '? On board the Patrick Henry 
many were the surmises as to the strange craft; some thought it a water 
tank sent to supply the Minnesota with water; others that it was a float- 
ing magazine replenishing her exhausted stock of ammunition, but few 
were of the opinion that it was the Moriitor, which the Northern papers 
had been boasting about for a long time. 

" All doubts about the stranger were soon dispelled; as the Virginia 
steamed down upon the llinnesota. the cheese-box and shingle steamed out 
to meet her. It was, indeed, the Monitor, and then and there commenced 
the first combat that had ever taken place between iron clads. i 

" The Patrick Henri/ and the other Confederate wooden vessels took 
little part mthe events of the day, except to fire one shot at the Monitor,iit 
very long range, as she passed and repassed at one time during her manoeu- 
vering with the Virginia. At onetime theVirginia d\A not seem to move, 
and apprehensions were entertained that she had got aground or that 
some part of her machinery was damaged. Signal flags were run up on 
board of her, but the flags did not blow out clear, and it was some min- 
utes before the signal officer of the Patrick Henry could make out the 
numbers. At length he reported the signal to be, as well as he was able 
to read it, ' disabled my propeller is.'- 

" No wooden vessel could have floated twenty minutes under the fire 
that the Virginia was then undergoing from the Monitor and the Min- 
nesota, but if her propeller was disabled it was necessary to attempt to 
tow her back to the cover of the Confederate batteries. So the Patrick 
Henry a.nd Jaynestown sta,rte(l to make the attempt, but they had gone 
only a short distance when the Virginia ivas seen to move and her pro- 
peller to turn, showing that she required no assistance. That evening all 
the Confederate vessels went into the harbor of Norfolk. 

" Flag-officer Tatnall having relieved Flag-officer Buchanan, who had 
been seriously wounded in the first day's fight in Hampton Roads, and 
all the vessels having been refitted, on the 18th of April the squadron 
again sailed out to meet the enemy. In case the Virginia should not be 
able to capture or destroy the Monitor, the gunboats Beaufort and. Raleigh 
and two small steamers were assigned the duty of carrying the Monitor 
by boarding. » The squadron steamed about in Hampton Roads for two 

1 The combat between the Virginia and the 2 Some years after the conclusion of the war 

Monitor was an indecisive action so far as those I showed a copy of this letter to my friend, 

two vessels were concerned; at least such was Capt. Catesby ap Roger Jones, who was in com- 

iny opinion after witnessing the iight from the mand of the Virginia during the fight with the 

distance of about a mile. Both vessels were Monitor. Capt. Jones informed me that the 

skillfully and gallantly fought, and neither signal officer of the Patrick Henry did not read 

could claim a victory over the other. If the the Virginia's signal correctly; I forget what 

Monitor had been silenced, the Minnesota would Capt. Jones said the signal was, but it did not 

have been destroyed, and probably much other indicate that the Virginia was in distress, or 

damage done to the Federal forces. If the that she desired assistance. J. H. R., 1886. 
Virginia had been defeated, the city of Norfolk 

■would have been at the mercy of the Monitor. ■■'One of these small steamers was the tender 

J. H. R., 1886. of the Norfolk navy-yard. She was manned for 



198 THE CONFEDERATE STATES NAVY. 

days in succession, and the Jamestown captured two of the Federal trans- 
ports, but the Monitor did not leave her anchorage at Fortress Monroe. ' 

***** 

" I aui, sir, very respectfully, your obedient servant, 

"J. H. ROOHELLE, 

''^ Lieut. Com. Confederate Iron-clad ''Palmetto Mate.'''''' 

"When the Federal squadron entered James River, W\e Patrick Henry 
ran up to Drewry's Bluff, and her officers and crew aided materially in 
getting that position ready for defence. The Confederate steamship 
Jamestown was sunk to complete the obstructions of the river, her guns 
having been previously landed and placed in battery on the Bluff. One 
solid shot eight-inch gun and two rifled 33-pounders were landed from the 
Patrick Henry., ijiounted in pits dug in the brow of the Bluff, and manned 
by the officers and. crew of the vessel. 

" On the 15th of May, 1862, the Federal squadron, consisting of the 
Galena., Monitor, Nangatuck, Port Royal, and Aroostook, made the well- 
known attack on the Confederate batteries at Drewry's Bluflf, which was the 
only defensible position between tlie squadron and Richmond. 'I he Galena 
and the Monitor were the only vessels which engaged the batteries at 
effective range. The Galena was managed with great skill and daring. 
She steamed to about 800 yards of the batteries, and opened with much 
precision a most damaging fire. After a hot action of about four hours 
duration, the Federal squadron was beaten off, and steamed away down the 
river. The guns on the Bluff were worked by the officers and crews of the 
Patrick Henry, Jamestown, Virginia, and a battalion of artillery. The 
most effective gun on the Bluff was the Patrick Henry s eight -inch solid 
shot gun ; the working of this gun was personally directed by Capt. John 
R. Tucker, and the execution done by it was jiianifest. 

"After the action at Drewry's Bluff, the Patrick Henry^s officers and 
crew were permanently attached to the naval batteries at that place. The 
vessel herself became the schoolship of the Confederate States naval 
school, and was destroyed when Richmond was evacuated by the Confed- 
erates, to prevent her falling into the hands of the enemy."— J. H.R., 1886." 

A writer in The United Service Magazine for November, 
1880, says : 

" The first grand naval triumph of the South was the victory achieved 
by the iron-clad Virginia, in the memorable battle of Hampton Roads, 
on the 8th of March, 1861. An event interesting not only for the imme- 
diate issues involved, but as introducing a new element in naval warfare, 
and inaugurating a revolution in the means and methods of future en- 
counters." 

Then, after a graphic and correct account of the battles of 
the 8th and 9th, in which the palm of victory is awarded to 
the Virginia, the writer concludes : 

" The Virginia came out of the conflict a historical ship. In all future 
narratives of naval war she will loom up conspicuously as having deter- 
mined a new line of development in naval forces, leading to a complete 
revolution in the naval systems of the whole world, as well as those of 

tlie occasion by officers and men of the Pat- federate authoritie-s determined upon the evacu- 

rick Henry, under th^ command of tlie execu- ation of Norfolk, the Patrick Henry was em- 

tive officer of that ve.sael, and was christened ployed to remove what public property could be 

by the men Patrick Henry Junior. J. H. R., saved from the navy-yard to Richmond. The 

1S86. hulls of several uncompleted vessels were towed 

past the Federal batteries at Newport News. 

1 The conclusion of this letter has been lost. The runninf; past the batteries was always done 

It went on to relate the services pf the Patrick in the middle of the night, moonless nights 

Henry up to the date of the letter. These serv being chosen; so tar as we ever knew, we were 

ices may be briefly recounted: When the Con- not once discovered by the enemy. 



THE CONFEDERATE STATES NAV Y. 199 

coast and harbor defences. The triumph of that vessel was a brilliant 
one, but short-lived." 

"J. H. C," in the Oct. number of Tlie United Service, says: 

" The victory (on the 8th) of the Virginia had been most brilliant. 
She had almost unaided destroyed two largre ships of war, with a loss of 
several hundred men, and driven off the rest of the fleet. Her own loss 
was scarcely enough to set off her triumph. She had shown a wondering 
world that wooden vessels could not stand for an instant against the iron- 
clads, and now the world looked on, curious to see her prowess against a 
foeman of her own class." 

And after describing the battle of the 9th as one of v^^hich 
*' both sides claimed the victory, and, indeed, its honors 
seem to be evenly divided," relates the scheme of destroying 
the Virginia by running- her dov^n with immense wooden 
steamers — adds : 

" Another occasion was sought on the 8th of May, when a portion of 
the Union fleet, including the Monitor, bombarded tlie battery at Sewell's 
Point. This brought the Virginia upon the scene, but no good oppor- 
tunity occurred to run her down. In fact, the scheme was impracticable; 
and it was probably fortunate that the ships fitted up for the purpose did 
not make a serious attempt. Their own destruction instead of that of 
the iron-clad would most likely have been the consequence." 

These official records, and private documents and state- 
ments, ought to dispose of all claim to a victory over the Vir- 
ginia, as they reveal a state of consternation and dismay in 
Washington not surpassed even by that caused by the first 
battle of Bull Run. 

At the second session of the Forty-third Congress, the fic- 
tion of a victory of the Monitor over the Virginia, on the 9th of 
March, 1862, was made the subject of an application by the offi- 
cers and crew of the U. S. steamer 3ib«/'^or, who participated in 
the action in Hampton Roads, for the payment to them by the 
United States of the actual value of theVirginia and her arma- 
ment "at the date of said action, not exceeding $300,000, to be 
distributed in lieu of the bounty provided by Section 4,635 of 
the Revised Statutes of the United States, and in proportion 
fixed by law in cases where the capturing or destroying vessel 
was acting independently of the commanding officer of a fleet, 
squadron, or division, and for the appropriation of $300,000." 
The memorial or application was referred, in the House of Rep- 
resentatives, to the Committee on Naval Affairs, but no action 
was taken on it until January 9, 1883, when it was again pre- 
sented to the House of Representatives with like reference. A 
report was submitted by the Committee, recommending the 
passage of the bill, but it failed to become a law. ^ At the second 
session of the Forty-seventh Congress, the memorial was again 
made the subject of two bills. Senate Bill No. 369, and House 
Bill No. 3,840, for an appropriation of $200,000 for distribution 
among the officers and crew of the Monitor, not as prize-money 
for the capture or destruction of the Virginia, for the facts 



200 THE CONFEDERATE STATES NAVY. 

were too baldly patent to warrant any such claim, but because 
the Monitor had been "in the action with the rebel iron-clad 
Merrimac''' on that day. But the "'statement of the reasons 
for making such a grant of pri^e-money," claimed that reward 
"for damage to the Confederate iron-clad Merrimac, March 
9th, 1863, and her subsequent destruction." The facts were, 
however, too patent and potent, and botli bills failed to pass. 
The subject was renewed at the first session of the Forty- 
eighth Congress, and in the House of Representatives it was 
again referred to the Committee on Naval Affairs. 

Mr. Ballentine, from the Committee on Naval Affairs, to 
whom the House Bill No, 244, had been referred, in 1884, sub- 
mitted a very interesting and strong adverse report. It said: 

" The meraoralists claim that the Monitor so disabled the Merrimac as 
to make her destruction necessary, and, further, that she prevented the 
Merrimac from jroing below Old Point, thus saving Baltimore and Wash- 
ington from capture, and even New York City from menace. The testi- 
mony which has been set out at length does not, in the opinion of the 
Committee, sustain either of these opinions, but quite the contrary. It 
is only necessary to refer to the full description of the Merrimac to show 
that, without greatly lightening her, which could not have been done 
without impairing her power to fight, and exposing her to the projectiles 
which would have been hurled against her, had she ventured outside of 
Cape Henry, she would have inevitably foundered. 

" On the other point, all of the evidence leads as clearly to the opinion 
that the Monitor, after her engagement with the Merrimac on the 9th of 
March, declined again to engage her, though offered the opportunity, and 
that so great doubt existed with the U. S. naval and military authorities 
as to the power of the Monitor to successfully meet the Merrimac, that 
orders toere given to her commander by the President 7iot to bring on an 
engagement. ^ 

" It also appears that the Merrimac so far from being seriously in- 
jured, was enabled after the engagement to protect the approaches to 
Norfolk and Richmond until after the evacuation of Norfolk. If, then, it 
be proven that the destruction of the 3Ierri?nnc was not the result of in- 
juries inflicted by the Monitor, which we assume to be true, what claim 
have the memorialists for compensation ? It is not pretended that they 
are entitled to compensation in the nature of prize-money. The act of 
June 30, 1864, sec. 10 (Vol. 13, page 309), i^rovides for the payment of 
bounty money to the officers and crew of the U. S. naval vessels, who 
sink or otherwise destroy vessels of the enemy in engagements, or which 
it may be necessary (for the captors) to destroy in consequence of injuries 
received in action ; but the case presented does not, in our opinion, come 
within the meaning of the statute. * * Officers of the navy are entitled to 
prize-money when they capture or destroy property, provided it is in a line 
where the law of capture applies, but not otherwise. On the destruction 
of a vessel, the price of that vessel may be awarded as prize money 

1 In support of Ifs statement, the Committee that the Department can easily obstruct the 

quote many of the extracts heretofore given channel of Norfolk, so as to prevent the exit 

by us, and the following letter addressed to the of the Merrimac. provided the army will carry 

Secretary of the Navy bv Adjt. Gen. L. Thomas, Sewell's Point batteries in which duty the 

under date of March 13th, 1862: "I am directed navy will give great assistance." They also 

by the Secretary of War to say that he places at mention the fact that in a council of war, 

your disposal any transports or coal vessels at held at Fairfax Court House, March 13th, 

Fortress Monroe, for the purpose of closing the 1S62, present Gens. Keyes, Heintzleman, Mc- 

channel of the Elizabeth River to prevent the Dowell and Sumner, at which it was decided 

Merrimac from again coming out " They also that Gen. McClellan s plan to attack Richmond 

submitted a letter from Secretary Welles to the by York River should be adopted, provided, 

Secretary of War, under date of March 13th. in first, " that the enemy's vessel Merrimac can be 

•which he said : " I have the honor to suggest neutralized." 




CAPTAIN J. R. TUCKER. 

COKFEDKRATE STATES NAVY. 



THE CONFEDERATE STATES NAVY. 201 

under the rule, but where the enemy's vessel is not destroyed, no such 
rule obtains, and never has obtained, in this or any other civilized coun- 
try. It is claimed that this money should be awarded the petitioners on 
the ground that the Monitor saved from destruction Washington, Balti- 
more and other large cities of the North, and also saved from destruction 
the vessels which were in the harbor. The question presented by the 
memorialists is not one of the saving of New York or Washington, or of 
the vessels which were in Hampton Roads for the presumed purpose of 
making battle and protecting the U. S. forts and property ; but the ques- 
tion is, was there any destructionoi the Merrimac by the Monitor, ov such 
a destruction as to bring this application within the purview and mean- 
ing of the law ? If the answer to this be in the affirmative, it is singular 
that the officers and crew of the Jfo?? /tor have not long since received their 
money. * * * We assume that the proof shows that the only serious 
damage sustained by the Merrimac was inflicted by the Cumberland, and 
that the Merrimac went back to Norfolk when her adversaries were out 
of her reach; and they being in shoal water, and she, on account of the 
great depth of water which she drew, unable to attack them, went into 
dock for repairs, and again came out and offered battle, which was re- 
fused; and that eventually on the evacuation of Norfolk by the Confed- 
erate forces, she was destroyed by her officers and crew, to prevent her fall- 
ing into the hands of the Union forces, and that, therefore, her destruc- 
tion was not the result of her engagement with the Monitor, and that if 
the proof shows this state of facts to exist that the claim of the petition- 
ers in this memorial ought not to be allowed."' 

From the testimony submitted by the Committee, they 
add, "we feel assured that neither Gen. Magruder, nor any 
of his superiors had the slightest .apprehension of any dam- 
age to be feared from the Monitor. So far from this, their 
dispatches show that they felt full confidence that the Vir- 
ginia (or Merrimac) was master of the situation in the waters 
from Norfolk to Hampton Roads. * * The testimony shows 
clearly, that the only serious injury received by the Merri- 
mac was from the Cumberland; and this official testimony 
is fully sustained by affidavits made by Capt. Catesby Jones, 
White, and Littlepage, and the statement of the latter was 
made here in Washington, when the question was up, and 
when all the surroundings seemed to favor the claim of the 
petitioners."^ 

1 In support of these points the committee " To (he Editor of The Post (Washington, D. C). 
submitted considerable testimony, among which •' From the article which appeared in the col- 
was an extract from the official report of Brig. umns of The Post this morning, I learn that the 
Gen. Joseph K. F. Mansfield of the engagement, officers and men of the Monitor have memorial- 
made to Gen. John E. Wool, bearing date March ized Congress for prize-money for the disabling 
12, 1862, in which he says : " Our ships were of the Merrimac by that vessel. As there is not 
perfectly harmless against the Merrimac, as an officer or man who was on the Monitor on 
their broadsides produced no material effect on that memorable occasion who does not know- 
licr." that the Monitor did not disable the Merrimac. 

I cannot conceive upon what grounds the claim 

2 "On March 10. P. H. Watson. Assistant Sec- for prize-money is made. It reminds me of 
retary of War. telegraphed to Henry B. Ren- the old sailor, who whenever he heard others 
wick. New York City, and advises that three .speaking of fine horses, would always tell of 
large and swift steamers be fitted up to run the remarkable traits of his own horse. He 
down and destroy the Merrimac." If the vessel told it so often that he actually believed he had 
had been destroyed the day before, there was a horse, and when the ship went into Vera 
no necessity for this. Cruz he bought a fine Mexican saddle for it. 

The statement that the Merrimac was disabled 
' The statement of Midshipman H. B. Little- and driven from Hampton Roads mto Norfolk 
page, referred to, who was a midshipman on is entirely incorrect and absurd. It only con- 
board of the Virginia during the engagement in vinces me that I. R. G., like many others who 
Hampton Roads, and up to the time of her de- have written upon this subiect. was not there, 
struction. was as follows: TheiWont/orwasneitherthedirectnorthe remote 



202 THE CONFEDERATE STATES NAVY, 

In conclusion the Committee add: " From the above men- 
tioned facts, we think it clearly appears (1) that tlie Monitor, 
after her engagement with the Merrimac, on the 9th of March, 
never again dared encounter her, though offered frequent op- 
portunities; (2) that so much doubt existed in the minds of the 
Federal authorities as to her power to meet the Merrimac, that 
orders were given her commander, not to fight her voluntarily; 
that the Merrimac, so far from being seriously injured in her 
engagement, efficiently protected the approaches to Norfolk 
and Richmond until Norfolk was evacuated; that the Merrimac 
could not have gotten to Washington, or Baltimore, in her 
n ormal condition ; that she could not have gone to sea at all ; that 
although she could have run by the Federal fleet and Old Point 
(barring torpedoes in the channel), and threatened McClellan's 
base at Yorktown, in exceptionally good weather, yet would 
have had to leave the James River open, * * Holding to these 
views, we respectfully report adversely to the passage of the 
bill," 

While the subject was being discussed in Congress, Lieut. 
Commander William H.Parker, C. S. N., who commanded the 
Beaufort in the Hampton Roads engagements, sent to the Nor- 
folk Landmark the following interesting statement of the 
question: 

" Norfolk, Va., Dec. 11, 1883. 
'■'■To the Editor of the '• LandmarW : 

" The claim of the crew of the U. S. steamer Jfomtor for prize-money 
for the destruction of the Confederate vessel Virginia {Merrimac), has 
naturally called forth many letters from those engraged in the naval oper- 
ations in Hampton Roads from March 8, 1862, to May 6, 1862. 

cause of the destruction of the Merrimac. If favorable, the Merrimac returned to Norfolk, 
prize-money Is to be awarded, let it be given where she was docked. She was then thor- 
to the gallant officers and crew of the Cumber- ouglily overhauled and equipped for fighting 
land, which went down with her colors flying an iron-clad. A prow of steel and wrought iron 
after doing nearly all the damage sustained by was put on. Bolts of wrought-iron and chilled- 
the Merrimac on the nth and Dth of March, iron were supplied for the rifle guns, and other 
1802. The broadside fired by the Cumberland preparations made especially for the Monitor. 
just as the Me.rHmac rammed her. cut one of They- were such as to make all on the Merrimac 
the Merrimac's gims off at the triinnions, the feel confident that we would either make a 
muzzle of another, tore up the carriage of her prize of or destroy the Monitor when we met 
bow pivot gun, swept away her anchors, boats again. On tlie 11th of April, all being ready for 
and howitzers, riddled her smoke-stack and the expected fray, the Merrimac again went to 
steam -pipe, and killed and wounded nineteen Hampton Roads. The A/ojnVor was laying at our 
men. moorings, at the mouth of the Elizabeth River, 
"The next day in the fight with the Monitor publishing to the world that she was blockading 
the Merrimac did not have a man killed or the Merrimac. Greatly to our surjirise she re- 
wounded, nor a gun disabled. The only dam- fused to fight us, and as we approached, she 
age sustained by her worth mentioning was by gracefully retired, and closely hugged the shore 
ramming the Monitor with her wooden steni, under the guns of Fortress Monroe. As if to 
her cast-iron bow having been wrenched off provoke her to combat, the Jamestown was sent 
the day before in the Cumberland. This prob- in, and she captured several prizes, in which the 
ably saved the Monitor from a similar fate. 'Tis Monitor seemed to acquiesce, as she offered no- 
true the Monitor struck us some powerful blows resistance. French and Englisli men-of-war 
with her eleven-inch gims when only a few feet were present: the latter cheered and dipped 
from us, but not one of her shots penetrated our their flags as the Jamestown passed with the 
armor. If instead of scattering her shot over prizes. 

our shield she had concentrated them upon " On the 6th of May, when the Merrimac had 

some particular spot, a breach might have been returned to Norfolk for supplies, a squadron 

made. Wlien the Merrimac left Hampton Roads consisting of the Monitor, Naugatuck and Galena 

for Norfolk, the .Wfmi/'or had luis.sed over the bar (iron-dads, and five large menof-war, com- 

and hauled off into shoal water, where we could meuced to bombard our batteries at Sewell's 

not reach her -the Merrimac' ss draft being over Point. Ihe Merrimac immediately left Norfolk 

twenty-two feet, and hers only about ten. As for the scene of conflict. As she approached 

there "was nothing more to fight, the tide being the squadron at full speed the Vanderbitt, one 



THE CONFEDERATE STATES NAVY. 203 

"I commanded the Beaufort in the battles of the 8th and 9th of 
March, and in the operations under Commodore Tatnall, to which I shall 
allude. In fact, I may say I commanded a consort of the Merrimac from 
the time she was put in commission until she was blown up. I, therefore, 
profess to be familiar with her history. 

" The battle of Marcli 8th I propose describing at some future day, 
in order to show more particularly what part the wooden vessels took in 
that memorable engagement. The battle of March 9th * * * that be- 
tween the Monitor and Merrimac — has been fully described by Capt. 
Catesby Jones, her commander, and by other of her officers. I do not 
l^ropose here to repeat it; but there are some points in relation to the 
operations subsequent to that engagement which have either been unno- 
ticed, or but lightly touched upon. These points are in my judgment so 
important, and bear so immediately upon the claim of the Monitor for 
prize-money, that 1 venture to submit the following: 

" I. After the battle of the 9th of March, the Merrimac went into dock 
to replace the prow, or ram, which had been lost in sinking the Cumber- 
land, to exchange some of her guns, and to make some small repairs to her 
armor and machinery On the 11th of April, Commodore Tatnall, who 
had succeeded Commodore Buchanan in the command, went down with 
his entire squadron, consisting of the Merrimac, Patrick Henry, James- 
town, Teaser, Beatifort and Raleigh, to offer battle to the Federal fleet 
then lying in Hampton Roads or below Old Point. Three merchant ves- 
sels were run on shore by their masters between Newport News and Old 
Point, and were partially abandoned. The Jamestown and lialeightovfed 
them oft' almost under the guns of Old Point and the Federal fleet. Their 
flags were hauled down and hoisted Union down under the Confederate 
flag as a defiance to induce the fieet to attempt to retake them. The fleet, 
under Flag-officer Goldsborough, consisted of a large number of wooden 
vessels, some of them very heavy frigates, the Monitor, the Naugatuck (a 
small iron-clad), and even the Vanderbilt, a powerful steamer specially 
prepared ' to run down and sink the Merrimac.'' 

''An English and a French man-of-war were present in the Roads and 
went up to Newport News, evidently to witness the serious engagement, 
which we, at least, expected. Their crews repeatedly waved their hats and 
handkerchiefs to our vessels as we passed and repassed them during. the day. 

" The Merrimac, with her consorts, held possession of the roads, and 
defied the enemy to battle during the entire day, and for several days 
after * * the Federal fleet lying in the same position below Old Point. 
Towards sunset of the first day the Merrimac fired a single gun at the 
enemy ; it was immediately replied to by the Naugatuck, lying, I think, 
inside Hampton Bar. 

" I do not know what Commodore Tatnall thought about attacking 
the Federal fleet as it stood, nor do I know what his instructions were, 
but I do know that our officers generally believed that torpedoes had 

of the fastest steamers then afloat, which we gage of battle offered her by the JlferrtTnac daily 

understood had been fitted with a iirow espec- since the 11th of April. 

ially for ramming us, joined the other ships. " Wherefore doth she claim prize-money ? 

We regarded the attack as an invitation to come "In stating the above facts, I do not wish to 

out, and we expected a most desperate en- detract one iota from the just deserts of the 

counter.' Much to the disappointment of our brave officers and men of the Monitor. 'Ihey did 

Commodore, and greatly to the relief of many their whole duty, but not more gallantly than 

others besides myself, as soon as the Merrimac their less fortunate comrades on the Cumber- 

came within range, they seemed to conclude land. Congre.^st, Minnesota, and other ships in the 

that Sewell's Point was not worth fighting about. Roads, and are therefore no more entitled to 

and all hurried below the guns of Fortress Mon- prize-money. Those on the Merrimac by no 

roe and the Rip-raps. The Merrimac pursued means regarded the Monitor as a lion in her 

at full speed imtil she came well under the fire path. Having served on the Merrimac from the 

of the latter fort, when she retired to her moor- time work was first begun upon her until the 

ings at the mouth of the river. After the evac- night of her destruction, in justice to all con- 

uation of Norfolk the jtferrimac was taken above cerned, and that honor may be done to whom 

€raney Island and blown up on the nth of May. honor is due, I simply desire the facts to be 

The Monitor was then up the James River, having known. 

gone up the day before, and was probably more " H. B. Iimi.EPAGE. 

than fifty miles away. She had refused the " Washington, Feb. 21." 



204 THE CONFEDERATE STATES NAVY. 

been placed in the channel between Old Point and the Rip-raps ; indeed, 
we supposed that to be the reason why Flapc-oflBcer Golds borough declined 
to fight us in the Roads; moreover, fighting the entire fleet, Ilonilor, 
Naugatuck, Vanderbilt, and all in the Roads, was one thing, and fighting 
the same under the guns of Old Point and the Rip-raps, was another. 

" II. The Merrimac remained for some days in this position, offering 
battle, and protecting the approaches to Norfolk and Richmond, and 
then went up to the navy-yard to water. I think it was on the 8th day 
of May that Flag-officer Goldsborough took advantage of her absence to 
bombard SewelFs Point with a number of his vessels— the Monitor, Galena, 
aud Naugattick included — all three iron-clads. When the fact was known 
in Norfolk, the Merrimac cast off from her moorings and steamed down to 
take a hand in the fight. As soon as her smoke was seen the entire fleet 
fled, and again took refuge below the guns of Old Point, where the Merri- 
mac declined to pursue, for reasons satisfactoryto her gallant commander. 

" III. Prom this tune, until the 10th of May, the Merrimac maintamed 
the same attitude. On that day she was blown iip by her commander in 
consequence of the evacuation of Norfolk by the Confederates. Then, 
and not till then, Commodore John Rodgers was sent up the James River 
with the Galena, Monitor Siud Naugatuck, all iron-clads, to attack Drewry's 
Bluff or Fort Darling, and make an attempt on Richmond. 

"IV. The above facts go to show what Flag-officer Goldsborough 
thought of the Merrimac, and in citing them, I wish it to be understood 
that I intend to cast no imputations upon him and his gallant officers. I 
have been told by some of them that he had positive orders from hisgov- 
ernment not to attack the Merrimac; and I believe it to be the case. * * * 

" V. The memorial claims that the Monitor not only whipped the 
Merrimac on the 9th of March, but that she ever after prevented her 
from going below Old Point; and thus saved Baltimore, Washington, and 
even New York ! ! ! The answer to this is, that the Merrimac could not 
have gone to Baltimore or Washington without lightening her so much 
that she would no longer have been an iron-clad : that is, she would have 
risen in the water so as to expose her unarmored sides. As to her going 
outside of Cape Henry it was impossible ; she would have foundered. She 
could not have lived in Hampton Roads in a moderate gale. 

" I served in the Palmetto State at Charleston, a similarly constructed 
vessel, but better sea-boat, and infinitely more buoyant, and have seen 
the time when we had to leave the outer harbor and take refuge in the 
inner in only a moderate blow ! 

" VI. From the above-mentioned facts I think it clearly appears (1.) 
that the Monitor, after her engagement with the Merrimac on the 9th of 
March, never again dared encounter her, though offered frequent oppor- 
tunities ; (3.) that so much doubt existed in the minds of the Federal 
authorities as to her power to meet the Merrimac, that orders were given 
her commander not to fight her voluntarily; (;5. ) that i\\e Monitor never 
ventured above Old Point from the 9th of March until after the destruc- 
tion of the Merrimac by her own crew, save on the occasion above re- 
ferred to; (4.) that the Merrimac, no far from being seriously injured in 
her engagement, efficiently protected the appi'oaches to Norfolk and 
Richmond until Norfolk was evacuated; (5.) that the Merrimac could not 
have gotten to Washington or Baltimore in her normal condition; (6.) 
that she could not have gone to sea at all ; ( 7. ) that, although she could 
have run by the Federal fleet at Old Point (barring torpedoes in the chan- 
nel) and threatened McClell«n's base at Yorktown, in exceptionally good 
weather, yet would have had to leave the James River open. 

" VII. For the truth of the very important facts mentioned in sec- 
tions I., II. and III., I am willing to abide by the log-book of the Monitor, 
the dispatches of Flag-officer Goldsborough, or the testimony of Com- 
mander Dana Greene, tJ. S. navy, who was the gallant and efficient execu- 
tive officer of the Monitor from the day she left New York until she foun- 
dered off Cape Hatteras. 



THE CONFEDERATE STATES NAVY. 205 

"YIII. In conclusion T would like to say, and I do so most cheerfully, 
that the Monitor made her appearance in Hampton Roads at a critical 
time — the night of the 8th of March, 1863 — and although an untried ves- 
sel, of a new and peculiar construction, did on the next day what the 
whole Federal fleet present declined to do — she fought the Merrimac. 

" If the claim for a reward was put upon this ground alone, no one 
would be more gratified to see it granted her gallant crew than myself ; 
but to claim prize-money on the ground that the Monitor defeated and 
permanently disabled the Mej'vi mac, thus saving Washington and New 
York, etc., is in view of the facts cited, in my humble opinion, prepos- 
terous. " Very respectfully, etc., u ^y^^j jj. Parker."^ 

The history of the fight between the Monitor- and the Vi?-- 
ginia established the fact beyond controversy that the Vir- 
ginia sustained no more damage from the Monitor^ than the 
hitter received from the former, and that all the damage 
received by the Virginia was on the 8tli of March, in her action 
with the Cumberland, Congress, Minnesota, and other wooden 
vessels, and that her '^'subsequent destruction^' was the work 
of her own officers and crew, in consequence of military 
operations on land, and distant many miles from the waters of 
Hampton Roads. McClellan turned the flank of the Virginia 
away up on the peninsula, and exposed her base at Yorktown 
to capture, and she was no longer able to supply her necessi- 
ties, repair her engines, and keep herself afloat'. The Monitor 
and the other men-of-war in Hampton Roads had neither 
part nor lot in the destruction of the Virginia. 

Prof. Soley, in his effort to reason out a victory for the 
Monitor, says : 

" But assuming for the moment that the Merrimac was left in posses- 
sion of the field, why did she not continue her operations ? The retreat 
of the Monitor would have left matters in precisely the situation in which, 
the Merrimac supposed them to be when she came out in the morning. It 
is to be presumed that her object was to destroy the Minnesota. The 
Monitor had prevented her for four hours from doing this; now. however, 
if the Monitor had retreated, why did she not attack the frigate ? 

" Instead of continuing the fight, the Merrimac steamed to Norfolk. 
Jones gives as his reason for returning that he believed the Monitor to be 
entirely disabled. What ground he had for forming such a belief does not 
appear. It has also been suggested that his pilots led him to suppose that 
delay would prevent him from crossing the bar. But what need had he to 
cross ? The bar was a mile above Se well's Point; he had anchored safely 
the night before under the battery, and after destroying the 3Iinnesota, 
supposing that the Monitorhad disappeared— he coufd do the same again, 
and go up to Norfolk at his leisure. If, however, his injuries were so great 
that he was compelled to lose no time in returning to Norfolk, it would 
seem that, instead of his having defeated the Monitor, the Monitor had de- 
feated him. In truth, the claim that the Meri'imac was victorious is singu- 
larly bold, in view of the fact, that half an hour after the last shot was 
fired the Minnesota was lying aground in the very spot she had occu- 
pied in the morning, the Monitor was lying alongside her, neither of them 
materially injured, and the supposed victor was standing as fast as possi 
ble to Elizabeth River, in order to cross the bar before ebb-tide." 

It is one thing to win a victory, and another thing to reap 
the entire fruits of that victory, and many a victory has 

1 The J/o-r ('mac was christened the Virrjinia ferred in this article to give her the name she was 
by the Confederate authorities; but I have pre- best known by — W. H. P. 



20G THE CONFEDERATE STATES NAVY. 

been complete of which the full fruitage was lost. That the 
first battle of Bull Run was a complete victory is generally 
admitted, but the fruits were lost by unavoidable and unfore- 
seen circumstances. The fruits of Lee's victory over Burn- 
side at Fredericksburg were barred against him by the Rap- 
pahannock River, and so the "middle ground "of Hampton 
Roads, impassable to the Virginia, prevented her from com- 
pleting her victory by destroying the Minnesota. The Con- 
federate army was damaged ver}^ greatly both at Manassas 
and at Fredericksburg, but no writer has claimed for McDowell 
and Burnside victories in those battles because their armies 
were not totally destroyed. It was not the bar a mile above 
Sewell's Point that the pilots advised Jones about, but the 
"middle ground" which interposed between the Minnesota 
and the Virginia. They were unwilling to be responsible for 
the ship if she attempted to cross that "middle ground," or 
hazard further fighting in her position, on an ebb-tide. Lieut. 
Wood says: "At length the Monitor withdrew over the mid- 
dle ground, where we could not follow, but always maintain- 
ing a position to protect the Minnesota. To have run our 
ship ashore on a falling tide would have been ruin. We waited 
her return for an hour, and at about 2 P. M. steamed to 
Sewell's Point." These are the badges of defeat upon which 
the Confederates claim that the Virginia compelled the Moni- 
tor to withdraw from the fight. And when to these is added 
the fact, now brought out by Lieut. Greene, that the Navy De- 
partment, hj positive orders, forbid the Monitor to engage the 
Virginia unless in defence, the conclusion is irresistible that 
in the first great battle of the iron-clads the Confederate ship 
and navy won the laurels of victory. In this claim we detract 
nothing from the valor, seamanship and gallantry with which 
Worden handled and fought the Merrimac. Until blinded by 
the casualty of battle, he fought his ship with a gallantry only 
equalled by Lieut. Jones; and, when the command devolved 
on Greene, it was no want of courage that caused him to with- 
draw from the " middle ground," but the prudence of a 
thoughtful sailor that would take account of damage, and 
ascertain the true condition of his ship, the command of which 
had so suddenly descended to him. 

The affidavit of a deserter, one James Byers, who stole the 
steam-tug J. B. White, and fled from Norfolk to Newport 
News, has been repeatedly used by Federal writers and in 
public documents published by Congress, to establish the 
claim of very great injury done the Virginia by the Monitor. 
That affidavit, quoted by the Committee of the Senate when 
considering the bill for prize money to the officers and crew 
of the Monitor, recites: 

" The Merrimac came back into the river badly disabled, and almost 
in a sinking condition. Tugs had to be used to get her into the dry dock 
at the navy-yard, the crew pumping and bailing water with all their 



THE CONFEDERATE STATES NAVY. 307 

mif?ht to keep her afloat. I saw her in the dock at Norfolk next day, was 
on board of her, and made a personal examination of the ship. The effect 
of the Monitofs f?uns upon the Merrimac was terrible. Her plated sides 
were broken in, the iron plating rent and broken, the massive timbers of 
her sides crushed; and the officers themselves stated that she could not 
have withstood the effect of the Monitor'' s guns any longer, and that they 
barely escaped in time from her." 

The sw^orn statement of a deserter, made to ingratiate him- 
self with his new-found friends, will not receive credence from 
impartial history, but the following letter from Lieut, Green 
of the Monitor, coming from an honorable source, is entitled 
to every respect: 

"United States Steamer Monitor, ) 
"Hampton Roads, March 12th, 1863. j 

"On Sunday last we met the Merrimac at 9.15 A. M., and, after a 
hard fight of four hours, drove her back to Norfolk. Our noble and gal- 
lant captain was wounded near the close of the fight, and I was called to 
take connnand of the vessel. Up to that time I had fired every gun my- 
self, and have the satisfaction of knowing that I put five shots of 170 
pounds straight through this infernal machine, and wounded her 
captain. 

" Lieut. T. O. Selfridge (Lieut. Jaffers has since taken command) is at 
present in command, and as soon as the MerrimaG makes her appearance 
we are going to lay this battery alongside of her and stay there until one 
or the other sinks. 

" Our vessel is a complete success, and we are not materially damaged. 
We received twenty-one shots.'' 

It was simply impossible for Lieut. Green, shut up in the 
turret of the Monitor, with no look-out, except the port-holes 
when open for firing, to have seen the effect of his shots, and 
when he says he ''put five shots of 170 pounds straight 
through this infernal machine and wounded her captain," he 
drew largely upon his imagination, for he really did neither. 
Nor is there any truth in the remark made on page 12 of 
the " Statement "accompanying Senate Bill 309, Forty-seventh 
Congress, first session, that : " Finally, however, a shot from 
the Monitor, whose guns had been depressed for that purpose, 
struck the Merrimac on her only vulnerable part, the junction 
of the casemate with the side of the ship, causing a leak, 
which induced her officers to abandon the contest." No such 
shot struck the Virginia, and consequently there was no leak- 
ing from the effect of the shot, and no abandonment of the con- 
test from that cause. 

The Virginia was leaking, not from injury inflicted by 
the Monitor, but from that received in the battle of the 8th, 
when she rammed the Cumberland to the bottom, for in doing 
that splendid feat she twisted off her ram, w^hich caused her 
to leak ; and Boatswain Hasker, of the Virginia, explains 
that leak was further opened when the Virginia rammed the 
Monitor, "which leak," he adds, ''was stopped partially by 
shoving a bale of oakum against the stem apron "; and again, 
"in consequence of our stem being twisted, we were leaking 



208 THE CONFEDERATE STATES NAVY. 

badly, and only had time to steam to Norfolk, and get in the 
dry dock by high-water." 

Whatever process of reasoning Federal writers may adopt 
to satisfy themselves that the Monitor defeated the Virginia, 
to make good their claim they must go further and explain 
why the Monitor, if the victor in the first fight, never again 
came out of shoal water to engage the Virginia; but that her 
gallant and brave crew of officers and men submitted to the 
deep humiliation of seeing three Federal transports captured 
in Hampton Roads, and dragged around the arena with the 
flags Union down, in the presence of the French and English 
cruisers, as will presently appear. 

Capt. Buchanan and Lieut. Jones both bore testimony to 
the skill and braver}^ of all the officers under their command 
in the actions of both days: 

" To that bi'ave and intelligent officer, Lieut. Catesby Jones, the ex- 
ecutive and ordnance officer of the T7rg'm^a,"says Capt. Buchanan in his 
official report, " I am greatly indebted for the success achieved. His con- 
stant attendance to his duties in the equipment of the ship; his intelli- 
gence in the instruction of ordnance to tlie crew, as proved by the accuracy 
and effect of their fire — some of the guns having been jjersonally directed 
by him — his tact and management in the government of raw recruits, his 
general knowledge of the executive duties of a nian-of war, together with 
his high-toned bearing, were all eminently conspicuous, and had their 
fruits in the admirable efficiency of the Virginia. If conduct such as his 
— and I do not know that I have used adequate language in describing it 
— entitles an officer to promotion, I see in the case of Lieut. Jones one in 
all respects worthy of it. As flag officer, I am entitled to some one to 
perform the duties of flag-captain, and I should be proud to have Lieut. 
Jones ordered to the Virginia as lieutenant commandant, if it be not the 
intention of the department to bestow upon him a higher rank. 

"Lieut. Simms fully sustained his well-earned reputation. He fired 
the first gun, and when the command devolved upon Lieut. Jones, in 
consequence of my disaVjility, he was ordered to pei-form the duties 
of executive officer. Lieut. Jones has expressed to me his satisfaction 
in having had the services of so experienced, energetic, and zealous an 
officer. 

"Lieut. Davidson fought his guns with great precision. The muzzle 
of one of them was soon shot away ; he continued, however, to fire it, 
though the wood-work around the port became ignited at each discharge. 
His buoyant and cheerful bearing and voice were contagious and inspir- 
ing. 

"Lieut. Wood handled his pivot gun admirably, and the executive 
officer testifies to his valuable suggestions during the action. His zeal and 
industry in drilling the crew contributed materially to our success. 

"Lieut. Eggleston served his hot shot and shell with judgment and 
effect; and his bearing was deliberate, and exerted a happy influence pn 
his division. 

" Lieut. Butt fought his gun with activity, and during the action was 
gay and smiling. 

" The Marine Corps was well represented by Capt. Thorn, whose tran- 
quil mien gave evidence that the hottest fire was no novelty to him. One 
of his guns was served effectively and creditably by a detachment of 
the United Artillery of Norfolk, under the the command of Capt. Kevill. 
The muzzle of their gun was struck by a shell from the enemy, which 
broke off a piece of the gun, but they continued to fire as if it was unin- 
jured. 



i THK CONFEDERATE STATES NAVV. 209 

" While the Virginia was thus engaged in getting her position for at- 
tacking the Congress, the prisoners state it was believed on board that 
ship that we had hauled oft; the men left their guns and gave three cheers. 
They were soon sadly undeceived, for a few minutes after we opened upon 
her again, she having run on shore in shoal water. The carnage, havoc 
and dismay caused by our fire compelled them to haul down their colors, 
and to hoist a white flag at their gaff and half-mast, and another at the 
main. The crew instantly took to their boats and landed. 

"Midshipmen Foute, Marmaduke, Littlepage, Craig and Long ren- 
dered valuable services. Their conduct would have been creditable to older 
heads, and gave great promise of future usefulness. Midshipman Marma- 
duke, though receiving several painful wounds early in the action, man- 
fully fought his gun until the close. He is now at the hospital. 

"Paymaster Semple volunteered for any service, and was assigned to 
the command of the powder division, an important and complicated duty, 
which could not have been better performed. 

"Surgeon Phillips and Assistant Surgeon Garnett were prompt and 
attentive in the discharge of their duties ; their kind and eonsidei-atecare 
of the wounded, and the skill and ability displayed in the treatment, won 
for them the esteem and gratitude of all who came under their charge, 
and justly entitled them to the confidence of officers and ci-ew. I beg 
leave to call the attention of the department to the case of Dr. Garnett. 
He stands deservedly high in his profession, is at the head of the list of 
assistant surgeons, and there being a vacancy, in consequence of the re- 
cent death of Surgeon Blacknall, I should be much gratified if Dr. Gar- 
nett could be promoted to it. 

"The engines and machinery, upon which so much depended, per- 
formed much better than was expected. This is due to the intelligence, 
experience and coolness of Acting Chief Engineer Ramsay. His efforts 
were ably seconded by his assistants, Tynan, Campbell, Herring, and Jack 
White. As Mr. Ramsay is only acting chief engineer, I respectfully recom- 
mend his promotion to the rank of chief ; and would also ask that Second 
Assistant Engineer Cami^bell may be promoted to first assistant — he hav- 
ing performed the duties of that grade during the engagement. 

" The forward officers, Boatswain Hasker, Gunner Oliver and Car- 
penter Lindsey, discharged well all the duties required of them. The 
boatswain had charge of a gun and fought it well. The gunner was in- 
defatigable in his efforts ; his experience and exertions as a gunner have 
contributed very materially to the efficiency of the battery. 

" Acting Master Parrish was assisted in piloting the ship by Pilots 
Wright, Williams, Clark and Cunningham. They were necessarily much 
exposed. 

" It is now due that I should mention my personal staff. To that 
gallant young officer. Flag Lieut. Minor, I am much indebted for his 
promptness in the execution of signals, for renewing the flag-staffs when 
shot away — being thereby greatly exposed — for his watchfulness in keep- 
ing the Confederate flag up ; his alacrity in conveying my orders to the 
different divisions, and for his general cool and gallant bearing. 

" My aide, Acting Midshipman Rooles, of the navy, Lieut. Forrest, of 
the army, who served as a volunteer aide, and my clerk, Mr. Arthur St. 
Clair, Jr., are entitled to my thanks for The activity with which my orders 
were conveyed to the different parts of the ship. During the hottest of 
the fight, they were always at their posts giving evidence of their cool- 
ness. Having referred to the good conduct of the officers in the flag-ship 
immediately under my notice, I come now to a no less pleasing task when 
I attempt to mark my approbation of the bearing of those serving in the 
other vessels of the squadron. 

" Commander John R. Tucker, of the Patrick Henry, and Lieut. Com- 
manding J. N. Barney, of the Jamestown, and W. A. Webb, of the Teaser^ 
deserve great praise for their gallant conduct throughout the engagement. 
Their judgment in selecting their positions for attacking the enemy was 

14 



210 THE CONFEDERATE STATES NAVY. 

good: their constant five was destructive, and contributed much to the 
success of the day. The 'general order,' under which the squadron went 
into action, required that, in the absence of all signals, each commanding 
officer was to exercise his own judgment and discretion in doing all the 
damage he could to the enemy, and to sink before surrendering. From 
the bearing of those officers, on the 8th, I am fully satisfied that that 
order would have been carried out. 

" Commander Tucker speaks highly of all under him, and desires par- 
ticularly to notice that Lieut. Col. Cadwallader St. George Noland, com- 
manding the post at Mulberry Island, on hearing of the deficiency in the 
complement of the Patrick Henri/, promptly offered the services of ten of 
his men as volunteers for the occasion, one of whom, Geo. E. Webb, of the 
' Greenville Guards,' Commander Tucker regrets to say, was killed. 

" Lieut. Commanding Barney reports ' every officer and man on board 
of the ship performed his whole duty, evincing a courage and fearlessness 
worthy of the cause for which we are fighting.'' 

"Lieut. Commanding Webb specially notices the coolness displayed 
by Acting Master Face and Third Assistant Engineer Quinn, when facing 
the heavy fire of artillery and musketry from the shore, whilst the 
Teaspr was standing in to cover the boat in which, as previously stated, 
Lieut. Minor had gone to burn the Congress. Several of his men were 
badly wounded. 

"The Raleigh, early in the action, had her gun-carriage disabled, 
which compelled her to withdraw. As soon as he had repaired damages 
as well as he could, Lieut. Commanding x\lexander resumed his position 
in the line. He sustained himself gallantly during the remainder of the 
day and speaks highly of all under his command. That evening he w^as 
ordered to Norfolk for repairs. 

" The Beaufort, Lieut. Commanding Parker, was in close contact with 
the enemy frequently dui'ing the day, and all on board behaved gallantly. 

"Lieut. Commanding Parker expresses his warmest thanks to his 
officers and men for their coolness. Acting Midshipman Foreman, who 
accompanied him as volunteer aide, Midshipmen Mallory and Newton, 
Captain's Clerk Bain and Mr. Grav, pilot, are all speciallv mentioned by 
him.'i 

Capt. Buchanan was immediately promoted to be Admiral 
of the C. S. navy, and in consequence of his wound was tem- 
porarily relieved from tlie command, and Commander Josiah 
Tatnall, on March 35th, 18(33, was ordered to assume command 
of the naval defences of the waters of Virginia, and to hoist 
liis flag on board the Virginia, with the same vessels compos- 
ing the fleet. 

As soon as the news of the battles in Hampton Roads 
reached Savannah, Capt. Tatnall wrote, March 12th, 1862, to 
Capt. Buchanan: 

" My dear Buchanan : The reports from Norfolk have kept us in a 
state of hopeful but painful anxiety in regard to your unexampled combat 
off Newport News, until the accounts of last evening reported the result, 
and the return of the ships to Norfolk. I congratulate you, my dear 
friend, with all my heart and soul, on the glory you have gained for the 
Confederacy and yourself. The whole affair is unexampled, and will carry 

1 On the IGth of April. 1862, the Confederate are due and are hereby tendered to the officers 

Congress jjassed the following " Resolution of and crews of the Patrick Henry, Jamexlmvn, 

thanks to the officers and crews of the ' Patrick Teasfr, and other vessels engaged, for their 

Henry,' ' Jamekown,' ' Teaser,' and other vessels, gallnnt conduct and bearing in the naval 

for gallant conduct : combat and brilliant victory on the waters 

'•Resolved by the Congress of the Confederate of .James River, on the 8th and 9th of March, 

Sintes of America, That the thanks of Congress 1862." 



THE CONFEDERATE STATES NAV^Y. 21 1 

your name to every cornor of the Christian world, and be on the tono-ue 
of every umn that deals in salt water. Tliat which I admire most in the 
whole affair is the bold confidence with which you undertook an untried 
thing. To have faltered, or to have doubted, migiit have been fatal ; but 
you proved yourself (as the old navy always esteemed you) a man not of 
doubt or falterms: when you had undertaken an adventure. If your 
wound he severe, I shall regret it; but if it be not so, your friends will not 
And fault, as it crowns your worth. 

" I hope Congress will make you Admiral, and put you at the head of 
the navy. You have my vote for it, from my very heart, and I am sure 
all your seniors will cry ' Amen.' You don't know how much you have 
aided in removing the gloom which recent military events had east over 
us. Do let some friend at your bedside write me one line to tell me the 
nature of your wound. God bless you, my dear Buchanan.'' 

Evidently, neither Buchanan nor Tatnall knew that the 
Virginia had been defeated, as alleged, and had retreated to 
Norfolk. 

Commander Tatnall assumed command on the 29th of 
March, and on April 1st received from Secretary Mallory the 
information and suggestion contained in the following letter : 

" The inclosed note, sent to ine by a friend from Baltimore, will inform 
you of some interesting points about the Monitor.. This vessel has 
achieved a high reputation by her recent combat with the Virgima ; and 
the enemy, no less than our own people, look forward to a renewal of it 
as a matter of course, and with very deep interest. I confess to a very 
deep interest in your success over her, for T am fully convinced that the 
result of such a victory may save millions of money, and perhaps thou- 
sands of lives ; and hence I cannot avoid communicating to you matters 
relating to the J/omtor which perhaps may have but little 'influence in 
determining the mode of assailing her. 

"The Scientijic American, in a recent number, publishes a neat wood- 
cut of the vessel and gives some data of her construction. She has, I per 
ceive, two four-sided ventilators, about three feet diameter, and three feet 
liigh, \vhich, it is alleged, slide down even with the deck when in action. 
But little preparation to resist boarders exists, it would seem ; and a wet 
sail thrown over her pilot-house would effectually close the steersman's 
eyes. Her grated turret, her smokestack, ventilators, and air-holes invite 
attack with inflammables and combustibles; and it would seem that twenty 
men thus provided, once upon her deck, as her turret is but nine feet higii, 
might drive every man out of her. 

" You will leave with your ship and fleet to attack the enemy when 
in your judgment it may seem best, and I need not add that I have everv 
confidence that you will accomplish all that any man with such tfieans caii. 

"Please telegraph me when you will probably leave ; and to avoid the 

leaky telegraph, you can say ' Captain Smith will leave here on at 

ocloek.' Good, fearless pilots are all-important, and I suggest that before 
you sail you confront them with the chart. Their refusal to place the 
Virghiia closer than one mile to the Minnesota, notwithstanding Bu- 
chanan's earnest appeals, induces me to say this." 

The Confederate Secretary of the Navy could not have 
regarded the Virginia as defeated by the Monitor when 
urging another attack as soon as possible. "• Do not hesitate," 
wrote Secretary Mallory on April 4th, " or wait for orders, 
but strike, when, how and where your judgment may dictate. 
Take her (the Virginia) out of the dock when you deem best. 
and this point is left entirely to your decision.""^ 



212 THE CONFEDERATE STATES NAVY. 

From tlie 11th of March to the 4th of April the Virginia 
was in the dry dock undergoing repairs, and. indeed, trying to 
get completed, as originally designed. While in the dock her 
hull was partially covered with two-inch iron plates, four feet 
below her shield, for a distance of 180 feet; a new and heavier 
ram was more strongly secured at her bow; the damage done 
to her armor was repaired and wrought-iron shutters were in 
part fitted to her ports, and rifled guns, supplied with steel- 
pointed shot, were provided for her bow and stern guns. 
These changes, and another 100 tons of pig iron in her fan- 
tails, increased her draft, and, while improving her powers of 
attack and defence, yet retarded her speed to about four knots 
an hour. 

Flag-officer Tatnall, on April 4th, sent the following dis- 
patch to Secretary Mallory: ''The Virginia is at this moment 
going out of the dock, and I shall drop down into the Roads to- 
morrow and act against the enemy according to circumstances," 
and he expressed his regret that he could not fit the remainder 
of the iron covers for the ports, or render, for want of time, 
four of the six originally fitted available in action, and he 
added: " The ability to close our ports while loading would be 
(particularly in close action with the Monitor) of great advan- 
tage; for, if it be found that both vessels are impenetrable to 
shot, the contest will be narrowed to the dismounting of guns, 
and while ours will be exposed the whole time, hers will be 
exposed but about one-sixth of the time." Capt. Buchanan 
advised Tatnall most earnestly not to engage the Monitor 
without port covers, because, he said, that two of her guns had 
been disabled, and all the wounds incurred had been by shots 
through the ports. In that opinion Lieut. Jones also coincided; 
and it became even more necessary should an attempt be made 
to pass Fortress Monroe; in that event, open ports would ex- 
pose the battery to the danger of being dismounted by the 
shots from the heavy guns in the fort and on the Rip-raps. 
In addition to tliese serious drawbacks, Engineer Ramsay, on 
April 5th, called attention to the utter unreliability of the en- 
gines ofthe Virginia. Mr. Ramsay had been in the Merrimac 
during her last cruise, was familiar with the bad working of 
her engines, and now urged upon Flag-officer Tatnall, that, as 
the engines never having been reliable, they were now not to 
be depended upon, adding: " At the time I was ordered to the 
vessel I was informed that it was not the intention to take the 
ship where a delay, occasioned by a derangement in the 
machinery, would endanger her safety"; and he further said: 
'"The engines of this ship are not disconnected, and one can- 
not be worked alone. As long as tlie vacuum of the forward 
engine holds good, the engines might be run by working the 
after-engine high pressure; but as the vacuum of either engine 
is at all times precarious, and, if the vacuum of the forward 
engine should fail, the engines w^ould stop. Using one engine 



THE CONFEDERATE STATES NAVY. 213 

high pressure woukl also require a great deal of steam, which 
the boilers caunot generate for any length of time." 

These embarrassing difficulties delayed the departure until 
April 11th. The day previous, Tatnall informed the depart- 
ment at Richmond, that it was his purpose to attack the 
enemy's transports lying above the forts near Hampton Roads, 
and not only to throw down the gage of battle, but add to it 
the insult of actual injury, and thus compel the Monitor to ac- 
cept iiattle on the old ground. It was Tatnall's conviction that 
the Monitoi\ then lying off Hampton Creek, would certainly 
come to the protection of the transports; and with this impres- 
sion he wrote to Secretary Mallory: " I shall not notice her (the 
Monitor) until she closes with me, but direct my fire on the 
transports. There must be, however, a combat with the 
Monitor. " 

From first assuming command, Flag-officer Tatnall was 
aware that his ship was not equal to public expectation, and that 
it was hardly probable that he would find in Hampton Roadsthe 
opportunity that his gallant friend Buchanan had so gloriously 
embraced. To run the gauntlet between Fortress Monroe and 
the Rip-raps was to open the way to Norfolk for the Monitor, 
as well as to hazard the safety of the Virginia with her open 
ports, and yet he wrote that he saw " no chance for me but to 
pass the fort and strike elsewhere, and that if the Virginia was 
needed at Yorktown, where McClellan's army was intrenched 
and his transports around him, the Virginia y^o\x\di "at once 
attempt" the passage of the fort. 

With these high purposes, the Virginia and the gunboats 
steamed down to the Roads on the morning of April 11th. 
The Fortress Monroe correspondent of the New York Herald 
witnessed the movement, and sent the following account: 

" The alarm gun was fired at twenty minutes past seven o'clock, and, 
as soon as the appearance of the Merrimac was generally known, the 
docks, beach, ramparts of the fortress, and other points commanding a 
view, were crowded with spectators. 

"The Merrimac, after showing herself beyond Se well's Point, ap- 
peared to be heading this way. She did not long continue on this course, 
however, but turned towards the James River, followed by six other gun- 
boats, wliich had come round the point in her company. Of the latter, 
the Jamestown and the Patrick Henry were recognized. Among the 
others were supposed to be the Raleigh and Teaser. 

"Arriving at a point about halfway between Sewell's Point and 
Newport JSTews Point, and near the place where the French war- vessels 
iiassendi and Catinet, and the English steamer Riiialdo, had placed them- 
selves early in the morning, the whole fleet came to a stop, while the 
Jamestown, followed at some distance by the Patrick Henry and a small 
tug, continued on her course. 

"The intention of the Jamestown was not at first perceived. As she came 
around, leaving Newport News on her left, it was seen that her object 
was to capturetwo brigs and a schooner which were anchored near the 
shore, about two miles from the points This was done without the 

1 The following were tbe vessels alhided to : of Provitience., and schooner CatliaiHne T. Dix, 
Brig Marcus, of Stockton, N. J.; brig Sabnah, of Accomac. Tlie two brigs were loaded with 



214 THE CONFEDERATE STATES NAVY. 

slightest difficulty, and the assistance of the small tug being rendered, the 
three prizes were taken off under the rebel flag. 

" The whole affair was concluded in less than half an hour, and the 
Jamestoivn, having rejoined the fleet, was ordered to tow the prizes to 
Craney Island. Taking one brig in tow astern, and the others alongside, 
she moved slowly away. 

"Slightly alarmed at this bold dash, quite a number of schooners in 
the upper harbor availed themselves of a favorable wind and sailed. 

" Up to this time (2 P. M. ) the rebel fleet have remained in the position 
in which they first placed themselves, and nothing more has been done 
The tide is now out, and probably no new movement will be made for 
some hours. If the Merrimac should then see flt to pay us a visit she will 
be appropriately welcomed." 

The N. Y. Herald of April 15th, commenting upon the af- 
fair of the 11th, says: 

" The public are very justly indignant at the conduct of our navy in 
Hampton Roads on Friday last. The Confederate fleet, headed by the 
Merrimac, came down to Craney Island, and one of the Confederate gun- 
boats very coolly captured three Union vessels. The Monitor, the Stevens 
battery, the Octarora, and the other Union vessels-of-war, took no appar- 
ent notice of this proceeding. Wot one of the vessels there even moved 
towards the Merrimac. From all appearance, the Confederate fleet might 
have captured every vessel in the Roads without resistance, so long as the 
Merrimac kept her position off Ci'aney Island. 

" Among the spectators of this national disgrace were representatives 
of the French and English navies. They must have formed a very high 
opinion of our nav^' from this sample. Excelling tiie Confederate fleet in 
the number and efficiency of our vessels, we yet waited for an attack, and 
submitted even to the capture of the unarmed vessels w^e were there to 
defend rather than make the first assault. Was it want of force that 
caused this remarkable inaction ? Look at our ships in Hampton Roads, 
and, from the Minnefiota to the Monitor, we challenge the world to show 
us finer war-vessels. Was it cowardice, then ? Look at our brave sailors, 
and remember what they have done for the Union, and their cowardice 
seems imijossible. No ; it was red tape which anchored our gallant ships, 
and kept them from attacking the enemy ; it was red tape which tied the 
hands of our brave sailors, and restrained them from victory. The 
wretched imbecility of the management of the JSavy Department has 
paralyzed the best sailors and the best navy of the world." 

Again the N. Y. Herald, of April 13th. says that, ''at four 
o'clock in the afternoon (of the 11th), the Merrimac fired three 
shots in the direction of Hampton Creek, as a challenge to our 
fleet to come out and fight. The Monitor, meantime, continued 
at her usual anchorage, and as for the Vanderhilt, and the rest 
who were to run the Merrimac down, we have no account of 
their presence. Where were they ? It is no wonder that 
' the bold impudence of the manoeuvres of the rebel fleet, con- 
trasted with the apparent apathy of our fleet, excited surprise 
and indignation' among the spectators." 

bay— one of them having stalls for the accom- between Craney Island and Norfolk, and the 

niodation of horses. The schooner was not prisoners taken oflf by the steamer Raleigh and 

loaded. carried to the navy-yard about two o'clock and 

The crews of these vessels were made prison- placed in safe keeping;, 
era, with the excei)tien of a portion of the crew The prisoners numbered thirteen in all — 

of one of the brigs, who escaped to Camp Ham- eleven white men and two negroes. The latter, 

ilton by means of their small boats. The ves- as also three of the white men, were from the 

sels were brought up and anchored in the river eastern shore of Virginia. 



THE CONFEDERATE STATES NAVY. 215 

The "sauve quipeuf' was given by the signal-gun of the 
Minnesota when the Virginia made her appearance, and the 
race for safety is thus described by the Herald's Fortress Mon- 
roe correspondent: 

" The large fleet of Union schooner transports which wasancliored in 
the Roads, on seeing the rebel fleet, slipped their moorings, and, favored 
by wind and tide, were soon out of harm's way. Many of those in Hamp- 
ton Cove, restricted by the narrow and serpentine channels, not being able 
to get out of the way by themselves, were assisted by the steam-tugs, of 
which there are a number here. The little Monitor, which has been 
anxiously awaiting the reappearance of the Merrimac, on seeing the 
latter approach, got ready for action by clearing her decks, lowering her 
smoke and steam pipes, slipping her anchor, and in less than ten minutes 
was ready for action. The orders from Flag-oflicer Goldsborough were, 
however, to act strictly on the defensive, and to give battle only when the 
rebel craft should approach a given point." 

Another correspondent adds, that "the events of this morn- 
ing are much commented upon, and have caused a considerable 
feeling of irritation and some humiliation," that "the cap- 
ture was affected almost under the bows of the French and 
English cruisers, and we may be sure that our national pres- 
tige was not increased in their eyes by what they saw." Lieut. 
Greene, in his article in the Century of March, 1885, does not 
mention this bold defiance by the Virginia, but says: " For the 
next two months we lay at Hampton Roads. Twice the Mer- 
rimac came out of the Elizabeth River, hut did not attack.'''' It 
was Tatnall's expectation that the Mo7iitor would come into 
water deep enough to he attacked, and, while he would not 
have declined a duel at long range, he expected the same gal- 
lantry from Lieut. Selfridge that had been shown by Capt. 
Worden, who had advanced to the attack the moment the 
Miiinesota was threatened. But the Monitor now witnessed, 
without an effort to prevent, the capture and carrying off of 
three transports, if not from under its guns, certainly from 
within the range of its artillery. As Lieut. Barney of the 
Jamestown towed his captures,^ with the U. S. flags hoisted 
Union down to taunt their protectors, and induce them to come 
up and endeavor to retake them, and dragged them under 
the stern of the English corvette Rinaldo, Capt. Hewitt, he 
was enthusiastically cheered. 

It was not for the capture of transports that Tatnall 
steamed to Hampton Roads; that capture was made to provoke 
the Monitor into deep water, where his new mode of attack by 
boarding could be attempted. To that end Tatnall had deter- 
mined to surround the Monitor with the Confederate fleet — 
and with their crews divided each into three parties to have 
boarded the Monitor. Numbers one in each vessel were 
charged with covering the ventilators after having thrown 
into them ignited combustibles that would suffocate; numbers 

' Parker's Recollections of a Naval Officer, p. 274. 



21(3 THE CONFEDERATE STATES NAVY. 

two of each party were to wedge the turret; while numbers 
three were to cover the pilot-house and blind the steersman. 
Accurate and secret information had been acquired in regard to 
the Monitor, and while Tatnall was prepared to sacrifice largely 
of his command he felt confident of capturing the Monitor 
if once he could grapple her. And while Lieut. Greene has said 
that the Monitor s commander was prepared for such an at- 
t(}mpt, and that it would have failed, a demonstration of its 
failure in actual conflict was, perhaps, prevented by the Moni- 
tor declining battle. It is due to Lieut. Greene to quote his 
reason for not accepting the challenge : " We, on our side, had 
received positive orders not to attack in the comparatively 
shoal waters above Hampton Roads, where the Union fleet 
could not manoeuvre." The reason of the order might have 
applied to the Virginia with her draft of twenty-three feet, but 
did not apply to the Monitor with a draft of twelve feet. More- 
over, before the Virginia had been felt, the Monitor accepted 
battle in the same "comparatively shoal waters," why then 
was it ordered to decline fight in the same waters ? The reason 
for the restraining order is to be found in the stubborn fact, 
tliat, notwithstanding all the clamor of victory for the Moni- 
tor, the Virginia was believed at Washington to have received 
no material injury, and while her defective machinery was not 
known, the authorities at the Federal capital did not repose 
confidence in the ability of the Monitor to prevent the advent of 
the Confederate ram at Washington. Secretary Welles re- 
lated what took place at a Cabinet meeting called after the fight 
in Hampton Roads, at which he reports Mr. Stanton as saying: 

" 'The Merrimac will chanp^e the whole character of the war; she will 
destroy, seriatim, every naval vessel; she will hxy all cities on the sea-board 
under contribution. I shall immediately recall Burnside ; Port Royal 
must be abandoned. 1 will notify the governors and municipal authori- 
ties in the North to take instant measures to protect their harbors.' He 
had no doubt, he said, that the Merrimac was at this moment on her way 
to Washington ; and looking out of the window, which commanded a view 
of the Potomac for many miles, 'not unlikely we shall have a shell or 
cannon ball from one of her guns in the White House before we leave this 
room.' Mr. Seward, usually buoyant and self-reliant, overwhelmed with 
the intelligence, listened in responsive sympathy to Stanton, and was 
greatly depressed, as, indeed, were all the members." 

Evidently the Cabinet of Mr. Lincoln did not believe the 
Virginia had been defeated by the Monitor, and they there- 
fore positively ordered the Monitor to remain in shoal waters, 
and to avoid another fight. It was owing to the apprehensions 
of the Cabinet at Washington, and not the prudence of Lieut. 
J offers, that " the capture of these vessels almost within gun- 
shot of the Monitor did not effect her movements," as Tatnall 
reported on April 12th, when he " moored the Virginia to tiie 
buoy off Sewell's Point in sight of the enemy's ships." 

Notwithstanding Tatnall knew that the Monitor in Hamp- 
ton Roads was the superior ship, and possessed great advantages 







CAPTAIN JOSIAII TATNALL 

CONFEDERATE STATES NAVY. 



THE CONFEDERATE STATES NAVY. • 217 

over the Virginia, he boldly invited another trial, and was 
greatly disappointed when the invitation was declined. On 
the 21st of April he advised the Navy Department, that 
"the enemy's vessels of light draft can go from Fortress 
Monroe to Newport News, a distance of but six miles, with 
impmiity." At that writing he had sent into James River, by 
the enemy's batteries at Newport News, the Patrick Henry, the 
Jamestown, Raleigh, Beaufort and Teaser, and was alone in 
Hampton Roads. The chart of the Roads shows that nine to 
ten feet of water can be carried near the land, and inside 
Hampton Bar, from Fortress Monroe to Newport News, and 
by tliat route the enemy's gunboats and liglit-draft vessels 
could pass into James River, and that consequently the navi- 
gation of James River by the light - draft vessels of the 
enemy could not be prevented by the Virginia unless that 
vessel was permanently placed at the moutii of James River. 
In such a position Norfolk was open to the Monitor; for, if Tat- 
nall was ready when ordered to run between Fortress Monroe 
and the Rip -raps with the Virginia, he felt that the batteries 
at Craney Island and Se well's Point could not protect Norfolk 
from the Monitor. 

As it vvas, the Virginia was mistress of Hampton Roads^ 
for he said, '' the enemy's great fleet of w^ar-vessels and trans- 
ports, with a few exceptions of small transports, is not in 
Hampton Roads, but in Chesapeake Bay, below the forts, so that 
to reach them I must pass the forts.'' Why the Virginia did 
not pass the forts into the Chesapeake Bay is explained in the 
same dispatch, because that movement involved the abandon- 
ment of Norfolk, and the risk of losing the ship by attempting 
the passage without the means of closing her ports, and also 
because, " I have the best authority (a French officer of rank) 
that obstructions of some kind have been placed in the chan- 
nel, probably in the centre, and from thence to the Rip-raps, 
so as to compel me, if made aware of them, to pass close to the 
guns of Fortress Monroe." Thus, the Monitor was not only 
•ordered to stay in shoal water and to avoid a fight, but the 
Virginia was i3arred out of the Chesapeake Bay by obstruc- 
tions between Fortress Monroe and the Rip-raps. 

On the 8tli and 9th of March the C. S. fleet had success- 
fully encountered, defied and beaten a force equal to 2,890 men 
and 230 guns as follows : 

Men. Guns. 

Congress (burnt) . 480 50 

Cumberland (sunk) 360 32 

Minnesota (riddled) 550 40 

Roanoke (scared off) 550 40 

St. Lawrence (peppered) 480 50 

Grunboats (two or three disabled) ■ .... 120 6 

Forts (silenced) 200 20 

Ericsson . . 150 2 

Total 2,890 230 



218 THE CONFEDERATE- STATES NAVY. 

From the 11th of March to the 11th of April, the morale 
of her victory kept the enemy close under the guns of For- 
tress Monroe, even while the Virginia lie in the dock at the 
navy-yard undergoing repairs. From the 11th of April to the 
11th of May, she steamed over the waters of Hampton Roads, 
capturing transports, defying the enemy, and not one of them 
dare dispute the supremacy she had conquered. 

Upon these facts Admiral Porter' attempts to throw doubt. 
The following account of the affair of the 8th of May is copied 
in his History: 

"On the 8th of May, the Merrimac again appeared, and found the 
Monitor, Galena and Naiigatuok, and a number of heavy ships, shelUng 
the works at Sewell's Point ; but on the appearance of the iron-clad they 
all returned below Fortress Monroe. Tatnall stood direct for the Moni- 
tor, which reti-eated with the other vessels, the Merrimac and consorts 
following close down to the Rip-raps, where shot passed over the ship and 
a mile beyond. Tatnall remained for some hours in the Roads, until finally, 
in disgust, he gave an order to Lieut. Jones to fire a gun to windward aiid 
take the ship back to her buoy." 

This, Admiral Porter says, is a "Confederate" account, 
which he finds does not agree with the following extract from 
Admiral Goldsborough's report: 

" By direction of the President, our vessels shelled Sewells Point, yes- 
terday, mainly with a view to see the practicability of landing a body of 
troops thereabouts. The Merrimac came out, but was even more cautious 
than ever. The Monitor was kept well in advance, and so that the 3Ier- 
rimac could have engaged her without difficulty had she been so disposed; 
but she declined to do so, and soon returned and anchored at Sewell's 
Point." 

Admiral Porter admits that the capture of the trans- 
ports " was a humiliation and should not have been suffered, 
but prevented at all hazards." According to either of the 
above accounts of the affair of the 8th. an opportunity to 
wipe out that '" humiliation" was offered by the Vii-ginia and 
declined by the Monitor; and when Admiral Goldsborough's 
report is read with the remark of Lieut. Greene, that the officer 
commanding the Monitor, "that he had received positive 
orders not to attack;" the " Confederate account" has more of 
the appearance of truth than that from Admiral Goldsborougli. 
Lieut. Commander Wm. Harwar Parker, an officer in the 
Confederate fleet, sustains the " Confederate account."'^ 

" On the 8th of May," he says, " only two days before we 
evacuated Norfolk, while the Men^imac was at the navy-yard. 
Flag-officer Goldsborougli took advantage of her absence to 
come above Old Point with the Monitor and a number of other 
vessels, and bombard Sewell's Point. When the news was 
telegraphed to Norfolk the Merrimac cast off her fasts and 
steamed down the harbor. As soon as her smoke was seen, the 
entire Federal fleet fled below Old Point again, and was 

1 Naval History of the Civil War, p. 132. ^ Recollections of a Naval Officer, p. 276. 



THE CONFEDERATE STATES NAVY. 219 

pursued by the Merrimac until under the guns of Fortress 
Monroe. There is no doubt about the fact of this." If 
Admiral Porter really sought for something '• on record" to 
substantiate the " Confederate account," he overlooked the 
"Recollections of a Naval Officer," by Lieut. W. H. Parker, 
where will be found, on page 277, a refutation of the very ex- 
tract from Admiral Goldsborough. Lieut. Wood contirtns 
this statement in every particular given above of the defi- 
ance, on the 8th of May, by the Virginia, and the retreat of 
the U. S. squadron. 

The New York Heral(Ts Fortress Monroe correspondent, 
under date of May 8th, describes the movement against 
Sewell's Point, by the Naugatuck (the Stevens' Battery), the 
Monitor, the Dacotah, the frigate San Jacinto, gunboat Semi- 
nole, and the Minnesota, and the cannonade from 12 to 3 P. M., 
when 

"A dense smoke was seen in the dii'ection of Norfolk, and in a few 
minutes the rebel battery Merrimac hove in siffht. The flag-officer there- 
upon signalized our vessels to withdraw, which command was obeyed, 
and our vessels, in returning, gave the rebel works parting salutes with 
their iron hai I. The Monitor, with the others, took up the i-etrograde move- 
ment, the evident intention being, no doubt, to coax the Merrimac into 
deep water, where a fair fight might be had. The Men imae came steam- 
ing down the Elizabeth River very rapidly, the black smoke coming out 
of her pipe, showing they were using tar or some other combustible ma- 
terial in their boiler fui-naces to accelerate her speed. At ten minutes 
past three the flag-ship Minnesota, and by twenty minutes past three the 
Merrimac, had attained a position at a point about two miles west of 
Sewell's Point, covering the rebel works there. Our wooden vessels had 
then reached a point within two miles of the fort. The Monitor remained 
at a point about a mile astern of her consorts, and within a mile of her 
adversary. The 3Iei-rimac suddenly stopped, it being apparent that she 
was merely acting on the defensive. She turned around and got her bow 
headed for Norfolk, and, subsequently, backed down half a mile ; the 
Monitor all this time remained stationary, and, although the vessels were 
within easy range, not a shot was exchanged at her, the apparent design of 
the commanders of the opposing vessels being not to fire, except at close 
quarters. At forty-flve minutes past three, the Merrimac started in the 
direction of Norfolk, closely followed by the 3Ionitor, the >S'«?i Jacinto, 
and the other vessels of the fleet, who appeared determined to have 
another dash at the rebel works. Shortly after four o'clock, the Mer7'i- 
mac stopped off the north end of Craney Island ; our vessels also stopped, 
the antagonists eyeing each other with the deepest interest. By this 
time the Arago, Vanderbilt and Illinois, which were to take a part in any 
subsequent action should the rebel craft give them a chance, came steam- 
ing up the Roads until they reached a point between the Rip-raps and 
the fortress ; here they were signalized by the flag-officer to return, as the 
Merrimac was not likely to leave her cover under Craney Island. The flag- 
ship Minnesota also wore around and returned to her anchorage. The re- 
sult of the engagement so far was practically nil, as the rebel batteries 
replied with more celerity when our vessels retired than they did at the 
first of the engagement. All our vessels came out of the fight unscathed, 
and not a man on our side was hurt. At 5:30 P. M., the Monitor and all 
the vessels returned to their anchorage." 

Is there not abundant " record" evidence in all these pub- 
lished accounts to establish the fact that the Monitor retired 



220 THE CONFEDERATE STATES NAVY. 

before the Virginia on the 8th of May, 1862? Finally, Flag"- 
officer Tatnall's official letter of May 14th confirms the truth 
of the *' Confederate account" in every particular, as follows : 

" We found six of the enemy's vessels, including the iron-clad steam- 
ers 3Io7iitor and If'a ii gattick, sheWing the battery (Sewell's Point). We 
passed the battery and stood directly for the enemy for the purpose of en- 
gaging him, and I thought an action certain, particularly as the Min- 
nesota and Vanderbilt, which were anchoi-ed below Fortress Monroe, got 
underway and stood up to that point, apparently with the intention of 
joining their squadron in the Roads. Before, however, we got within gun- 
shot the enemy ceased firing and retired with all speed under the protec- 
tion of the guns of the fortress, followed by the Virginia^ until the shells 
from the Rip-raps passed over her.'' 

And Lieut. Parker (W. H.) says: '' A little after sunset, 
as she (the Virginia) was slowly turning in the channel for 
the last time that day, she fired a single shot in the direction 
of Fortress Monroe. It was promptly replied to by the Nau- 
gatuck. I have reason to recollect this shot from the Nauga- 
tuck, for it was the first from the long-range guns I had seen. 
I was talking to Hunter Davidson, who was near me on the 
vessel, when we heard the whistling of this shot, which drop- 
ped in the water between us. Much surprised, I sent for my 
chart and found the distance to be 3| miles. Long-range guns, 
were then just coming into use, and caused Bill Arp afterwards 
to exclaim: ' Blamed if they wasn't shooting at me before I 
knew they were in the country.'" Flag-officer Goldsborough, 
in a dispatch dated 9th May, gives the following reason for the 
Monitor retiring on the day before, when the Virginia offered 
battle. He says: 

" The Monitor had orders to fall back into fair channel-way, and 
only to engage her seriously, in such a position, that this ship, together 
with the merchant vessels intended for the purpose, could run her down, 
if an opportunity presented itself. The other vessels were not to hesitate 
to run her down, and the Baltimore, an unarmed steamer of light draft, 
high speed, and with a curved bow, was kept in the direction of the Moni- 
tor expressly to throw herself across the Merrimac, either forward or aft 
of her plated house ; but the Merrimac did not engage the Monitor, nor 
did she place herself where she could have been assailed by our ram ves- 
sels to any advantage, or where there was any prospect whatever of get- 
ting at her." 

In other words, the Virginia, though offering battle to 
the Monitor, did not offer the other vessels, namely, the Nau- 
gatiick, Minnesota, Vanderbilt, and three others, together with 
the Baltimore, "with a curved bow," the opportunity to run her 
down. The Monitor, dry-nursed by a whole fieet of Federal 
ships, so as not to be '" too much exposed,"' as President Lincoln 
directed, and falling back into a fair channel-way to escape 
the Virginia, is argued to have won a victory by the Senate 
Committee in the following extract: 

" Thus it conclusively appears that the Monitor remained constantly 
ready to confront her powerful antagonist had the latter been disposed 



THE CONFEDERATE STATES NAVY: 221 

for the conflict. But her injuries were too severe, and the chastisement 
she had received at the hands of the little iron raft too fresh in the minds 
of her masters, to induce a repetition of the encounter of the 9th of 
March ; and, notwithstanding tlie fact that the gallant and skillful Wor- 
den was then on a bed of pain, far from the battle-ground, helpless and 
disabled from the honorable wounds received by him in the engagement, 
and no longer directed her movements, it appears that the llenimac tooK 
good care to keep out of the range of the Monitor's guns by whomsoever 
they might have been directed." 

The forty -five days of glorious, gallant defiance of the 
whole Federal fleet at Fortress Monroe by Flag-officer Tat- 
nall in the Virginia were drawing to a close. Thirteen of those 
days the Virginia had passed in the dry dock, but on every one 
of the other thirty-two days she had carried her colors in open 
defiance of the largest and best-appointed fleet that ever bore 
the flag of the United States. The punishment she inflicted 
cannot be concealed, but the defiance she offered has been 
misrepresented and misstated, and the terror she excited is a 
matter of history. But her days were drawing to a close. 
Confederate military exigency on land, not the Federal naval 
supremacy in Hampton Roads, was the cause of her destruction. 
Without Norfolk in which to coal and repair, the Virginia could 
not maintain herself a week in the Roads; with Norfolk open to 
her, she had successfully defied and defeated all the naval power 
ofthe Federal Union. But when the military authorities, whether 
wisely or unwisely, abandoned and evacuated Norfolk, there 
was nothing else for Tatnall to do but to destroy the Virginia, 
and prevent her falling into the hands of the Federal forces. 

Whatever criticism may be passed upon the haste, as well 
as the necessity, for evacuating Norfolk, none whatever can be 
made upon Flag-officer Tatnall's action in regard to the Virginia. 

The destruction of the Virginia on the 11th of May, 18(J2, 
was the most distressing occurrence of the war up to that time. ' 
The people, ignorant of her defects, but having witnessed her. 
prowess, and gone wild over her triumphs, believed her capable, 
not only of whipping any enemy, but of steaming in any waters. 
Restless under seeing the ship in Hampton Roads, they urged 
through the press, " on to Yorktown," "on to Washington," "on 
CO New York." When, therefore, the news flashed over the 
country that the gallant vessel, which had done so much, and of 
which so much more was expected, had been destroyed, the 
public indignation knew no bounds, the wildest clamor broke 
forth, and the manifestations of public dissatisfaction were so 
great and outspoken, that Flag-officer Tatnall asked, in the 
following letter to Secretary Mallory, that a Court of Inquiry 
might investigate the cause of the destruction of the Virginia: 

" Richmond, May 14th, 1862. 
"Sir— In detailing to you the circumstances which caused the de- 
struction of the C. S. steamer Virginia, and her movements a few days 

1 On May 11th Gen. McClellan telegraphed to the bottom of my heart upon the destruction of 
Secretary Stanton; "I congratulate you from - the Mfi-ri mac." 



232 THE CONFEDERATE STATES NAVY. 

previous to that event, I betrin with vonv telejiraphic despatches to me of 
the 4th and 5th insts., directing me to take such a position in the James 
River as would entirely prevent the enemy's ascending it. 

" Gen. Huger, commanding at Norfolk, on learning that I had re- 
ceived this order, called on me and declared that its execution would 
oblige him to abandon iunnediately his forts on Craney Island and Sew- 
elTs Point, and their guns, to the enemy. I informed him that, as the 
order was imperative, I must execute it, but suggested that he should 
telegraph you and state the consequences. He did so, and on the 5th 
inst. you telegraphed me to endeavor to afford protection to Norfolk as 
well ;'is the James River, wdiich replaced me in my original position. I 
then a rranged with the General that he should notify me when his prepara- 
tions for the evacuation of Norfolk were sufficiently advanced to enable 
him to act independently. 

"On the 7th inst.. Commodore Hollins reached Norfolk with orders 
from you to consult with me and such officers as I might select in regard 
to the best disposition to be made of the Virginia under the present as- 
pect of things. 

"We had arranged the conference for the next day, the 8th ; but on 
that day, before the hour appointed, the enemy attacked the Sewell's 
Point battery, and I left immediately with the Virginia to defend it. 

" We found six of the enemy's vessels, including the iron-clad steam- 
ers BlonUor and Naugatuck, shelling the battery. We passed the battery, 
and stood directly for the enemy for the purpose of engaging him, and I 
thougiit an action certain, particularly as the Minnesota und Vanderbi It. 
which were anchored below Fortress Monroe, got underway, and stood up 
to that point, apparently with the intention of joining their squadron in 
the Roads. Before, however, we got within gunshot, the enemy ceased 
firing, and retired with all speed, under the protection of the guns of the 
fortress, followed by the Virginia, until the shells from the Rip-raps 
passed over her. 

"The Virginia was then placed at her moorings near Sew'ells Point, 
and I returned to Norfolk to hold the conference referred to. 

"It was held on the 9th, and the officers present were Col. Anderson 
and Capt. , of the army, selected by Gen. Huger, who was too un- 
well to attend himself, and of the navy, myself, Commodore Hollins, and 
Capts. Sterrett and Lee, Commander Richard L. Jones, and Lieuts. Ap. 
Catesby Jones and J. Pembroke Jones. 

" The opinion was unanimous that the Virginia was then employed 
to the best advantage, and that she should continue for the present to 
protect Norfolk, and thus afford time to remove the public property. 

"On the next day, at 10 A. M., we observed from the Virginia that 
the flag was not flying on the Seweirs Point battery, and that it appeared 
to have been abandoned. I dispatched Lieutenant J. P. Jones, the Flag 
Lieutenant, to Craney Island, where the Confederate flag was still flying, 
and he there learned that a large force of the enemy had landed on the 
Bay shore, and were rapidly marching on Norfolk, that the Sewell's 
Point battery was abandoned, and our troops w^ere retreating. I then 
dispatched the same officer to Norfolk, to confer with Gen. Huger and 
Capt. Lee. He found the navy -yard in flames, and that all the officers had 
left by railroad. On reaching Norfolk, he found that Gen. Huger and all 
the officers of the army had also left ; that the enemy were within half a 
mile of the city, and that the mayor Was treating for its surrender. 

"On returning to the ship, he found that Craney Island and all the 
other batteries on the river had been abandoned. 

"It was now seven o'clock in the evening, and this unexpected confirma- 
tion rendered prompt measures necessary for the safety of the Virginia. 

"The pilots had assured me that they could take the ship, with a 
draft of eighteen feet, to within forty miles of Richmond. 

"This, the chief pilot, Mr. Pari-ish, and his chief assistant, Mr. 
Wright, had asserted again and again ; and on the afternoon of the 7th, 



THE CONFEDERATE STATES NAVY. :;i23 

in my cabin, in the presence of Commodore Hollins and Capt. Sterrett, in 
reply to a question of mine, they both emphatically declared their ability 
to do so. 

"Confiding^ in these assurances, and, after consulting with the first 
and flag lieutenants, and learning that officers generally thought it the 
most judicious course, I determined to lighten the ship at once, and run 
up the river for the protection of Richmond. 

"All hands having been called on deck, I stated to them the condition of 
things, and my hope that by getting up the river before the enemy could 
be made aware of our designs, we might capture his vessels which had 
ascended it, and render efficient aid in the defence of Richmond ; but that 
to effect this would require all their energy in lightening the ship. They 
replied with three cheers, and went to work at once. The pilots were on 
deck and heard this address to the crew. 

" Being quite unwell I had retired to bed. Between one and two 
o'clock in the morning the first lieutenant reported to me that, after the 
crew had worked for five or six hours and lifted the ship so as to render 
her unfit for action, the pilots had declared their inability to carry eigh- 
teen feet above the Jamestown Flats, up to which point the shore, on 
each side, was occupied by the enemy. 

" On demanding from the chief pilot, Mr. Parrish, an explanation of 
this palpable deception, he rei)lied, that eighteen feet could be carried 
after the prevalence of easterly winds, and that the winds for the last two 
days had been westerly. 

" I had no time to lose. The ship was not in a condition for battle, 
even with an enemy of equal force, and their force was overwhelming. I 
therefore determined, with the concurrence of the first and flag lieuten- 
ants, to save the crew for future service by landing them at Craney Island, 
the only road for retreat open to us, and to destroy the ship to prevent 
her falling into the hands of the enemy. I may add that, a^lthough not 
formally consulted, the course was approved by every commissioned offi- 
cer in tiie ship. There was no dissenting opinion. The ship was accord- 
ingly put on shore as near the mainland, in the vicinity of Craney Isl ind, 
as possible, and the crew landed. She was then fired, and after bur ling 
fiercely fore and aft for upwards of an hour blew up a little befoi'e five on 
the morning of the 11th. 

"We miarched for Suffolk, twenty-two miles, and reached it in the 
evening, and from thence came by railroad to this city. 

*' It will be asked what motives the pilots could have had to deceive 
me. The only imaginable one is that they wished to avoid going into 
battle. 

" Had the ship not been lifted, so as to render her unfit for action, a 
desperate contest must have ensued with a force against us too grt at to jus- 
tify much hope of success, and, as battle is not their occupation, they 
adopted this deceitful course to avoid it. I cannot imagine another 
motive, for I had seen no reason to mistrust their good faith to the Con- 
fedei-acy. 

" My acknowledgments are due to the First Lieut. Ap. Catesby .Tones, 
for his untiring exertions, and for the aid he rendered me in all things. 
The details, firing for the ship and landing the crew, were left to liim, and 
everything was conducted in the most perfect order. 

" To the other officers of the ship, generally, I am thankful for the 
great zeal they displayed throughout. 

" The Virginia no longer exists, but 300 brave and skillful officers and 
seamen are saved to the Confederacy. 

" I presume that a Court of Inquiry will be ordered to examine into 
all the circumstances I have narrated, and I earnestly solicit it. Public 
opinion will never be put right without it. I am, sir, with great respect, 
your o))edient servant, "Josiah Tatistall, 

" Flag-officer Commanding. 
"Hon. S. R. Mallort, Secretary of the Navy " 



224 THE CONFEDERATE STATES NAVY. 

The request for a Court of Inquiry was promptly com- 
plied with, and the members detailed, and, strangely enough, 
was composed of three officers who had been applicants for 
the command of the Virginia, and to whom Tatnall had been 
preferred by tlie department. The officers cf the Court of In- 
quiry were Flag-officers Forrest, Ingraham and Capt. Lynch. 
The special matter before them was, " to investigate and in- 
quii-e into the destruction of the steamer Virginia, express an 
opinion as to the necessity of destroying her, and state par- . 
ticularly whether any and what disposition couTd have been 
made of that vessel." 

The Court of Inquiry found, in its opinion, that, first, the 
destruction of the Virginia was unnecessary ; second, that 
the Virginia could, with a little more lessening of draft, have 
been taken up James River to Hog Island, and there she 
would have prevented the larger vessels of the enemy and the 
transports from ascending ; and there, tlie court was of 
opinion, she could have been supplied, and then could have 
been taken into consideration the expediency or practicability 
of striking a last blow at the enemy or destroying her. The 
conclusions of the Court of Inquiry, while not in terms con- 
demnatory of Flag-officer Tatnall, were so to all intents and 
purposes, and excited marked astonishment throughout all 
military and naval circles, as well as among the intelligent 
portion of the people. Nevertheless, a portion of the press con- 
tinued to assail the gallant Tatnall with epitliet and innuendo, 
until some of the officers of the Virginia entered their protest 
with the Navy Department against the approval of the finding 
of the Court of Inquiry, alleging that, after being lightened 
sufficiently to ascend James River, the Virginia "was com- 
paratively helpless against iron-clad vessels, and would have 
fallen an easy prey to the enemy." and, without discussing the 
points made by the Court of Inquiry, unqualifiedly indorsed 
the action of Flag-officer Tatnall. The whole question arising 
out of the situation and condition of the Virginia was clearly 
and forcibly presented in tlie Richmontl (Va ) Enquirer by an 
officer of the Virginia, and, as far as one so deeply interested 
could be relied on, fully exonerated Flag-officer Tatnall. 

"June 28c1, 1862. 
"Tb the Editors of the Enquirer: 

" Gentlemen— Much, has been said and written about the destruction 
of the Virginia, and the late Court of Inquiry has expressed the opinion 
'that it was unnecessary at the time and place it occurred;' that the ves- 
sel might have been 'taken to Hog Island in James River, and there pre- 
vented the passage of the enemy's gunboats and transports up the river.' 
In all that I have seen and heard against the matter, there has not 
occurred one idea worthy the consideration of an intelligent naval officer; 
and although the times are troubled with weighty matters, requiring the 
public to look to the future and not to the past, I propose to investigate 
the subject before us notv, that it may not fester in the minds of those 
ignorant of naval matters, and become an incurable national sore. There 
are but three conceivable things that could apparently have been done 



THE CONFEDERATE STATES NAVY. 225 

with the Virginia, viz, : to take her a certain distance up James River, to 
remain in Hampton Roads, or to pass Old Point. Before discussing them, 
let me say that the Virginia drew twenty-two feet six inches water, was 
312 feet long, her sides, inclined at a horizontal angle of about thirty-five 
degrees, extended below the surface of the water, and her gun-deck ports 
only five feet above it. First, in order to have taken the vessel to Hog 
Island, she had to be lightened to twenty feet. This draft would have 
brought her inclined armor above the water, and left about two-fifths of 
her perpendicular sides aft covered only by one inch of iron for two feet 
in depth, exposing her magazine to every well-depressed shot at close 
quarters, and her after ' stern post,' which, if broken, would have destroyed 
her propeller and rudder. 

" The best position of Hog Island, which the Virginia could have 
taken, is thirty-five miles above Newport News, and the shoalest water 
occurs about four miles above Newport News, where the river is nearly 
six miles wide. Had the vessel got aground here, which is highly proba- 
ble, as her helm had no command of her when her keel was near the bot- 
tom, she would, at low tide, have been an easy prey to any of the enemy's 
vessels. Being very sharp under water, with a deep keel, she would have 
keeled over, exposing her naked sides, and rendering her battery useless. 
But suppose she got to Hog Island safely, where the narrowest part of 
the river is about two miles wide. The Qalena (iron-clad), the Aroostook, 
and Port Royal, all armed with heavy eleven-inch guns, had gone up the 
river two days before the evacuation of Norfolk. The Monitor and iVaw- 
gatuck (iron-clad) could have passed a half-mile from the Virginia in per- 
fect safety; and these vessels are exactly those, and no others, that made 
the attack at Drury's Bluff. They could have remained in the river, 
received their ammunition and provisions from Gen. McClellan, and theu* 
water anywhere. What 'gunboats,' then, would the Virginia have 
'prevented from going up James River'? 

" Gen. McClellan has been supplied by way of the York River. There 
was no reason why any transports should go up James River; and to 
this day, six weeks having elapsed, we have no reliable information 
that one of the enemy' s transports has come up the river! Then what 
' transports ' would the Virginia have ' prevented from going up James 
River '? If she could not have done either of these things, as, in the opin- 
ion of the Court of Inquiry she should have done, what use was she at 
Hog Island ? It must be seen that a vessel of the importance of the Vir- 
ginia would have been surrounded by the enemy's pickets, night and 
day; therefore she could never have obtained water or supplies of any 
kind. To have attempted her destruction at Hog Island would have 
been, as at any other place but the one where she was destroyed, to give 
her to the enemy, because she had about 340 souls on board, and but two 
small boats, each capable of holding about twenty people; and is it to be 
supposed that the enemy were so foolish as to permit more than one 
landing to be made without exacting a pledge that the vessel should not 
be destroyed ? Oh, no ! The Virginia had no means of making rafts 
while she could fight her guns. Hence the Court of Inquiry expected 
300 men to stand on her decks, see the match touched to the magazine, 
and be blown into eternity, or jump overboard and be washed into it, as 
only one out of about forty could swim, the crew having been transferred 
■ from the army, with very few seamen among them. 

'' Secondly. To remain in Hampton Roads would have been to do 
nothing,but finally surrender the vessel to the enemy. She couldhave incon- 
venienced them by stopping their water communication with Norfolk, but 
Suffolk and ' Ocean View ' beach would have been sufficient landings for 
them. There was nothing in the Roads to fight, unless they played Don 
Quixote and charged Old Point with about as much effect as he did the 
windmills, occasionally feeling a slight reaction from the Lincoln gun 
480-lb. shot. Now, if she could not blockade James River at Hog Island, 
she could not do it at the mouth, where it is five miles wide. But we have 

15 



3^0 THE CONFEDERATE STATES NAVY. 

seen that the Virginia had inclined sides, with her g,un-deck ports only 
five feet above the water, hence, whenever the wind blew fresh it raised a 
sea that washed into the ship and would soon have sunk her ; for a ves- 
sel of that build, with her greatest bearings below the surface of the 
water, will go down very rapidly. Now this might have occurred any 
night when too dark to see where to go. On one occasion the ship had to 
return to Norfolk when off Craney Island because there was too much sea 
in the Roads. 

" Thirdly. The Virginia could only have passed Old Point and gone to 
York River, or any of the Chesapeake's tributaries, in the smoothest 
weather. If she got to York River she could have done nothing still; for, 
many hours before her arrival there, the enemy's vessels would have known 
it from Old Point, and gone into tlie numerous bends and creeks where 
the Virginia could never have reached them. She could not have laid 
in the narrow channel between Gloucester Point and Yorktown and block- 
aded the river, for, if not sunk by the sea in a few days, she would have 
been by the enemy's heavy, long, big rifle bolts from the heights above, 
without being able to elevate her guns and return the fire. As to going 
up Chesapeake Bay, or following the enemy's vessels, that would have 
been madness. The ship was not seaworthy. What vessel would have 
stopped and fought her under favorable circumstances ? Will the Court 
of Inquiry teU us where that ' final blow ' could have been ' struck at the 
enemy'? 

"Now, Messrs. Editors, the Examiner of this morning, speaking of 
the Court of Inquiry, gives vent to some very unkind remarks regarding 
the officers of the Virginia. It should have recollected that the opinion 
of a Court of Inquiry is not a final decision; but that, when the exigencies- 
of the service will permit it, a court-martial has to take up the case. 

" The latter court may be composed of thirteen members, the former 
of three, and until the 'finding' of the court-martial is promulgated, 
would it not be proper for those interested to take an intelligent view of 
the facts in the matter, and not be blindly pricked into a position from 
which they will be ashamed, perhaps, to recede ? 

" There was no panic, precipitation, or even haste in the destruction 
of the Virginia; no step was ever taken with more deliberation and cool- 
ness. How nonsensical to suppose that the officers who had served their 
country a life-time, and the brave crew who had stood by the old ship 
since her first conception, through all the fatiguing delays to her comple- 
tion, when many doubted her success, and who fought the battle of New- 
port News, and thrice since had seen the enemy's vessels fly before them, 
should have been panic-stricken by hearing that the enemy had sur- 
rounded them on shore ! What harm could have been done the ship from 
the shore ? None, except to prevent landing. No, it is hardly sensible to 
suppose that the officers were afraid of the enemy, but they were afraid 
of his getting the ship, or to the certainty of having to destroy their own 
lives to prevent it, which the country hardly expected of them under the 
circumstances. 

"I think it is clearly shown by the foregoing facts, that, had any 
other disposal been made of the ship, she would finally have fallen into 
the enemy's hands without having done our cause any service before- 
hand. Her great draft of water, extreme length, unwieldiness, and unsea- 
worthiness, rendered her the most difficult of vessels to manage. She 
was of no service but in deep, smooth water. Deep water is constantly 
rough; if not, it must be too narrow for the Virginia to have worked in 
She was intended only for the defence of Norfolk harbor ; but, after 
fighting the battle of Newport News, the pubhc mind magnified her to a 
power which it was supposed could lay the Northern ports under contribu- 
tion. The officers were not called upon to disabuse them of this highly 
flattering idea, until now, in their own defence. But, because they have 
to do it as a defence, an intelligent reader will not believe they were fairly 
arraigned for trial, I have been writing this article under the supposition 



THE CONFEDERATE STATES NAVY, 227 

that the officers were responsible for the destruction of the vessel, be- 
cause the Court of Inquiry has committed an act of supererogation in 
thus charging them. But the Virginia had a flag-officer in command, 
and a braver, truer man never trod under his country's flag. His 
feeble health has not, in the slightest degree. Impaired his judgment, 
and every step he took in command of that ship proved the fact. He 
it was whom the Court of Inquiry had to deal with. They had only 
to state whether the act was necessary or not, and the facts lead- 
ing to it, and the commander was responsible. Who ever thinks of 
investigating a defeat or a retreat, and charging the officers with 
their opinions or advice asked by the general commanding ? A man 
in any responsible position is expected to inform himself before taking 
any step, but no one asks or cares where he got his information. He 
is put there to judge. You might as well hold the lawyers responsible 
for the 'decision of a jury,' a court, or judges. They deliver the ver- 
dict, and it is executed. The captain gives the order, and the ship is 
destroyed. 

"Now, I deny that there is one single word in all the evidence before 
the Court of Inquiry to show that the officers were panic-stricken, or that 
they were actuated by any other sense than a clear, deliberate under- 
standing of the awful necessity of the occasion. They were perfectly 
aware how high the ship was held in the public estimation, and of the 
outburst of indignation that would meet her unexpected destruction, be- 
cause the public may be very good judges of military matters ; but it re- 
quires a life-time to become a seaman and a judge of nautical affairs. 
Never was a commander forced by his own country into a more painful 
position ; but, with a high moral courage worthy of the man, he coolly 
and calmly gave the order to destroy his ship. It took nearly four hours 
to accomplish it, proving there was no panic or precipitancy. The small 
arms and sufficient ammunition were all saved ; the men were formed in 
military order, and marched to Suffolk, twenty two miles, after ten hours 
of the most arduous labor, and made a narrow escape from capture by 
the enemy, who, it was expected, would cut them off as they passed near 
Portsmouth. 

"For myself I am not only satisfied that the destruction of the Vir 
ginia ivas necessary, 'at the time and place it occurred,' but I assert that 
her destruction at the time saved the city of Richmond. Moral effect is 
a much more active agent in our affairs than the people ai*e yet accus- 
tomed to recognize, and it is now generally conceded that the victory of 
Manassas has done us more harm than good. The Southern people are 
high-spirited and determined when aroused, but they are fond of ease 
and pleasure, and wiU seek them whenever to be found. Hence, after 
victory come demoralization and a 'laying back ' upon our laurels, whilst 
the wary foe, nerved to madness, prepares for revenge. The people had 
trusted that the existence of the Virginia insured our blockade of James 
River ; and although the gallant and energetic officers of the Patrick 
Henry and Jamestown were working hard at Drury's Bluff, yet the 
means at their command were insufficient to render the position impass- 
able by the time the enemy's gunboats could have come up. Suddenly it 
bursts upon the public ear, ' TliQVirgiiiia is destroyed !' Then came 'hot 
haste,' and munitions of war and things that could assist the barricade 
were hurried night and day to the Bluff. The officers and crew of the 
Virginia having pushed through to Richmond; traveling unceasingly, 
worn out, and broken down, were sent immediately down ; and ankle deep 
in mud, exposed to unceasing rain for three days, without provisions or a 
change of clothing, they assisted, day and night, in mounting heavy 
guns and placing obstructions to the enemy's passage of the river. Tlie 
last gun was not quite ready for action when the burst of the enemy's 
shell over their heads told that the strife was at hand. It did come, and 
how gallantly the little navy maintained its reputation on that day the 
good citizens of Richmond may be willing to acknowledge ; and perhaps 



228 THE CONFEDERATE STATES NAVY. 

they may soinetimes think that some of these men were not 'panic-stricken' 
■when they destroyed the Virginia. 

"In conclusion, Messrs. Editors, I say that the destruction of the 
Virginia required the exercise of a moral courage which will outlive the 
late Court of Inquiry and the inconsiderate editorials of the press. I am 
proud to have been one of her crew from beginning to end, but the 
proudest moments, in connection with her, were those in which I saw the 
flames burst from her hatches, and felt that the enemy's tread would 
never pollute her decks. Ray." 

As soon as the finding of the Court of Inquiry was made 
known, Flag-officer Tatnall demanded a court-martial, which 
was immediately ordered, and convened on the 5th of July, 
1862, and was composed of the following officers: 

Captains: Lawrence Rousseau, Franklin Buchanan, Sidney S. Lee 
and George N. Hollins; Commanders: Robert G. Robb, Murray Mason, 
Eben Farrand, A. B. Fairfax, M. F. Maury and George Minor; Lieuten- 
ants: W. L. Maury and Robert B. Pegram; Judge Advocate: Robert Ould. 

The defence of Flag-officer Tatnall, read before the court, 
is the true and circumstantial history of the cause and man- 
ner of the destruction of the Virginia. 

'"''Mr. President and Gentlemen : 

"After serving fifty years with unblemished reputation, you may well 
imagine the concern I feel at being arraigned before you on charges 
affecting my judgment and conduct in the face of the enemy. 

" It is known to the court that this trial grew out of the finding of a 
Court of Inquiry convened to inquire into the facts attending the destruc- 
tion of the steamer Virginia whilst under my command in Hampton 
Roads 'on the 11th of May last,' with instructions to report their opinion 
as to the necessity of destroying her, and particularly * whether any and 
what other disposition could have been made of the vessel;' and that the 
Court of Inquiry, upon the evidence of much the same witnesses that you 
have heard, reported that she ought not to have been destroyed at the 
time and place she was. That I, having been instructed (Norfolk being 
evacuated) to prevent the enemy from ascending the James River, the 
ship, with very little more, if any, lightening of draft, with her iron sheath- 
ing still extending three feet under water, could have been taken up to 
Hog Island, in James River (whei'e the channel is narrow); could there 
have prevented the larger transports and vessels of the enemy from as- 
cending ; and that such disposition should have been made of her ; and if 
it should be ascertained that her provisions could not be replenished 
when those on board were exhausted, then the proper time would have 
arrived to take into consideration the expediency or practicability of 
striking a last blow at the enemy, or destroying her. 

"The substance of the finding of the Court of Inquiry, so far, may 
probably be embraced in the first charge and specification of ' culpably ' 
destroying the ship in Hampton Roads, ' when, with the draft to which 
she had been, or might have been reduced, she could have been carried 
up James River to a place of usefulness, free from immediate danger.' 

"But there is a further part of the finding of the Court of Inquiry 
(and the most injurious of all to myself), which is not, as it seems, clearly, 
although such is avowed by the Judge Advocate to have been his inten- 
tions, embraced in the charge before the court. I have applied to the 
Secretary of the Navy to have it made the subject of specific charge, but 
was informed by that officer that he had referred the matter to the Judge 
Advocate, who expresses the opinion that it is substantially so embraced. 
In that point of view I may refer to it. It is as follows : ' In conclusion, 



THE CONFEDERATE STATES NAVY. 229 

the court are of the opinion that the evacuation of Norfolk, the destruc- 
tion of the navy -yard and other pubUc property, added to the hasty re- 
treat of the military under Gen. Huger, leaving the batteries unmanned 
and unprotected, no doubt conspired to produce in the minds of the officers 
of the Virginia the necessity of her destruction at the time, as, in their 
opinion, the only means left of preventing her from falling into the hands 
of the enemy ; and seems to ham precluded the consideration of the possi- 
hility of getting her up James River to the point or points indicated.' The 
innuendo here is not to be misunderstood. It implied that the destruc- 
tion of the ship was the effect of panic on the part of those engaged in it, 

" Nothing could be more blighting to the honor and reputation of an 
officer than this imputation, if sustained ; and in this connection I desire 
to remind the court of the healing scope and efficacy of the judgment 
they have the power to pronounce, if the proof in the case shall appear 
to entitle me to it. The court may not only pronounce a dry verdict of 
acquittal, but it may do more. ' Trial before courts-martial (says De- 
hart, p. 180) must often involve the investigation of divers particulars, 
under various and distinct charges. Circumstances which are embodied in 
the charges, and upon which constructive guilt is charged, are necessarily 
dependent upon motive, by which the degree of criminality is determined. 

"'It consequently rests with the court to ascertain this particular 
degree, and declare it by their finding, and the verdict may be special, as 
it is not necessary that it be general, as to the guilt or innocence of the 
prisoner.' And again (p. 183), 'Courts-martial laave at times stated the 
motives of acquittal, and given an opinion of the conduct of the accused at 
length.^ 

" Now I respectfully and confidently invoke— nay, claim — of this 
enlightened body of military men the fullest inquiry into and report of 
my motives and conduct in regard to the destruction of the Virginia ; and 
am fuUy prepared to stand or fall by its award. 

" It will be perceived that the first charge of 'culpable ' destruction 
of the Virginia is by no means narrowed by the first specification of cul- 
pably, and without sufficient reason for so doing, destroymg, by fire, the 
steamer Virginia. 

" It is as broad and undefined as the charge itself, involving all the 
circumstances in which I was placed, as respects every possible use to 
which the ship could have been devoted at any time previous to her de- 
struction. This would seem to invite an allusion to the events which pre- 
ceded the contemplated evacuation of Norfolk; after which, it will be seen 
I was left no alternative but to attempt to defend James River. 

"When, on the 25th of March last, I was ordered to the defence of 
the waters of Virginia, and to hoist my flag on the steamer Virginia, I 
could scarcely be supposed insensible to the peril of reputation to which 
I became exposed from the extraordinary and extravagant expectations 
in the public mind, founded on ignorance of the character of the ship, 
and the recent brilliant success of Commodore Buchanan under the cir- 
cumstances which could not again be looked for. The frigates of the 
enemy were incautiously at anchor in Hampton Roads, and the oppor- 
tunity was seized by that gallant officer with a judgment and promptness 
which insured the glorious result which, while it could not exalt him too 
highly in public estimation, unfortunately produced a false estimate of 
the ship, dangerous to the reputation of his successor. From the day of 
his success to the evacuation of Norfolk, I do not think that a single 
vessel of the enemy has anchored in Hampton Roads, excepting a few gun- 
boats and small transports lying either under the guns of the forts or on 
fiats unapproachable by the Virginia. 

"Yet, for the very brief space of time when the ship was out of 
dock, or not in the hands of the yard, but under my command (thirteen 
days out of forty-five), the court will, I may be permitted to say, perceive 
in the evidence no signs of indisposition on my part to make her as an- 
noying and destructive as possible to the enemy. 



230 THE CONFEDERATE STATES NAVY. 

" Aware that Hampton Roads furnished me no field for important 
operations, I early turned my thoughts to passing the forts and striking 
unexpectedly at some distant point, say New York, or Port Royal and 
Savannah, and in a letter of the 10th of April to the Secretary 1 con- 
veyed my views as follows : 

'"I have been aware from the first that my command is dangerous to 
my reputation, from the expectation of the public, founded on the suc- 
cess of Commodore Buchanan, and I have looked to a different field from 
his to satisfy them. 

" '1 shall never find in Hampton Roads the opportunity my gallant 
friend found. 

'"There is no chance for me but to pass the forts and strike else- 
where, and I shall be gratified by your authority to do so as soon as the 
ship shall be in a suitable condition.' 

" It will be perceived that this letter was written under the influence 
of expectations of improvement in the condition of the ship, created by 
the letters received by me from the Secretary of the Navy, informing me 
of her weak points, and the changes in her armor which were then in 
progress. How much these expectations were disappointed is made mani- 
fest from the evidence. Even the designed improvements were not fully 
effected, and at no time did the Virginia attain the power and capacity 
of a sea-going vessel, or exceed the measux*e of usefulness originally 
designed for her — that of harbor defence. 

"When, in compliance with the Secretary's order, I consulted Com- 
modore IBuchanan on the character and power of the ship, he expressed 
the distinct opinion then, as he has testified here, that she was unsea 
worthy, and he informed me then that she was not sufficiently buoyant, 
and that in a common sea she would founder. 

" Her construction was such that the moment the sea struck her the 
water would rush into her ports. 

" Mr. Porter, the naval constructor of the ship, has testified that he 
informed me he had reported to the Secretary of the Navy that the ship 
could not go to sea with safety. And such were the radical defects of her 
engines, as greatly to retard and interfere with her operations even in the 
smooth waters of Elizabeth City and Hampton Roads. 

" The official report of Acting Chief Engineer Ramsay, of the 5th of 
May (made part of your record), is in this point so important as to chal- 
lenge special attention. 

" Moreover, it is in evidence that on five trips made from Norfolk to 
Hampton, a distance of but ten miles, the engines failed twice, obliging 
me, on one occasion, to return to Norfolk to repair them; and on another, 
making it necessary to work one of her engines at high pressure, 'just 
managing (to use the words of the chief engineer in his report of the 5th 
of May to Lieut. Catesby Jones) to reach her anchorage at Norfolk.' 
Under these untoward circumstances, I was mortified beyond measure by 
frequent suggestions, not only from unofficial but high official sources, 
of important services to be performed by the Virginia, founded on the 
most exaggerated ideas of her qualities, among them the feasibility of 
passing the forts and going into York River to assist the military opera- 
tions at the peninsula. 

"It was while these conceptions formed the subject of anxious reflec- 
tions with me that the chief engineer volunteered his report to me of the 
5th of May, in which he enters particularly and at length into the subject 
of the ship's capacity. He says, as to her engines, ' that from present and 
past experience he is of opinion that they cannot be relied on; that in the 
two years' cruise of the Merrimac they were continually breaking down 
when least expected,and the ship had to be sailed under canvas the greater 
part of the cruise; that the engines gave out the day before, as he had 
already reported, after running only a few hours, and, as he could not 
insure their working any length of time, he deemed it his duty to report, 
etc.; that at the time he was ordered to the vessel, he teas informed that 



THE CONFEDERATE STATES NAVY. 231 

it was not the intention to take the ship where a delay, occasioned hy a de- 
rangement in the machinery, tvould endanger her safety, and that she 
would always he accessible to the navy-yard for repairs, which was the 
reason why he had deferred this report,' etc. He adds : 'Each time that 
we have gone down, I have had to make repairs, which could not have 
been done aboard ship very well, or, if done at all, would have required a 
great deal of time.' 

" The pilots, too — my only source of information as to the feasibility 
of carrying the ship past the forts into York River— report in writing 
substantially (their report is of record) that they could not, with any 
probability of success, take the ship there by night, and that it would re- 
quire a clear day ; that they must see the land, and that if it should come 
on to blow, or the weather be thick, there was no harbor in wliich they 
could place her. They say: ' If the lights, light-boats and buoys, which 
were found necessary for the navigation of the channel, still existed, there 
would be no trouble in reaching York River, except so far as the enemy 
may have obstructed the way, for there is plenty of water. If the 
weather were smooth and clear, and the lead and compass could be relied 
on, we could still take the Virginia to Y'orktown. But the lights, light- 
boats and buoys having been removed, the compasses of the ship lieing 
almost useless from local attraction, and tlie lead equally so by the fire of 
the enemy, we have serious doubts as to our ability to carry the draft of 
twenty-three feet with any reasonable prospect of success.' 

"And the 'extensive flats,' say they, 'inside of York River, on both 
sides, offer a safe retreat to a large fleet from the fire of a vessel of this 
draft ; and all vessels in Poquosin River, or at anchor off Shipping Point, 
are not to be approached by the Virginia nearer than four miles.' 

" That the enemy had obstructed the way was plain to view, from 
the unusual manner in which they used the channel between the forts ; 
that they had done so most effectually may be safely inferred from the 
resources of material and skill at their command, and their known in- 
dustry in their use. To have attempted to pass this obstructed channel 
in open day, in full fire of both forts, and all their men-of-war, some 
twenty in number, including the Monitor and other iron vessels and 
steamers fitted for the express purpose of running her down (see the testi- 
mony of Lieut. Catesby Jones), would indeed have merited the epithet 
of folly, which, in the opinion of that gallant officer, the effort would 
have deserved. 

" Thus it will be seen that I was in command of a ship that could not 
go to sea, nor even into Chesapeake Bay, without great hazard (and that 
without reference to the enemy), and that with a great draft of water, in 
narrow channels, she was in a great degree trammeled by pilots not re- 
liable, as is clearly shown by the record and the Secretary's letters to me 
of the 1st and 8th of April, on file, thus depriving me of the privilege of 
manoeuvring her freely, and by my own judgment. 

" I had nothing left me but to be patient, to attempt what I thought 
was in the compass of the ship's power, and to carry out the orders of 
the Secretary of the Navy. 

"During the short time she was not in dock, or in the hands of the 
navy -yard (some thirteen days\ it is proved that she went down to the 
Roads and offered fight to the Monitor. 

" She covered the gunboats at that time while they made prizes. She 
showed herself several times at SeweU's Point, giving the enemy the im- 
pression she was ready for any service. On one occasion she drove the 
enemy off from bombarding Sewells Point. She also kept the Roads clear 
of the enemy's men-of-war. 

" From a letter from the Secretary of the Navy, of the 9th of April, 
inclosing one from Gen. Lee of the same date, suggesting operations in 
the direction of Yorktown, I extract the following paragraph : 

"'I regard the Virginia as of the first importance to the safety of 
Norfolk, and hence, though the suggestion of Gen. Lee of a dash at the 



232 THE CONFEDERATE STATES NAVY. 

enemy on York River holds out temptation to go at him at once, it should 
not be made if Norfolk is to be thereby exposed to capture.' 

" From another letter from the Secretary, of the 13th of April, the 
following is also extracted: 

" ' No immediate necessity for your leaving the Roads exists, and con- 
curring with you in the opinion you express, that were the Virginia to 
pass the forts Norfolk would be in danger of immediate capture, you will 
not subject it to this hazard without the sanction of this department.' 

" This sanction was never given. I will only add, in this connection, 
as evidence of my willingness to undertake, under these adverse circum- 
stances and embarrassments, any hazardous enterprise which the govern- 
ment might deem of public service, an extract from my reply to the Sec- 
cretary's letter of the 8th of April : 

" ' If the presence of the Virginia at Yorktown be deemed at Richmond 
of such paramount importance as to call for the passage of the forts at all 
hazards, I shall, on hearing from you by telegraph to that effect, attempt 
it at all hazards.' 

" And again, in a letter of the 30th of April, I wrote : 

" ' I am prepared to run any hazard with her (the ship), under the 
advice and direction of the department, but, in view of your instructions 
to me, am not prepared to abandon Norfolk and Hampton Roads for a 
distant field of action, and for an object of very doubtful attainment.' 

" The foregoing imperfect recital covers the events of my campaign 
occurring before the evacuation of Norfolk. I rely on it to vindicate the 
propriety of my motives and conduct previous to that event. As the 
specification that ' the ship,' at the draft to which she was or might have 
been reduced, could have been carried up James River to a place of use- 
fulness, free from immediate danger, is designed, as the Judge Advocate 
avows, to conform with the part of the finding of the Court of Inquiry, 
already stated, that she should have been carried to Hog Island, in James 
River, and in her lightened condition employed there as a war vessel, it 
would seem that a comparison of the prudence and wisdom of that 
course with the course actually pursued, will exhaust this part of the 
subject, and leave the court under no difficulty of decision between the 
two. 

" Now, that the Virginia could have been fought as a war vessel any- 
where after being lightened to twenty -six feet six inches, by which her 
knuckle was exposed, rests upon no opinion, military or unmilitary, that 
has ever been expressed, except that of the Court of Inquiry. On the con- 
trary, the testimony is unanimous the other way, including that of Mr. 
Porter, the naval constructor, and that her iron sheathing when so light- 
ened, though it did extend three feet six inches below the water (it is omit- 
ted from the finding that a considerable portion of it was only one inch 
thick, its original thickness, the additional covering, with two additional 
inches, not extending the whole way), would not have protected her. 

"Then, as to the eligibility of Hog Island as a place of retreat, it is 
unanimously condemned by every military opinion which has been ex- 
pressed upon it ; and it is not a little remarkable that in the proceedings 
of the Court of Inquiry no military opinion is asked at all on this point. 

" It rests on the opinion of Pilots Parrish and Wright alone. They 
told the court the ship could have been lightened at Hog Island with the 
same facility as where she was lightened, and that she could have pro- 
tected the river, because the enemy would have to pass in close reach of 
her guns ; that is, we were bound to lighten her some to get her up to Hog 
Island. 

" She could protect the river as well at Hog Island, as the enemy's 
vessels would have to pass her in 400 yards, within range of her guns, 
and that was so clearly demonstrative of the superior eligibility of 
Hog Island as the place of resort, that the court thinks nothing could 
have blinded our eyes to it but the evacuation of Norfolk, the destruction 
of the navy-yard and other public property, added to the hasty retreat of 



THE CONFEDERATE STATES NAVY. 233 

the military under Gen, Huger, leaving the batteries unmanned and un- 
protected, no doubt conspiring to produce in the minds of the officers of 
the Virginia the necessity of her destruction at the time, as in their 
opinion the only means left of preventing her from falling into the hands 
of the enemy, and seeming to have precluded the consideration of the 
possibility of getting up James River to the point or points indicated. 
Comment here is surely unnecessary. Nor can it be necessary to dwell on 
the alternative presented by the Court of Inquiry, of destroying the ship 
at Hog Island, or, in her then exposed condition, ' making a last dash at 
the enemy,'' consisting of twenty sail, including the Minnesota, the Iloni- 
tor, and three other iron-clad steamers, the ram Vanderhilt and others ; 
or should we, after passing through them, have gone down to Cape 
Henry, rounded the Horse Shoe — the lighter vessels of the enemy, draw- 
ing sixteen feet, the while passing the swash channel and reaching York- 
town hours before us — and come to Yorktown only to find the enemy's 
vessels placed in safety above us, and then, with boats lost and provisions 
consumed, have hoisted a flag of distress, or a flag of truce, and sur- 
rendered at discretion ? A glance at the evidence will show that the idea 
of carrying the ship to Hog Island, and keeping her there for defence, if 
ever conceived, could only have been dismissed as vain and futile. 

" Lieut. Catesby Jones says : 

"'I think it ought not to have been done, because the enemy was in 
possession of the batteries above Hog Island, 

" ' The Galena and other gunboats were also up the river. There had 
been batteries of our own opposite Hog Island, which commanded the 
anchorage which the Virginia would have to have taken, and if there 
were no guns there the enemy could easily have placed them there, 

" 'The ship, with her inclined armor above the water, which at that 
place we could have had no means of bringing below the water, was not 
in a condition to contend against such batteries and the gunboats. 

" ' She would necessarily have to have been at anchor, and could not 
change her position. 

" ' We did not have much water on board, and, as the water at Hog 
Island was not fresh, we could not have stayed there long. 

" ' The proper place in James River to which the steamer should be 
taken up was a matter of discussion between Commodore Tatnall and 
myself, and he was of opinion she could be taken up to Westover, which 
was above the enemy's batteries, in communication with Richmond, and 
where there was a good position for batteries on shore to assist us in pro- 
tecting the river,' 

"Again he says, speaking of the feasibility of sinking her to her 
original draft at Hog Island : 

" ' She could not, by any means in our power, have been sunk to her 
depth of twenty-three feet, and she be preserved as a steamer of war, I 
think there was water enough to sink her to twenty three feet at Hog 
Island; but of this I am not certain. If we had put water in her it would 
have put out the fires, and drowned the magazine and shell-room, and any 
idea of aid from the shore in sinking her was forbidden ; for, to say nothing 
of the hostile occupation of both shores, we had only two small boats to 
the ship, carrying fifteen men each in smooth water.' Surely this is 
sufficient. 

"It only remains to consider briefly the course actually adopted ; 
whether it was prudent or culpable, either in its conception or in its at- 
tempted execution, under the circumstances, 

" The plan of taking the ship up to a narrow part of James River, and 
there assuming a defensive point, was by no means a sudden thought with 
me, dictated by the hasty and unexpected evacuation of Norfolk, 

"After the determination to retreat from Yorktown, and, as a conse- 
quence of that measure to evacuate Norfolk, whereby both banks of the 
James would necessarily fall into the hands of the enemy, it had occurred 
to me as the best means of defending the river to which I had been 



234 THE CONFEDERATE STATES NAVY. 

specially ordered, and had been communicated to tlie gallant oflBcers near 
me, who shared my confidence and counsel. 

" The attempt was precipitated, it is true, by the unexpected advance 
of the enemy on Norfolk. 

" The last orders I received from the Secretary of the Navy in regard 
to the Virginia were by telegraph on the 5th and 6th of May, four days 
before the abandonment of Norfolk. 

"The effect of both was to direct me to protect Norfolk as weU as 
James River, and if possible to prevent the enemy from ascending it. As 
to this, it may be here remarked, as I had signified to the Secretary my in- 
ability, with the five vessels under my command, to prevent this, I wrote 
him on the 21st of April that his gunboats could go from the forts to 
Newport News, a distance of six miles, with perfect impunity; and that, to 
prevent misconstruction, I wished it understood that I could not prevent 
it, or their army from crossing, except so far as the force of steamers I had 
placed in the river could do so 

"On the 9th of May, the day before evacuation, a conference of 
officers of the army and navy was held, by the suggestion of the Secretary 
of the Navy (in which Commodore Hollins, a member of the court, par- 
ticipated), in which it was decided that the Virginia should remain at 
Sewell's Point, to cover Norfolk, until after the evacuation. Commodore 
Hollins has testified to what has occurred in that conference. 

" He says that it was expected, in the last resort, the ship would be 
taken up James River to a point of safety for herself, and to protect 
Richmond ; and when asked where he was to have gone to find such a 
place, he answered, ' I do not know anything further than what the pilots 
said — up to Harrison's bar'; and when asked, if I had not been able to 
take her up there what disposition I was expected to make of her, he re- 
pUed, that he did not take that into consideration at the time, as he 
thought it was a thing which could be done, from wiiat the pilots said ; 
and it is in proof tliat on the 9th, the day before the unexpected evacu- 
ation on the 10th, I consulted with Capt. Lee, the commandant at the 
navy-yard, as to the best mode of taking her up without a loss of ballast, 
and with a view to having the use of her ballast after we got up. 

" We arranged that I would take the two empty water tanks, two large 
floats, and two launches, and not thinking that the enemy would be in 
Norfolk the next day, I prepared to return to the navy-yard for all these 
things. My plan was to place the ship in a narrow part of the river, in 
fresh water, above the batteries of the enemy on either shore (both being 
in their hands), in easy communication with Richmond, whence her sup- 
plies might be drawn, and with the shore, where batteries of our own might 
[irotect and co-operate with her, and material might be obtained to sink 
her to the required draft, and there to defend the river. What might 
have been the effect if the plan had succeeded (particularly in the present 
attitude of the opposing armies) must be left to conjecture; at all events, 
it was the best course that suggested itself in trying and difficult circum- 
stances, and I have not yet been taught by any criticism that it has en- 
countered that a better could be devised. 

"The plan, however, in its execution, necessarily depended on two 
conditions— the one, that the ship could be lightened to eighteen feet 
draft; the other, that with that draft she could be carried as high up as 
the plan required. 

" It is said the first of these conditions was impossible, and that I did 
not take the requisite means to inform myself that it was so. 

"I have to reply, that the Secretary of the Navy, in his letter of 
March 25th, assigning me to the ship and advising me whom to consult 
about her, says: 

" 'Your Flag-officer, Lieut. Jones, is said to have fought the ship gal- 
lantly, and he is thoroughly informed about her.' 

"Constructor Porter bears the same testimony to Lieut. Jones' 
thorough information about her, and that officer was not only then of 



THE CONFEDERATE STATES NAVY. 335 

opinion, butswears to his belief now, that she could be lig:htened to eighteen 
feet; and this was one main source of information on which I relied. 

" To the constructor, Mr. Porter, I applied through Paymaster Sem- 
ple for information on the subject, who swears positively that he obtained 
the constructor's written report, that the ship could be lightened to even 
seventeen feet, and would have stability to that draft in James River. 
Now, whether Mr. Semple misunderstood Mr. Porter or not, there can be 
no doubt of the nature of the reply communicated to me through a relia- 
ble source, upon which, in the nature of things, having no knowledge of 
lay own, I was obliged to rely. Nor will the positive and reliable testi- 
mony thus given be much shaken by Mr. Porter's flippant answer to the 
question why he did not give full information — 'That I never spent a 
thought on the subject — I was busy — I supposed the officers all knew 
what they were about, and I gave all the information that was asked of me.' 

" It will be recollected he was apprised of themeditated disposition of 
the ship, and had been asked for written official information on the subject. 

" Then, could the ship be carried to Harrison's Bar with eighteen feet, 
and did 1 resort to the proper source of information on the point whether 
she could be or not ? 

" I had been early warned against the pilots, yet with no charts acces- 
sible, and none of the officers having any knowledge of the sounding of 
the river, on what else could I rely? 

" As early as the 8th of April the Secretary writes to me: 

" ' You are very much in the hands of your pilots. I am convinced 
they might have placed the ship nearer to the llinnesota in the late en- 
gagement than they did, and that they erred from a high sense of their 
responsibility only.' 

"But there is ground for the belief that a much darker stain is at- 
tached to their conduct. 

" It is significant that the statements of a number of witnesses, em- 
barked in a common business, on an important inquiry, should be found 
altogether so wholly destitute of the traces of sincerity and truth; and 
when it appears that an object was to be obtained by such means, it is 
hard to resist the conclusion of complicity and combination to attain it. 
That object would seem to have been the destruction of the ship rather 
than to go with her beyond the forts or up James River, in the presence 
of the enemy's fleet. 

''For without proceeding with the dissection of so much tergiversa- 
tion and falsehood, 'experimentmnin corpore vile,' it is proved as irrefrag- 
ably as anything can be established by human testimony, that when the 
destination of the ship seemed to be past the forts and up York River, 
they were pressing in their representations to all the officers who have 
testified, that they could carry the ship up to Harrison's Bar with eigh- 
teen feet of water; and when that project seemed to be abandoned, and 
the prospect was that the ship, when lightened to that draft, would be 
cari'ied up James River, perhaps into the presence of the enemy, they per- 
mitted, nay, encouraged, the lightening to proceed in their presence, until 
.«he became helpless, and then surprised her officers with the declaration 
that they were unable to carry her up at the draft of eighteen feet, to 
which it was proposed to reduce her, in the then present state of winds 
and tides, a qualification which they had never before expressed. 

"And they now here falsely declare that, by the general understand- 
ing of the officers, the ceasing to lighten the ship was owing to the dis- 
covery that she could not be reduced to eighteen feet, when it is estab- 
lished beyond doubt or cavil that no such impression prevailed among 
them, and that it was owing simply and solely to their own sudden and un- 
expected announcement that she could not ascend the river with that draft. 

" They are convicted, too, by several unimpeachable witnesses, of the 
declaration (in the teeth of their disclaimer here, after it was known that 
the attempt would be made to ascend the river, the enemy's fleet having 
gone up\ that nothing remained to do but to abandon the ship and 



236 THE CONFEDERATE STATES NAVY. 

destroy her; one of them expressing to one witness his opinion of the hard- 
ship that they— the pilots— with dependent famiUes, should be exposed 
to the dangers probably to be encountered in the ship. 

"He must be a savage judge, indeed, who would visit me with a pen- 
alty for the fraudulent impositions practiced on me by these men. 

" The attempt to ascend the river (frustrated by the treachery to 
which I have alluded, and resulting in the ship's destruction), was un- 
doubtedly hastened beyond expectation. 

"On the 9th it was supposed that the evacuation and removal of the 
public property would occupy a week or more, during which I was to 
cover the evacuation, and, so far as might be, prevent the enemy's ascent. 

" On the 10th, information of our design having been traitorously 
conveyed to the enemy, he was in full march in force on Norfolk. The 
city, navy-yard, and batteries were abandoned, and the naval and mili- 
tary force had retired. 

"Nothing remained but still, under increased embarrassments, to 
prosecute my original design. It was defeated by no fault of mine, but it 
is shown beyond dispute that from the officers who commanded and su- 
perintended the lightening of the ship, to the crew who went to the work 
with a cheer — in the work itself, in the destruction of the ship, in the 
landing and retreat of the crew, all was order, deliberation and energy. 
And any assumption to the contrary is not only unsupported, but is in 
the teeth of everything that has been proved in any stage of this cause. 

"There is a charge of ' improvident conduct ' in lightening the steamer 
at the bight of Craney Island, instead of taking her up James River, and 
there lightening her when the necessity for doing so arose, and to the ex- 
tent of that necessity. 

"It is easily disposed of. The ascent, to be successful, required that 
the lightening of the ship should have been done, not in, but out of, the 
presence of the enemy — a result which could more probably be attained 
by lightening her at once, where she was, instead of being probably com- 
pelled in the ascent to carry out the design in his sight. Other reasons 
might be given, but this seems sufficient. 

" Again, some question has been made as to the place where the ship 
was abandoned and destroyed. The best information I could get recom- 
mended that as the easiest place of retreat. It is in proof, by the Secre- 
tary of War, that the danger was, when both shores became open to the 
enemy, that he would pass his forces over to the south side and intercept 
retreat by the southern bank. 

"In that view time was precious, — the landing should be effected at 
once. The result was, that the retreat of the crew was successful, and in 
thirty-six hours' time they had reached Drewry's Bluff, ready to co-op- 
erate, as they did, in the gallant defence made at that place. 

"Thus perished the Virginia! and with her many high-flown hopes 
of naval supremacy and success. That denunciation, loud and deep, 
should follow in the wake of such an event might be expected from the 
excited mass who on occasions of vast public exigency make their wishes 
the measure of their expectations, and recognize in public men no cri- 
terion of merit but perfect success. But he who worthily aspires to a part 
in great and serious affairs must be unawed by the clamor, looking to the 
right-judging few for a present support, and patiently waiting for the 
calmer time when reflection shall assume a general sway, and by the 
judgment of all, full justice, though tardy, wiU be done to his character, 
motives and conduct. u R^gpectfully submitted, u j tatnall."^ 

iThe testimony of two of the lieutenants of best disposition that could have been made of 

the Virginia— 3. T Wood and Charles King— her. 

■was not taken by the court-martial, owing to The testimony and witnesses before the court- 

their unavoidable absence. They had testified, martial and Court of Inquiry were the same, ex- 

however, before the Court of Inquiry that they cepting that the Secretary of War and Surgeon 

approved of the effort to take the ship up the Phillips did not testify before the Court of In- 

James River, and that her destruction was the (luiry.— Flag-officer Tatnall. 



THE CONFEDERATE STATES NAVY. 237 

The testimony of the witnesses and the statements of 
parties being all before the court, it was cleared for delibera- 
tion. After mature consideration the court unanimously 
found as follows : 

"That the first specification of the first charge is not proved. 

" That the second specification of the first charge is not proved. 

" And that the accused is not guilty of the first charge. 

" That the first specification of the second charge is not proved. 

*' That the second specification of the second charge is not proved. 

*' And that tlie accused is not guilty of the second charge. 

"That the specification of the third charge is not proved. 

*' And that the accused is not guilty of the third charge. 

"The court do further find that the accused had, while in command 
of the Virginia, and previous to the evacuation of Norfolk, thrown down 
the gage of battle to the enemy's fieet in Hampton Roads, and that the 
enemy had declined to take it up; that the day before Norfolk was evac- 
uated, a consultation, at the instance of the Secretary of the Navy, was 
held by a joint commission of the navy and army ofBcers as to the best 
disposition to be made of the ship ; that the accused was in favor of pass- 
ing Fortress Monroe and taking tiie ship mto York River, or of running 
before Savannah with her ; that in this he was overruled by the council, 
who advised that he should remain on this side of Fortress Monroe for 
the protection of Norfolk and Richmond ; and that, in accordance with 
this advice, he proceeded to regulate her movements ; that after the 
evacuation of Norfolk, Westover, on James River, became the most suit- 
able position for her to occupy ; that, while in the act of lightening her 
for the purpose of taking her up to that point, the pilots, for the first 
time, declared their inability to take her up, even though her draft 
should be reduced to its minimum of eighteen feet; that by the evacua- 
tion of Norfolk and the abandonment of our forts below Westover, both 
banks of the James River, below that point, were virtually given up to 
the enemy; that the ship being thus cut off from Norfolk and Richmond, 
was deprived of all outward sources of supply, save those of the most 
precarious and uncertain character ; that her store of provisions would 
not last for more than three weeks ; that, when lightened, she was made 
vulnerable to the attacks of the enemy ; and that, after having been 
lightened, there was no available means of bringing her down to her 
proper draft and fighting trim ; and that she had but two small boats, 
each capable of landing not more than fifteen or eighteen men at a time, 
even in smooth water. 

"Such being the facts and circumstances under the influence of 
which the Virginia found herself after the evacuation of Norfolk, it was, 
in the opinion of the court, only necessary for the enemy to continue to 
refuse battle, as he had done since it was first offered by Capt. Tatnall early 
in April, and thenceforward to keep a strict watch about the Virginia, 
in order, when her provisions were exhausted, to make her his prize, and 
her crew his prisoners. 

" Being thus situated, the only alternative, in the opinion of the 
court, was to abandon and bum the ship then and there ; which, in the 
judgment of the court, was deliberately and wisely done by order of the 
accused. 

" Wherefore, the court do award to the said Capt. Josiah Tatnall an 
honorable acquittal. 

"L. Rosseau, Captain. " Franklin Buchanan, Captain. 

"Greo. N. Hollins, Captain. "Robert G. Robb, Commander. 
"M. Mason, Commander. " Eben Farrand, Commander. 

" A. B. Fairfax, Commander. "M. F. Maury, Commander. 
"George Minor, Commander. " Wm. L. Maury, Lieutenant. 
"R. B. Pegram, Lieutenant. "Robert Ould, Judge Advocate." 



238 THE CONFEDERATE STATES NAVY. 

Such was the end of theVirginia, a vessel constructed out 
of the burned and scuttled remains of the 3Ierrimac, planned 
and fashioned crudely because of the limited resources of the 
Confederacy, armed with the banded guns, the work of Lieut. 
J. M. Brooke, manned with a crew of soldiers collected from 
regiments and a few sailors that remained in Norfolk after 
the evacuation, but commanded by the ablest, and bravest, 
and most skillful officers of the C. S. navy. She was a prodigy 
and a nondescript in naval construction. In her short career 
she not only inflicted immense loss on her enemy,defied the best 
production of unrestricted American genius, but revolution- 
ized naval construction throughout the world. From her per- 
formance was given the first glimpses of the new system of 
naval warfare that was opening upon all navies; and she 
taught the nations that the end of wooden fighting-ships had 
come. The shots that sounded on her four-inch armament 
were heard and heeded in Europe, and England, France, and 
continental powers learned that no weapon of offence or de- 
fence was left to them, so efficient as a large armor-clad and 
very swift ram. Even in her weakness from over-draft and 
inefficient motive power, the Virginia carried the lesson, 
" that armor-plated floating batteries are the cheapest 
and most effectual protection to coasts and harbors,"' and in 
her short but glorious career she prefigured that of the Con- 
federacy itself — brilliant in courage and endurance, but want- 
ing greatly in those weightier matters which constitute a 
great and powerful nation. 

The military movements of the armies on the peninsula, 
by which Gen. Joseph E. Johnston retired from the Yorktown 
lines to the west side of the Chickahominy, caused the order 
for the evacuation of Norfolk. The military necessity it is 
not our purpose to discuss; it put an end to all naval oper- 
ations in Hampton Roads, and the little Confederate 
fleet, withdrawing up James River, took station behind the 
fortifications at Drewry's and Chapin's Bluffs. Norfolk was 
evacuated by the Confederates, the navy-yard and ships were 
burned, and Gen. Wool marched into the empty fortifications. 

The loss of the navy-yard was a very great diminution of 
Confederate naval resources, while the destruction of the Vir- 
ginia was equal almost to the loss of an army of many thou- 
sand men. Indeed, the official records show that she was far 
more feared at Washington than Gen. Lee's army, and that 
the terror excited by her exploits reached to every Atlantic 
city. 



CHAPTER XI. 
MISSISSIPPI RIVER FROM CAIRO TO VICKSBURG. 



THE Mississippi River and its tributaries — that "■ inland 
sea," to which the Supreme Court of the United States 
extended maritime jurisdiction, because of its "two 
thousands of miles of public navigable waters, including 
lakes and rivers, in which there is no tide " — was too impor- 
tant to the great Northwest for its outlet to the ocean to be 
controlled by any power foreign to the United States. 

The erection of batteries near Vicksburg by the State of 
Mississippi, in December and January, 1861, caused great ex- 
citement throughout the Northwest. "There was a good deal 
of fierce talk on both sides," said the N. Y. Herald of January 
38th, 1861: 

" And some Western governors drew ensanguined pictures of possible 
difficulties to take place among the canebrakes and woodyards of the 
Mississippi. It appears, however, that these batteries were temporary 
affairs, built to prevent the reinforcement of the forts at points below 
Vicksburg, more especially those at New Orleans. The Louisiana Con- 
vention made haste to declare that the navigation of the river should be 
free to all ' friendly States and powers.' The governor of Mississippi 
recommends that the 'most prompt and efficient measures be adopted to 
make known to the people of the Northwestern States that peaceful 
commerce on the Mississippi River will neither be interrupted nor an- 
noyed by the people of Mississippi.' We agree with the governor in the 
statement that 'this will preserve peace between the South and the North- 
west, if it can be preserved.' * * * We regard the course of Louisiana 
and Mississippi upon the matter of the river navigation as being not only 
very important in a commercial point of view, but likewise a very cheer- 
ing' sign that our poUtical affairs are not in such a bad way as to be 
altogether hopeless. Let Chicago rejoice and Wall Street be comforted. 
Trade, ' the calm health of nations,' will still flow unrestricted from the 
Falls of St. Anthony to the Delta of the Mississippi." 

Notwithstanding these assurances of free navigation by 
Louisiana and Mississippi, as well as by the first acts of the 
Confederate Congress: " That the peaceful navigation of the 
Mississippi River is hereby declared free to the citizens of any 
State upon its borders, or upon the borders of its navigable 

(239) 



240 THE CONFEDERATE STATES NAVY. 

tributaries,'" the great northwestern section of the United 
States was unwilling to accept, as a concession from a foreign 
power, a right so essential and indispensable to the prosperity 
and progress of its peoples. If there had been no sentiment 
of union to rouse the spirit of war for its preservation, this 
right of freely navigating without let or hindrance, without 
permission or question, the Mississippi, from its source to the 
Gulf, would have involved the two republics in war before 
the lapse of a single decade. 

The Louisville Journal of Jan. 24th, 18G1, had the follow- 
ing indignant protest against the blockade of the Mississippi 
River: 

" It appears that the respectable Kentucky secessionist who informed 
us that the cannon placed at Vicksburg by the order of the governor 
were withdrawn from the Mississippi shore on Tuesday of last week was 
mistaken. The battery still frowns from the bank, compelling all descend- 
ing boats to come up to, undergo a formal search, and pay wharfage, 
although they have no business in the port. And now, as we learn from 
telegraphic dispatches, a battery of sixteen thirty-two pounders has been 
planted upon the Memphis bluff to bring boats to there as they are 
brought to at Vicksburg. This really seems almost incredible. It is hard 
to bring ourselves to believe that the people of Memphis, always deemed 
so loyal, can tolerate any such a high-handed proceeding, such a wrong 
and insult to all the States that use the Mississippi River for purposes of 
navigation. Much as we dislike violence in all its forms, we should sup- 
pose that the Memphis population, in spite of the Minute Men, or any 
other organization, secret or open, would rise up in their wrath and tum- 
ble the obstructing battery into tlie river. We wonder whether batteries 
are to be planted at all the ports of all the States on the Lower Missis- 
sippi for overhauling all descending boats, examining their cargoes with 
an eye to seizure or confiscation, and enforcing the payment of wharfage. 
If so, how long before the river cities will either break up the navigation 
to which they owe their existence and on which they depend for its con- 
tinuance, or else bring upon themselves and their States the armed hosts 
of the States that shall feel themselves aggrieved ? 

" The Louisiana State Convention is very careful to stipulate for the 
free navigation of the Mississippi. Yesterday the following resolution 
was reported to the Convention, to be added to the ordinance of secession: 

" ' We, the people of Louisiana, recognize the right of free navigation 
of the Mississippi River and tributaries by all friendly States bordering 
thereon ; we also recognize the right of the ingress and egress of the 
mouths of the Mississippi by all friendly States and Powers, and hereby 
declare our willingness to enter into stipulations to guarantee the exer- 
cise of those rights.' " 

As if to force the Southern States, against their wish and 
purpose, to prevent the free navigation of the Mississippi 
River, the U. S. Surveyor of the Customs at Louisville, Ky., 
May 8th, was instructed to prevent the shipment of arms, 
ammunition and provisions to the seceded States, including 
Tennessee, North Carolina and Arkansas, and to intercept 
such shipments passing by or going through Louisville. 

The administration at Washington thus took the first steps 
to interrupt the free navigation of the Mississippi. It was 

» Approved, Feb. 26th, 1861. 



THE CONFEDERATE STATES NAVY. 241 

by successive steps against the interests and the purposes of 
the Southern States that from one act to another, by one provo- 
cation and another, the two sections did exactly what was 
against their material interest, because of their fears of injury 
by the authorities of each section. But commercial inter- 
course was not wholly interrupted by the Proclamation of Mr. 
Lincoln, of April 19th. 

The Cairo correspondence of the Cincinnati Commercial, 
of May 25th, says: 

"Somewhat singular is the manner in which matters are being con- 
ducted at the different ports in relation to articles destined South. A 
few days since, the Surveyor of the Port at St. Louis permitted the 
steamer Falls City to clear with some 10,000 or 15,000 barrels of lime for 
New Orleans. Upon her arrival here, as you are aware, she was stopped, 
and the lime taken off. Yesterday a flatboat loaded with the same arti- 
cle arrived from Louisville. She underwent an examination by the au- 
thorities at Evansville, and was allowed to pass. This lime was also 
stopped here. The orders upon this subject must be general and consist- 
ent. This peculiar execution of them should be remedied, so that the 
great inconvenience and consequent dissatisfaction might be avoided, 
and the object of the blockade more easily and speedily accomplished. 
Considerable anxiety is manifested here in relation to the steamer Prince 
of Wales. It is thought that she has been seized at Memphis, as an article 
in yesterday's Avalanche, in speaking of the seizure of the Sovereign, and 
the expected arrival of the Prince, sounded somewhat of rapaciousness. 

"The steamship Catawba was seized at New Orleans, April 25th, 1861, 
by a number of citizens under Capt.Shirens, on their own responsibility; she 
was released afterwards by orders from Grovernor Moore, who had received 
instructions from the Confederate government prohibiting and disap- 
proving of any obstruction to commerce in Southern ports. The Collec- 
tor of New Orleans was notified to the same effect. Orders were also sent 
to the Collector at Galveston, to raise the embargo at that port — general 
government alone having such power. The Catawba sailed for New York, 
full of freight and passengers. She was owned principally in New Orleans 
and Mobile. She was only seized on the ground of expediency and not out 
of retaliation. 

" Governor Moore, in reply to a dispatch relative to the seizure of 
boats and Southern property in the Ohio River, was instructed by the 
government at Montgomery to wait till the reports were confirmed, and 
then only to retaliate by seizing property belonging to citizens of Ohio." 

When war became inevitable by the assault on Sumter, 
Attorney General Bates, on April 17th, wrote to James B. Eads 
to hold himself in readiness to aid the U. S. government with 
his information and experience of the Mississippi as to the 
best manner of recapturing and holding the navigation of 
all Western waters. On the 29th of April, Mr. Eads ' sub- 
mitted a plan of operations with a description of the kinds 
of gunboats suitable for operations on Western rivers. The 
plan, approved by Commodore Paulding, was intrusted to 
Capt. John Rodgers to be put in execution. After further 
consultation with Mr. Eads, the Conestoga, Taylor and Lexing- 
ton, powerful freight and passenger Ohio River steamboats, 
were altered at Cincinnati and converted into gunboats. While 

1 Life of Admiral Foote, p. 164. 
16 



242 THE CONFEDERATE STATES NAVY. 

these boats were not iron-plated they were protected by oak 
bulwarks from musket balls. ' 

Mr. Eads became the successful bidder for the seven gun- 
boats, advertised for construction by the U. S. quartermaster 
in July. These gunboats were each of 600 tons, and drew six 
feet water, and carried thirteen guns each. They were built 
very strong, and plated with two-and-a-half-inch iron, and 
could steam nine miles per hour. Their form and dimensions 
gave very great steadiness, and the accuracy of the fire of 
their guns was almost equal to those on land batteries. These 
seven boats were the DeKalh, Carondelet, Cinciiuiati, Louis- 
ville, Mound City, Cairo, and Pittsburg. The Benton was 
added later; she became the flag-ship of Admiral Foote, who, 
in September, 1861, assumed command in Mississippi waters. 
This was a powerful squadron, aggregating a tonnage of 5,000, 
heavily armored, fully equipped, and mounting 157 large guns, 
without which all the armies of the great West would not 
have been able to have regained and held the navigation of 
the Mississippi River. 

The efforts of Secretary Mallory to organize a fleet on the 
Mississippi River were necessarily confined to adapting river 
craft to war purposes. While the immense resources of the 
United States were able in 100 days to put afloat, armed and 
equipped, the fleet of gunboats on the Mississippi River, the 
Confederate Navy Department was confined to altering steam- 
boats; and even that work was hindered and delayed by want 
of skilled workmen, scarcity of material at ports, and embar- 
rassments from defection and deficient transportation. 

New Orleans and Memphis were the only points on the 
Mississippi River in the least adapted to ship-building or re- 
pairing. At the latter city, the Tennessee and Arkansas were 
put under contract for completion by December 24th, 1861. 

The secession of Tennessee and her adoption of the Con- 
federate Constitution enabled the Confederate authorities to 

1 The first active service of the Lexington was On the arrival of the Cheney at Columbus, on 
to seize the Tf". B. Terry, at Paducah, Ky., Aug. Thursday, the 1st of August, as she landed 
25th, 1861; and thatact, called for by no conduct, she was boarded, the captain, clerk and other 
hostile or injurious, to the United States, or any officers arrested — the short space of twenty min- 
citizens thereof, provoked to capture by Ken- utes being allowed them to get ashore. Col. 
tuckians of the steamer Samuel Orre, belonging Hunt theu took command of the boat, bringing 
to Evansville, Ind., and worth, with her cargo, her down the Mississippi River to the head- 
$25,000. Thus, one uncalled for outrage led to quarters of Gen. G. J. Pillow, to whom he re- 
others, and on the 28th of July, Col. A. A. Hunt, ported the prize. Gen. Pillow then ordered Col. 
Capt. G. B. Massey and Lieut. W. H. Branham, Hunt, with the packet, to Memphis to report to 
left the city of Mobile for the purpose of cap- Maj. Gen. Polk. 

turing the packet Cheney. On their arrival at As she left for Columbus a shout arose from a 
Columbus, Ky., they found her running under large assemblage on the levee. At Hickman she 
the orders and signals of Gen. Prentiss. There was presented with a Confederate flag, and 
being some doubt as to where she belonged, three hearty cheers for the success of the advent- 
Col. Hunt sent Capt. Massey to Cairo, with in- urers were given. As she progressed down the 
structions to remain there until he could ascer- river, salutes were fired, and other demon-^ 
tain her proper ownership. On the return of strations of joy were manifested. At Randolph, 
Capt. Massey, it was rendered certain that she Capt. Tom Demmons, of the Woodruff guard, 
belonged to the enemy. Col. Hunt, having been was detailed with a detachment of his men to 
informed that the packet carried United States guard her to Memjjhis. 

troops secreted upon her, made known the She arrived at the wharf with a large U. S. flag 

object of his expedition to a few reliable flying beneath a handsome Southern banner. 

friends in Columbus, and received the aid of The Cheney was worth probably $25,000, and 

T. W. Doughty, S. W. Rennicb and W. Gray, was a capital prize. 



THE CONFEDERATE STATES NAVY. 243 

occupy and fortify Memphis, Randolph, Fort Pillow, and 
Island No. 10. The neutral position of Kentucky compelled 
the Confederates to construct their defences of the Cumber- 
land and Tennessee Rivers within the borders of Tennessee, 
but as near as possible to the Kentucky line. Fort Donelson 
on the west side of the Cumberland, and Fort Henry on the 
east side of the Tennessee, prolonged the defensive line of the 
Confederates from Island No. 10 to the eastward. The forti- 
fied points closed the Mississippi, the Cumberland and the 
Tennessee Rivers. 

About the 1st of September the United States land forces 
occupied the point of land immediately opposite the town of 
Columbus, Ky., and indicated most unmistakably a purpose 
to possess and fortify the town itself. The demonstration of 
such a purpose was promptly met by Gen. Polk, who, notwith- 
standing the neutrality of Kentucky, felt bound to defend his 
lines, and that Columbus offered the best position to that end. 
" The necessity justifies the action," was President Davis' tele- 
gram of September 4th, and the " profound gratification" of 
the citizens of Columbus expressedto Gen. Polk was but the 
partial expression of the sentiment of the great majority of 
the people of Kentucky. 

Almost simultaneously with the occupation of Columbus, 
Ky., by the Confederates, Paducah was seized by the U. S. 
forces. This occupation of Columbus, Ky., and the extension 
of the advance lines of military defence to Bowling Green, 
Ky., constituted a position which could not be turned, but 
which when once broken would have to be abandoned 
throughout its whole length. Columbus on the Mississippi 
River, defended by its batteries, was also protected by the Con- 
federate fleet of Flag-officer Hollins, consisting of the McRae 
(flag-ship), the General Polk, the Ivy, the Jackson, the float- 
ing battery (the Pelican dry dock of New Orleans), to which, 
in January and February, the Pontchartrain, the Maurepas, 
and the Livingston were added. 

The destruction of records, and the deaths of officers, ren- 
der it a difficult matter to ascertain with exact accuracy what 
Confederate vessels composed Hollins' fleet. Capt. Mitchell,-^ 
enumerated the Polk, the Ivy, the McRae, the Jackson, the 
floating battery of New Orleans, the Calhoun, and says that in 
January and February the Pontchartrain, the Maurepas and 
Livingston were added. Commodore Hollins, the better au- 
thority, because commanding the fleet, before the same Com- 
mittee,^ enumerated the McRae, the Livingston, the Maure- 
pas, Polk, and the Ivy; and in reply to the question, " Did you 
not have the Manassas at one time ?" replied, ''She came part 
of the way up, but she was sent back again, having ran 
aground and injured herself." Lieut. C. W. Read, executive 

1 Testimony before Investigating Committee 2 Testimony before Investigating Committee 

of Congress, p. 38. of Congress, p. 47. 



244 THE CONFEDERATE STATES NAVY. 

officer of the McRae, ' enumerates at Columbus the Manas- 
sas (1 gun), McRae (8), Polk (5), Jackson (2), and Calhoun (2), 
and says that the Pontchartrain and Ivij, Maurepas and Liv- 
ingston were added. 

These were converted river boats, and the very great dif- 
ference between a gunboat and a steamboat with a gun on it 
must be borne in mind when reading of Confederate crafts 
on interior waters in the early days of the war. The desultory 
operations of the enem3^'s flotilla, making reconnoissances, and 
hunting out masked batteries on river-banks, offered no op- 
portunity for important actions on either side, and while 
Lieut. S. L. Phelps, U. S. N., commanding the U. S. steamer 
Conestoga, reported that, on Sept. 10th, 18G1, while reconnoi- 
tering Lucas' Bend with the Conestoga and the Lexington — 

"Two steamers of the enemy came up from Columbus, one of them 
the gunboat Yankee, opened fire upon us, but I found our guns could not 
reach them where they lay below the batteries. At about ten o'clock I 
again dropped down with this vessel, determined to try a shot at the rebel 
gunboat. The first shot must have struck her on the ricochet, as it 
touched the water close alongside, and she at once started down stream." 

This observation of a picket-boat is not even reported in 
Confederate accounts. ^ 

By the commencement of the year 1862, the Federal 
flotilla had been increased by the following iron-plated gun- 
boats, built and fitted for war purposes: The Benton (flag- 
steamer), the Carondelet, the Essex, the Louisville, the Mound 
City, the Cincinnati, the Cairo, the Pittsburg, and the St. 
Louis — carrying each ten heavy guns, ^ all under command of 
Flag-officer Andrew H. Foote. This fleet of twelve vessels — 
nine of which were iron-plated — was opposed to the Confeder- 
ate fleet of Flag-officer Hollins — of old steamboats, which, on 
Feb. 28th, numbered five boats, which could bring but twenty 
guns to bear upon an enemy;* these boats were shielded with 
iron to protect the machinery only, and which "looked very 
much like a cow-catcher," but offered no protection to the 
hull of the boats. 

Flag-officer Hollins had been in command of the naval 
station at New Orleans from August 1st, 1861, having then 
superseded Captain Rosseau — and was relieved of the com- 
mand of the naval station by Commander Wm. C. Whittle, 
in February, 1862, when he proceeded up the river with the fleet 

1 Reminiscences of the Confederate States Navy — son " to devise a " plan of escape " by means of 
S. Hist. Soc : Paper, Vol.—, No. — , p, 336. pretended dispatches for U. S. headquarters. 

Neither was the ram Manassas at that or any 

2 Admiral Walke, Naval Scenes, p. 30, gives to other time at Columbus— the whole story was a 
it a very great importance, and makes the Con- "^'^^^''/^ P"' "P°n ^^^ credulous admiral for 
federate steamer to have "on board their which he is now responsible without the least 
■ President' Jeff. Davis, and Gen. Jeff. Thomp- authority to establish its truth. 

son. Gen. Polk, and others of like renown." As 3 Porter's History of the Navy and Walker's 

President Davis was in Richmond, Va., on that Naval Scenes. 

day, and was not at Columbus at any time during 

its occupancy by the Confederates, there was no * Testimony of Capt. Hollins before Investiga- 

occasion for " the cool and crafty Jeff. Thomp- ting Committee, p. 54. 



THE CONFEDERATE STATES NAVY. 245 

above enumerated, which by changes of one kind and another 
was reduced to the McRae, the Polk, the Livingston, the Mau- 
repas and the Ivy. In his examination before the Investiga- 
ting Committee Capt. Hollins was asked: "Were all these 
boats iron-plated ?" His reply was: " Only in their bow — they 
looked very much like a cow-catcher. This was intended, not 
to guard the men at all, but as a protection to the machinery." 
* * * << You stated that you had four boats with nine guns 
and one with but two, making thirty -eight altogether. I un- 
derstood you to say, you could bring forty guns to bear upon 
the enemy?" "I stated I could bring twenty guns to bear 
upon the enemy going down." 

The fall of Forts Henry and Donelson broke the Confed- 
erate line near the centre, and permitting the ascent of the 
Cumberland and Tennessee Rivers to the interior of the State 
of Tennessee and up to the boundary of Alabama, coinpelled 
the evacuation of Columbus, and a re-alignment from Island 
No. 10, which became the advance Confederate post on the 
Mississippi River. This island is situated at the turn of a long 
bend in the river fifty-five miles below Cairo, and is, by its 
situation, a very defensible position, which was made so strong 
and formidable by land defences as to deter the enemy for 
weeks from attempting to run its blockade. Being inaccess- 
ible to assault by land forces, its batteries, for many miles 
along the shores, held the river and completely sealed the 
navigation. The swift current of the Mississippi and the 
sharp turn of the river at the bend rendered the movements 
of the enemy's iron-clads very difficult and hazardous. Any 
injury to their motive-power or steering apparatus would ren- 
der the injured boat an easy capture, since the current would 
swiftly carry it under the Confederate batteries, whose seventy 
guns, scattered in separate batteries along the river-banks 
and on the island, would soon have destroyed even the iron- 
clads. The gallant conduct of Commander H. Walker, of the 
U. S. steamer Cai'ondelet, running the blockade of Island 
No. 10 on the night of April -Ith, and which was followed by 
Commander Thompson in the Pittsburg on the night of April 
6th, enabled Gen. Pope to transport his army across the river 
to the Tennessee bank, and this movement, taking the bat- 
teries in rear, compelled the evacuation of Island No. 10. ' 

1 The floating battery, at Island No. 10, was ponding to the port sill on a ship, in its appear- 
under the command of Lieut. S. W. Averett, ance and uses. All the guns on its starboard, 
formerly of the U. S. navy. This battery was or in-shore side, for both ends went down, had 
the Pelican dry dock of Algiers, opposite New been transferred to shore batteries, while six 
Orleans, and was without, motive power of any were left on board of her on her port side, which 
kind. It floated, that was all, and, when hauled faced the river and the enemy's flotilla. While, 
by some other boat, could be moved as desired; above the island, on the left of the Confederate 
at other times it drifted, unless anchored or works, the battery was the most exposed, of all 
tied up. The pumping engine in her hold the defences, to the enemy's fire during the 
enabled her to be lowered or raised in the long bombardment. She could be reached by 
water, and a slanting cover of timbers, sur- the enemy's fire across the low bank of sand, 
mounted by a coating of sheet-iron, erected which caused the bend in the river above the 
over her, protected her pumping engine from island, and was thus exposed to mortar sheila 
shot and shell. Her deck was flush, without and shot from rifled cannon, whose range was 
bulwarks, except a single sill around it, corres- superior to that of any of the guns on the battery. 



246 THE CONFEDERATE STATES NAVY. 

Lieut. Read says that " one day we received information 
that the tin-clad U. S. steamer Carondelet was ferrying the 
men of Gen. Pope's army over to a point above Tiptonville, 
and the general commanding at No. 10 urged Capt. Hollins 
to attack the gunboat with his fleet; for, if the enemy got pos- 
session of Tiptonville and the road by which supplies were 
sent to No. 10, the evacuation or capture of that place was 
certain. Capt. Hollins declined to comply with the request of 
the general, saying, that as the Carondelet was iron-clad, and 
his fleet were all wooden boats, he did not think he could suc- 
cessfully combat her. Lieuts. Dunnington, Fry and Carter, 
of the gunboats Poncliartrain, Maurepas and Polk, begged 
Commodore Hollins to allow them to attack the enemy's gun- 
boat, but the old commodore was firm in his decision to remain 
inactive. The three gunboats mounted together seventeen 
guns, eight and nine-inch smooth-bores and six and seven- 
inch rifles." 

The incident narrated by Lieut. Read is disingenuously 
stated, in that it omits to mention that the Pittsburg, an iron- 
clad steamer, followed the Carondelet below Island No. 10, 
and was within easy call at Tiptonville; that the two ii^on- 
clads carried eighteen heavy guns, in casemate, and were pro- 
tected throughout their hull and armament with iron, while 
their powers as rams were greatly superior to that of any of 
Hollins' fleet. With that explanation, the inactivity of Capt. 
Hollins to sacrifice the only Confederate vessels on the upper 
Mississippi will not appear so strange to the reader as it does to 
Lieut. Read. 

The fall of Island No. 10 opened the Mississippi to the 
enemy down to Fort Pillow, where, on April 14th, Flag-officer 

even wlien fired with the highest chargea, her men armed with small arms, the defences of 
either at extreme elevation or on ricochet. the south end and mainland, until every gun had 
During the last ten days of the bombardment, been abandoned. She was then scuttled, but, 
the battery was the target of nearly every shot. drifting on a bar, was captured by the enemy. 
A long, flat boat, used as quarters for the Peli- It has been intimated that the lioatiug battery 
can Guards, moored between the battery and the was abandoned without giving notice to the 
bank, was sunk; one of the battery's guns was officers on the island, but the most reliable evi- 
wrecked by a rifle shot, and her sides perforated dence exists of the error of the statement, and 
by mortar shells and rifle shots, until she leaked that Lieut. Averett did not leave the floating 
so badly that she careened to the port side until battery until advised by Lieut. Williamson, of 
the water washed over her deck, and almost the First Alabama Regiment, that he had sent 
touched the muzzles of her guns. In that trying information to the oflicers on the island, 
predicament, her gallant commander kept his Lieut. Col. Joseph Barbiere, in his interesting 
post, sometimes on the top of her roof or over work on " Scraps from the prison table at Camp 
the pumps, and always endeavoring to so use Chase and Johnson's Island," says: 
'his guns as to reach the enemy — while hurrying " We have omitted the floating battery in our 
forward repairs, and endeavoring, by all means mention of the guns. This impromptu affair 
known to a skillful officer, to maintain the bat- was commanded by Cajit. Averitt, formerly of 
tery at the post assigned to her. Compelled, by the TJ. S. navy, an officer of nerve and intelli- 
her disabled condition, to drop down the river gence. He had four guns. This, with the 
out of range, the battery was jiumped out, and, battery of the Southern Guards, and the five 
besides otlier damage, there was found two ver- brass jjieces of the Point Coupe Artillery, two 
tical holes, about three feet in length, below her small mortars, more ornamental than other- 
water line, caused by mortar shells. All dam- wise, make a grand total of fifty-three guns, the 
ages being repaired during that day and night, great portion of which were of light metal. The 
tlie battery was reported early the next day enemy report the capture of 120. We sur- 
ready to take any position to which Gen. rendered not exceeding 2,600 men ; the enemy 
Machall would assign her, and have her towed report 7,000. They publish the capture of seven 
to any station he might select. She was taken generals ; we had one, and two acting brigadiers, 
to the south end of the island, where she re- If there is any glory in such a capture, the bom- 
mained, and, ijrotected by her batteries, and by bastic Pope is welcome to it." 



THE CONFEDERATE STATES NAVY. 247 

Foote says: '' Five rebel gunboats rounded the point below us, 
when the gunboats, the Benton in advance, immediately got 
underway and proceeded in pursuit; and when within long 
range opened upon the rebels, followed by the Carondelet, Cin- 
cinnati, and other boats. After an exchange of some twenty 
shots, the rebel boats rapidly steamed down the river, and 
kept beyond our range until they reached the batteries of Fort 
Pillow, a distance of more than thirty miles." Such skirmishes 
as the above find no record in Confederate reports — Capt. 
Hollins, before the Committee of the Confederate Congress, 
merely remarking that '' at New Madrid we were engaged off 
and on for nearly seventeen days — night and day."^ On the 
day that the above skirmish is reported to have taken place, 
Capt. Hollins received from Capt. Whittle, at New Orleans, a 
dispatch that the enemy was in force at the mouth of the river, 
and begged him to come down, as his services were needed 
there. 

On receipt of that telegram, Capt. Hollins proceeded im- 
mediately to New Orleans, having first advised the Navy De- 
partment of his call, and the urgency that demanded his 
presence there, as he was the officer commanding the defences 
afloat of the Mississippi River. Lieut. Read, in his " Remi- 
niscences," again overdraws the facts of this correspondence 
when he says: 

" Commodore Hollins telegraphed to the Secretary of the 
Navy for permission to go with all the vessels of his fleet to 
the assistance of the forts below New Orleans. The Secretary 
replied to Commodore Hollins to remain where he was, and to 
' harass the enemy as much as possible.' The Commodore 
answered, that as all the enemy's gunboats on the upper Mis- 
sissippi were iron-clad, while those on the lower river were 
wood, like our own, he was of opinion that he could be of 
more service with his fleet below New Orleans than at Fort 
Pillow. Without waiting to hear further from the depart- 
ment, the Commodore started down the river on the Ivy.'' 

Mr. Mallory's reply to Capt. Hollins' dispatch was that : 
^'Your dispatch received yesterday proposed to abandon 
opposition to the enemy's descent of the river by your fleet, 
and to carry your fleet to the mouth of the river. This 
proposition is totally inadmissible ; every effort that nautical 
skill, invention and courage can put forth must be made to 
oppose the enemy's descent of the river, and at every hazard. 
You inform me that you have gone to New Orleans at the 
urgent request of Capt. Whittle. You will, therefore, send 
these orders to the senior in command of your squadron, by 
telegraph. The Louisiana must join your squadron at the 
earliest practicable moment." That telegram was dated 
April 11th, and was sent to Hollins in New Orleans, and 

1 Page 48. 



248 THE CONFEDERATE STATES NAVY. 

received by him there, and he received no other orders. The 
command of the fleet at Fort Pillow devolved on Commander 
Pinkney. Between the judgment of Capt. Hollins and that 
of Secretary Mallory, as to the nature of the defence of 
New Orleans, the reader cannot fail, by the light of facts now 
existing, to see that Hollins' idea of strengthening the fleet 
below New Orleans was correct, while that of Secretary 
Mallory would, as late as April 10th, have further depleted 
that defence by sending the Louisiana up the river to resist 
the fleet of Capt. Davis rather than down to the forts to meet 
that of Admiral Farragut. Mr. Mallory's opinion that New 
Orleans' danger was from above and not from below, was 
fixed until the very sound of the enemy's guns above the forts 
caused him to realize his great error. 

The command of Hollins' little fleet devolved on Com- 
mander Pinkney at Fort Pillow. The McEae, in obedience to 
Capt. Hollins' order, proceeded to New Orleans — the Ivy 
had carried the commodore ; and when Fort Pillow was evac- 
uated the fleet was scattered, the Maurepas and PontcJiartrahv 
going up White River, ' where, under the gallant lieutenants, 
Joseph Fry and Dunnington, they rendered efficient service — 
the Livingston and Polk to the Yazoo River, where they were 
most ingloriously but effectually burned. 

Capt. Hollins entertained a firm conviction that his 
little fleet, united with that at the forts and aided by the 
forts and all the appliances there, could have driven Admiral 
Farragut out of the river. That opinion he expressed before 
the Court of Inquiry to the effect that: 

" I had often passed the Yankee batteries, and knew they could pass 
ours, and I was anxious that my squadron, which was up the river, 
should be ordered down to resist YsLTYSLgnt^ feeling satisfied that I conld 
have cut him off. I should have fought him to the greatest advantage. 
Farragut's ships would have been exposed— bow foremost — to my broad- 
sides, and the sides of his vessels to the fire of the forts ; had he exposed 
the stern of his vessels to the fire of the forts, they would have been 
sunk in a short time." 

That opinion is characterized by a writer in the United 
Service Magazine as " braggardism," but Farragut seems to 
have held the same opinion as to the advantage of coming 
down stream as against fighting up, and against the current. 
In a letter of June 3d, to Secretary Welles, he points out the 
very advantages which Hollins claimed for his proposition, 
saying: 

" Few gunboats, although they have heavy batteries, are nearly all so 
damaged that they are certainly not in a condition to contend with iron- 
clad rams coming down upon them with the current, as are those of the 
upper Mississippi, which are built for the purpose, are iron-clad, and are 
designed to contend with the enemy's gunboats coming up against the 
current." 

1 Lieut. C. W. Read. 




CAPTAIN GEORGE N. HOLLINS, 

CONFEDEBATE STATES NAVY. 



THE CONFEDERATE STATES NAVY. 249 

It was the advantage of fighting with the current, and 
against vessels struggling against the current, that induced 
Capt. Hollins to add: 

" Had my squadron been at the mouth of the river, I could have kept 
the enemy from crossing the bar ; their heavier ships had to be lightened 
very greatly; their armament, etc., taken out before they could be got 
over: I could then have whipped their smaller craft with my squadron, 
and have prevented their larger ones getting over, if it had not been in 
my power to have destroyed them." 

Upon his arrival at New Orleans, the brave old fighting 
sailor received a telegram from Secretary Mallory, calling him 
to Richmond to sit on a court-martial, and thus one of the 
best and bravest of the Confederate naval officers was re- 
moved from the scene of war to be a member of a court to try 
Commodore Tatnall for destroying the Virginia. 

The scattering and destroying of the C. S. fleet at Fort 
Pillow left the defence of the river to the Montgomery flotilla. 

While this River Defence expedition was no part of the 
C. S. navy, but was under the command of the general of the 
army in the Mississippi Department, and control of the War 
Department, yet its history is necessary to a full understand- 
ing of Mississippi River defences. 

On January loth, 1863, in obedience to a telegram from 
Secretary of War Benjamin, Gen. Lovell seized fourteen 
steamers at New Orleans: they were the Mexico, Texas, Ori- 
zaba, Charles Morgan, Florida, Arizona. William Heines, 
Atlantic, Austin, Magorda, Matagorda, William H. Webb, 
Anglo-Saxon, and Anglo-Norman. In announcing this seizure, 
Gen. Lovell called the attention of the Richmond authorities to 

" Capt. Higgins, who lately resigned (from the navy), with a view of 
fitting out some of these vessels for war purposes under State authority. 
This seizure puts an end to his business. He is an ofHcer of the old navy, 
of experience, skill, and high reputation as a bold and efficient officer. 
His services would be of great value in assisting to fit out a fleet here, and 
in fighting it afterwards." 

This broad hint to the authorities was of no avail, because 
Mr. Benjamin, in his reply, informed Gen. Lovell of the pas- 
sage by the Confederate Congress of laws Nos. 314 and 350, ' 
and that these vessels were 

" ' Not to be a part of the navy, for the acts intended a service on the 
rivers, and will be composed of the steamboat-men of the Western waters.' 
The expedition was to be 'subject to the general command of the military 
chief of the department where it may be ordered to operate, but the 
boats will be commanded by steamboat captains and manned by steam- 
boat crews, who will be armed with such weapons as the captains may 
choose, and the boats will be fitted out as the respective captains may de- 
sire. The intention and design are to strengthen the vessels with iron 

1 Approved January 9th, 1862, for floating retary of War or Secretary of the Navy, as he 

defences for the Western waters, by which shall direct, and authorizing the President to 

$1,000,000 was appropriated, to be expended appoint officers of the regular navy to the com- 

&i the discretion of the President by the Sec- mand. 



250 THE CONFEDERATE STATES NAVY. 

casing at the bows, and to use them at high speed to run down, or run 
over and sink, if possible, the gunboats and mortar rafts prepared by the 
enemy for attack at our river defences. These gunboats and mortar rafts 
have been so far protected by iron plates and by their peculiar construc- 
tion as to offer, in the judgment of the President and of Congress, but 
small chances of our being able to arrest their descent of the river by 
shot or shell, while, at the same time, their weight, their unwieldy con- 
struction and their slow movement, together with the fact that they 
show very little surface above the water-line, render them peculiarly lia- 
ble to the mode of attack devised by the enterprising captains who have 
undertaken to effect their destruction by running them down, if provided 
with swift and heavy steamers, so strengthened and protected at the bows 
as to allow them to rush on the descending boats without being sunk at 
the first fire. 

" Capts. Montgomery and Townsend have been selected by the Presi- 
dent as two of those who are to command these boats. Twelve other 
captains will be found by them and recommended to the President for 
appointment. Each captain will ship his own crew, fit up his own boat, 
and get ready within the shortest possible delay. It is not proposed to 
rely on cannon, which these men are not skilled in using, nor on fire-arms. 
The men will be armed with cutlasses. On each boat, however, there will 
be one heavy gun, to be used in case the stern of any of the gunboats 
should be exposed to fire, for they are entirely unprotected behind; and, 
if attempting to escape by flight, would be very vulnerable by shot from 
a pursuing vessel. 

" I give you these details as furnishing a mere outline of the general 
plan to be worked out by the brave and energetic men who have under- 
taken it. Prompt and vigorous preparation is indispensable." 

The above fourteen vessels were appraised by a Board con- 
sisting of Messrs. Bogart. Stephenson, Frost, Grinnel, Milliken 
and Naval Constructor Porter at $900,000, but the sale was made 
for $563,000, Gen. Lovell urged that the captains in charge of 
this expedition should recommend to the President some com- 
petent person to have general control of the fleet in fitting it 
out, and making general rules for its control and management; 
and added, prophetically, that "fourteen Mississippi captains 
and pilots would never agree about anything after they once 
get under way." 

The River Defence expedition was not fully organized be- 
fore Gen. Lovell called the attention of the War Department 
to " considerable dissatisfaction " which had been expressed at 
some of the captains appointed by Montgomery and Townsend. 
The list of captains as appointed by Montgomery and Town- 
send was : Capts. John A. Stephenson, Isaac Hooper, Burdett 
Paris, John H. Burke, James Beverly Smith, James C. Delancy, 
Joseph Davis McCoy, William H. H. Leonard, James Henry 
Hart, George Willholland Phillips, William W. Lamb, and 
Joseph A. Sturtevant. 

The fleet was fitted out at an enormous expense in con- 
sequence of the rise in price of every article to over 300 per 
cent.; the fitting out, provisioning, and coaling the fourteen 
ships costing to April 15th over $800.000 — which, in addition to 
the $563,000 which were paid for the steamers and other ex- 
penses, made the total outlay over the $1,500,000 appropriated. 



THE CONFEDERATE STATES NAVY. 251 

To the high prices paid for every article must be added the in- 
crease of cost arising from the fact noted by Gen. Lovell that 
" tlie river pilots (Montgomery and Townsend), who are at the 
head of the fleet, are men of limited ideas — no system and no 
administrative capacity whatever." The fleet never impressed 
Oen. Lovell with any conviction of usefulness — who advised 
the Secretary that he feared "that their powers of execution 
will prove much less than have been anticipated, in that unless 
some competent person of education, system, and brains is put 
over each division of the fleet, it will, in my judgment, prove 
an utter failure. No code of laws or penalties has been 
established, and it is difficult to decide how deserters from the 
fleet are to be tried and punished. There is little or no discipline 
or subordination, too much ' steamboat,' and too little of the 
* man-of-war,' to be very effective," and he expressed the 
opinion that for this fleet to compensate for the outlay some 
good head ought to be placed in charge of it. That was never 
done, and this expensive fleet totally failed to render any 
appreciable service whatever to the public defence. 

The evacuation of Columbus, Ky., before the fleet was 
completed, rendered its primary object — the destruction of the 
enemy's fleet at Cairo — impossible, and the breaking by the 
flood of the raft at the forts below New Orleans rendered it 
impossible for Gen. Lovell to put guns on the boats of the fleet, 
and compelled him to keep six of the steamers at New Orleans. 

This anomalous, inefficient, useless and expensive expedi- 
tion was planned and gotten up by the pilots, Montgomery and 
Townsend, and urged upon Congress by the whole Mississippi 
delegation and by Gen. Polk. 

When the time for action came, "the River Defence fleet 
proved a failure, for the very reasons set forth in my (Gen. 
Lovell) letter to the department of April 15th — unable to govern 
themselves, and unwilling to be governed by others, their 
almost total want of system, vigilance, and discipline rendered 
them nearly useless and helpless when finally dashed upon 
suddenly on a dark night." 

It will be seen, when the fight at the forts comes to be con- 
sidered, that Gen. Duncan could get no intelligent obedience 
to his orders from Capt. Stephenson, and that the fire boats in 
charge of Capt. Stephenson were so handled that, instead of 
burning the enemy's boats, they set fire to the forts' wharves, 
lighting up the defences of the forts and obscuring the position 
of the enemy, so that Gen. Duncan took the fire boats out of the 
control of Capt. Stephenson and turned them over to Lieut. 
Renshaw, C. S. N.; and Com. Mitchell of the navy bears 
emphatic testimony to Stephenson's positive refusal during the 
fight at the forts to receive orders himself or allow any of the 
River Defence vessels to obey any order from a naval officer, 
asserting that all the officers and crews of the River Defence 
fleet "had entered the service with the distinct understanding 



252 THE CONFEDERATE STATES NAVY. 

or condition that they were not to be placed under the orders 
of naval officers"; and Com. Mitchell further testified before 
the Court of Inquiry that he was "not aware that the River 
Defence fleet did any service in resisting the enemy; if they 
did, it did not come under my (his) observation, nor has it in 
any way been brought to my notice; that four of the vessels 
were destroyed by the enemy or set on fire and abandoned 
by their own crew; that the Resolute was run ashore and 
abandoned by her officers and crew, and was burned by order of 
Com. Mitchell, and that the Defiance was discovered abandoned, 
having escaped without any material damage.'" The respon- 
sibility for this senseless and abortive River Defence fleet rests 
neither with the Confederate Navy Department, nor with any 
naval officer. 

It was from this River Defence expedition that Flag-officer 
Davis, U. S. N., won the laurels of the "first naval engagement 
of the war, pure and simple, where the squadrons of both sides 
were pitted against each other. "^ The engagement alluded to 
was the first battle of Fort Pillow, on May 10th, 1862. The Con- 
federate boats engaged were the General Bragg, commanded 
by Capt. W. H. H. Leonard; the General Stirling Price, First 
Officer J. E. Hawthorne; the Sumter, Capt. W. W. Lamb; the 
General Van Dorn, Capt. Isaac D. Falkerson; the General Jeff. 
Thompson, Capt. J. H. Burke; the Colonel Lovell, Capt. J. C. 
Delancy; the General Beauregard, Capt. J. H. Hunt. ^ 

The "log" of the Price, from New Orleans to Memphis, 
written by L. F. Delisdemier, the purser of that vessel, gives 
the following particulars of her cruise up the Mississippi, and 
the first naval engagement of the war: 

" Tuesday, March2nth, 1862.— Left New Orleans at 9 p. M., with the 
following oflBcers : J. H. Townsend, captain ; T. E. Henthorn, first officer; 
L. F. Delisdemier, purser ; George L. Richardson, second officer ; WiUiam 
Branden, chief engineer ; J. H. Frobees, assistant engineer. 

" March 28^^.— Laid up last night, on account of fog ; left Red River 
at 10 A. M. ; passed the General Bragg to-day. 

" Saturday, 29th. Arrived at Vicksburg at 4 p.m., and found the Bragg 
had stopped liere; left at 5:30 p.m.; found no iron there. Weather pleasant. 

'^ Moii.day, dlst. — Arrived at Eunice at 8 P. M. Informed the railroad 
agent that we wanted some iron. He said he had none. Our captain 
then told him he would have to tear up his track, and set the men at it, 
and soon had some three miles torn up and ready to carry on board. 

" Thursday, April 3(Z.— Left Eunice yesterday afternoon, after getting 
on board all the iron that we wanted to finish the Price and Van Dorn. Ar- 
rived at Memphis at 3 P.M. ; found the Bragg had arrived yesterday after- 
noon. At 4 P.M. the Van Born came up. Capt. Townsend, being senior 
captain, set all available men at work to finish the boats as soon as possible. 

'■' Friday, April Wth. — Weather rainy. Received order to leave Fort 
PiUow. Got two pilots to-day, viz. : W. W. Hayden and Oscar Postall. 
Left Memphis at 6:30 p. M. 

'•'•Saturday, April 12^7?-. - Arrived at the fort, and reported to the 
General at 6 :30 A. M., and then dropped down to coal. Orders were sent 

1 Off. Record, Vol. VI. ^ It will be observed from the names of these 

vessels that the C. S. navy was permanently ex- 

2 Porter, p. 166. eluded from all connection with this expedition. 



THE CONFEDERATE STATES NAVY. 253 

down for us to escort the transport Lockland up the river on a foraging 
expedition. We started at 5 p. M.; left orders for the Van Born to follow 
us. Those of Hollins' fleet went up ahead of us ; passed them at 11 p. m. 
at anchor near Island No. 25. As soon as we rounded the bend saw a 
United States transport and gave her chase. She either heard us or saw 
our smoke, and started up the river. We chased her about eight miles, 
when she met the Federal fleet at the mouth of the Obion River. 

"■Sunday, ISth, 1 A. m.— Sent a note to Capt. Huger, flag-officer on 
the McRea, notifying him of the presence of the enemy. At 5 A. M. re- 
ceived his answer that he would be along after daylight; 8:30, the look- 
outs report the fleet coming up; dropped out into the stream and formed 
in line of battle, and stood up to meet the enemy; and when within three 
miles of us, the U. S. gunboat Benton opened on us; her shot fell short. 
The C. S. gunboat Maurepas replied to her from a nine-inch Dahlgren, 
also falling short. The Federals now showed their whole fleet, consisting 
of eleven gunboats and eight mortars. So Capt. Huger, knowing it to 
be folly to contend with them, left us alone with them. We then rounded 
to, and waited until the enemy came within two miles, and let them have 
the contents of our stern guns, and then we went after the balance of the 
fleet. The Yankees followed us, and kept up a running fire, but without 
any damage. We arrived at the fort at 11:30, and reported the fleet com- 
ing down. The guns were immediately manned, and all waited for the 
appearance of the fleet. At half-past two they made their appearance, but 
only exchanged a few shots, rounded to, and went up the river about six 
miles. 

" Monday, the lAth. — This morning, the Federals opened fire on the 
fort, and every fifteen minutes they gave three shells. The bombardment 
was kept up till 9 p. M. A scouting party from our boat and the Van 
Dorn, under command of First officer T. E. Henthorn, went out this morn- 
ing on the Arkansas shore, and went within six hundred yards of the 
Federal fleet, and report them forming in line of battle and dropping down 
stream, stern foremost. 10 p. M. — No demonstration made by fleet as yet. 

'■'^ April 15th, Tuesday. — First-o^cer T. E. Henthorn, with a party of 
thirteen men and officers from the River Defence fleet, have gone out 
again this morning. The bombardment was renewed at an early hour 
this morning, and has been kept up at regular intervals of ten minutes. 
They have three mortar boats in position, at the distance of three and 
a half miles, and lay around a point opposite the forts. 10 p. M.— The 
firing ceased at 8 P. M. The scouting party have just returned; report 
three men captured at Mr. Lamies', by Federal mounted infantry; were 
chased by a party, but made their escape. 

" Wednesday, IGth April.— Went down to Mr. Lamies\ and moved 
him and family on board of steamer transport Charm, and sent them be- 
low, under convoy of the Bragg. A party of fifty 'Feds.' came down 
last night, to capture one of our boats, but not finding us, they returned 
at daylight. This morning a party of U. S. soldiers appearing in sight, 
gave them a few rounds of grape. Scouts report fifteen men killed and 
wounded; burnt ninety bales unginned cotton, and thirty bales of 
cotton. 

" April nth. — Went down and moved Mr. Morgan to a place of safety. 

"■Thursday, May Sth.— The bombardment has been kept up day by 
day, but no damage done ; loss : two killed. This morning the iStimter, 
Bragg, and Van Dorn were ordered to go up and cut out the mortar floats. 
Arrived at the field where they had been posted, but found they had been 
moved up the fleet. The Sumter remained there until 9 A. M. ; the Fed- 
erals firing a few shot at her, but did not come down, and commenced a 
furious bombardment, throwing over two hundred and fifty shells, but 
most of them fell short. 

"■Saturday, May K^th.—KgreesLhly to the decision of the council of 
war, held yesterday, the fleet left their moorings at 7 A. M., and the sev- 
eral positions in line of battle, as follows : The Bragg, Sumter, Sterling 



254 THE CONFEDERATE STATES NAVY. 

Price, Van Born, Jeff. Thompson, General Lovell, Beauregard, and Little 
Rebel. On rounding the point, the Federal fleet was plainly visible in 
'Bulletin Bar,' with the exception of the Cincinnati, who had come down 
as a protection to the mortar, but made (as soon as we appeared) for the 
balance of the fleet. According to orders, the Bragg immediately gave 
her chase, and soon overtook her, striking her a violent blow on the lar- 
board bow, dismounting one of her forward guns and slewing her round. 
The Cincinnati fired a broadside into the Bragg, one shot going through 
her, killing a cook. The Price next in turn started for her, and at the 
same time delivering an effective fire at the mortar, silencing it. The Cin- 
ci7inati kept a running fire as the Pi'ice kept away from her, soon over- 
taking her, and struck her aft a little starboard of midships, carrying 
away her rudder and stern-post, disabling her; the Stimter came soon after, 
and also struck her, and she then lifted on the bar and sunk. The Vaii 
Born in the meantime had come up. Those of the Federal fleet 
came down to the assistance of the Cincinnati, and surrounded the Van 
Borti, who made a sudden dash at the Mount City, striking her amidships, 
driving in her hull about six feet, causing her to leak badly; but as the 
Federal gunboats are all built in water-tight compartments, it was some 
time before she sank; she was able to make the bank. The U. S. gun- 
boat Pittsburg was disabled, by getting between the fires of the two fleets. 
The firing between both fleets was rapid and heavy, and our boats were 
struck several times, doing some damage to the cabins, but only one was 
damaged in the hull, and that was the General Price, who received a shell 
(128 pounds) between wind and water, cutting off the supply pipes and 
causing her to leak. As the 'Feds.' had drawn off into shoal water, 
where we could not reach them. Commodore J. E. Montgomery signaled 
the fleet to retire, which was done in good order, all dropping down 
stream, below the guns of the fort. The total loss was two killed; but 
several firemen were wounded with splinters, and one man had his arm 
broken. The only damage was to the upper works of the Va7i Born and 
Price, with the excej^tion of damage done the Price as reported. As soon as 
we arrived at Fulton, commenced to repair damages. 

" Sunday, l\th.—A\\ damages on ovu* boats repaired, and all ready for 
another engagement with the enemy. At 4 P. M. scouts came in from 
Osceola, i*eport the loss of the enemy to be three boats sunk, and several 
killed and wounded. The enemy are hard at work raising their boats. 
The Little Rebel went up on a reconnoissance to-day. On her appear- 
ance, the Yankees took their mortar floats and started up the river. 

" Tuesday, June Zd. — The bombardment has been kept up, but no 
damage done to the fort. Second officer John C. Rawson, and a party 
of seven men, went after ice and were captured. At 3:30 P. M. two gun- 
boats and three rams came down to cut out the Jeff. Thompson, but the 
fort opened on them, and they retired. The C. S. fleet then went up to 
the fort, and were actively employed in taking on shot and shell, and 
commissary stores, as the fort is to be evacuated. 

" Wednesday, June 4th, 1862. — The fort being completely demolished, 
the fleet started down the river. At Randolph, the Van Born got 
aground, and had to send men in the woods to cut spars and spar her off. 

''■June 5th.— Arrived at Memphis at 1 P. M. 9 P. M. all were aroused 
by the report of a cannon, and a rush was made to find out the cause, 
and found the General Lovell out in the stream dropping down. All 
then dropped out in the stream, in line of battle, but the "Feds." not 
making their appearance, returned to our anchorage. The tug Gordon 
Grant, was sent up as a picket boat, but grounded, and had to be burnt. 

The official accounts of the fight, whicli will be found in 
the notes, show that the victory, if any, belonged to the River 
Defence service of the Confederate States; that so far as injury 
inflicted either to vessels or crew can measure the result, the 



THE CONFEDERATE STATES NAVY. 



255 



U. S. flotilla suffered the loss of the Cincinnati and the Mound 
City, and that the losses were greater in Capt. Davis' fleet 
than in that of Capt. Montgomery/ The contemporaneous 
accounts in the newspapers are now seen to have been so full 
of errors, if not of misrepresentations, that they are utterly 
unreliable, while the official report of Gen. W. K. Strong from 
Cairo to Major Gen. Halleck was hardly more veracious than 
Falstaff's fight with the men in buckram. Admiral Porter is 



1 Report of Capt. J. E. Montgomery, Off. Rec, 
Vol. X., p. 888. 

Flag-boat Little Rebel, 1 
Fort Pillow, Tenn., May 11th, 1862. ( 

Sir: I have the honor to report an engage- 
ment with the Federal gunboats at Plum Point, 
four miles above Fort Pillow, May 10th. 

Having previously arranged with my ofQcers 
the order of attackj our boats left their moor- 
ings at 6 A. M., and proceeding up the river, 
passed round a sharp point, which brought us 
in full view of the enemy's fleet, numbering 
eight gunboats, and twelve mortar boats. 

The Federal gunboat Carondelet [should be 
the Cincinnati] was lying nearest us, guarding a 
mortar boat that was shelling the Fort. The 
General Bragg.G&itt. Leonard, dashed at her; she 
firing her heavy guns and retreating towards a 
bar where the depth of water would not be suf- 
ficient for our boats to follow. The Bragg con- 
tinued boldly on under fire of nearly the whole 
fleet, and struck her a violent blow that stopped 
her further flight, then rounded down the river 
under a broadside fire, and drifted until her 
tOler-rope.that had got ovit of order, coiild be re- 
adjusted. A few moments after the Bragg struck 
her blow, the General Sterling Price, Flag-oflicer 
J. E. Hawthorne, ran into the same boat, a little 
aft of her starboard midship, carrying away her 
rudder, stern-post, and a large piece of her 
stem. This threw the Carondelet's [Cincinnati] 
stern to the Sumter, Capt. W. W. Lamb, who 
struck her, running at the utmost speed of his 
boat. 

The General Van Dorn, Capt. Isaac D. Fulker- 
eon. running according to orders, in rear of the 
Price and Sumter, directed his attention to the 
Mound City, at the time pouring broadsides into 
the Price and Sumter. As the Van Dorn ;pro- 
ceeded, by skillful shots from her thirty-two 
pounder, W. G. Kendall, gimner, silenced a 
mortar boat that was filling the air with its ter- 
rible missiles. The Van Dorn, still holding on 
the Mound City's midship, in the act of striking, 
the Mound City sheered, and the Van Dorn struck 
her a glancing blow, making a hole four feet 
deep in her starboard forward quarter, evi- 
denced by splinters left on the iron bow of the 
Van Dorn. At this juncture the Van Dorn vi us 
above four of the enemy's boats. 

As our remaining boats, the Jefferson Tliompson, 
Capt. J. H. Burke, the Colonel Lovell, Capt. J. C. 
Delancy, and the General Beauregard, Capt. J. H. 
Hart, were entering boldly into the contest in 
their prescribed order, I perceived from the 
flag-boat that the enemy's boats were taking po- 
sition where the water was too shallow for our 
boats to follow them, and as our cannon were 
far inferior to theirs, both in number and size, 
I signalled our boats to fall back, which was ac- 
complished with a coolness that deserves the 
highest commendation. 

I am happy to inform you. while exposed to 
close quarters to a most terrific fire for thirty 
minutes, our boats,, although struck repeatedly, 
sustained no serious injury. 



Our casualties were two killed and one 
wounded — arm broken. 

Gen. M. Jeff. Thompson was on board the Gen- 
eral Bragg, his oiiicers and men were divided 
among the boats. They were all at their posts 
ready to do good service should an occasion 
offer. 

To my officers and men I am highly in- 
debted for their courage and promptness in ex- 
ecuting all orders. 

On the 11th instant I went, on the Little 
Rebel, in fuU view of the enemy's fleet. Saw the 
Carondelet [the Cincinnati] sunk near the shore, 
and the Mound City sunk on the bar. 

* * * J. E. Montgomery, 

Senior Captain, 
Commanding River Defence Service. 

To Gen. G. T. Beauregard. 

On the same day. Gen. M. Jeff. Thompson re- 
ported to Gen. Beauregard, confirming in every 
particular Capt. Montgomery's account of the 
battle. 

The First Report of Capt. Davie, commanding 
the U. S. flotiUa, was as follows: 

United States Flagship Benton, J 
Above Fort Pillow, Mississippi River, > 
May 10th, via Cairo, May 11th. ) 
Han. Gideon Welles, Secretary of the Navy: 

The naval engagement for which the rebels 
have been preparing took x>lace this morning. 
The rebel fleet, consisting of eight iron-clad 
gunboats, four of which were fitted with rams, 
came up handsomely. The action lasted one 
hour. Tivo of the rebel gunboats were blown up 
and one stink, when the enemy retired jirecipi- 
tately under the guns of the fort. Only six ves- 
sels of my sqiiadron were engaged. The Cin- 
cinnati sustained some injury from the rams, 
but will be in fighting condition to-morrow. 
Capt. Stembel distinguished himself. He is se- 
riously wounded. The Benton is uninjured. Mor- 
tar boat No. 16, in charge of Second Master 
Gregory, behaved with great spirit. 

The rebel squadron is supposed to be com- 
manded by Commodore Hollins. 

C. H. Davis, Captain, 
Commanding Western FMitla, 

Mississippi River pro tern,. 

The second report was : 

United States Flag Steamer Benton, 1 
Off Fort Pillow, May 11th. ) 
Bon. Gideon Welles, Secretary of the JVavy : 

Sir— I have the honor to inform the depart- 
ment that yesterday morning, a little after seven 
o'clock, the rebel squadron, consisting of eight 
iron-clad steamers— four of them, I believe, 
fitted as rams — came around the point at the 
bend above Fort Pillow, and steamed gallantly 
up the river, fully prepared for a regular engage- 
ment. 

The vessels of this squadron were lymg at the 
time tied up to the bank of the river— three on 
the eastern and foir on the western side— and 
(as they were transferred to me by Flag-officer 



256 THE CONFEDERATE STATES NAVY. 

but little more correct in his account:' " although the Confed- 
erate vessels made great holes in the Mound City and the 
Cincinnati, and were considerably damaged themselves [they 
sustained no injury iv}iatever],t\\ej all succeeded in escaping. 
The Cincinnati, after proceeding some distance up the river, 
sunk near the Tennessee side. The Cairo assisted the Mound 
City to the first island above the scene of action, where she 
also sunk"; and he adds that the "small list of casualties for 
such a desperate brush would seem to indicate rather indifferent 
gunnery practice on the part of the Federals, who, with their 
heavy ordnance, ought to have swept the enemy from the face 
of the water, as his vessels were of wood and lightly built. 
The attack on the Federal vessels was, however, by a new 
method; for this was the first time ramming had been practiced 
on this river during the war, and the Cincinnati and Mound 
City had been put hors de combat almost at the beginning 
of the action. The Confederate commander-in-chief was not 
accustomed to command vessels en masse, and does not seem 
to have understood the necessity of concert of action." Each 
Confederate vessel seems to have been fighting on her " own 
hook." And yet he asserts that "Flag-officer Davis had the 
satisfaction of winning the first naval squadron fight." A 
little more of that kind of satisfaction would have left Com- 
modore Davis without a vessel. That this "victory" of May 
11th was not entirely satisfactory to Commodore Davis appears 
from a dispatch to Secretary Stanton from Col. Chas. EUet, Jr., 
commanding the U. S. ram flotilla at Fort Pillow, on June 4th, 
in which it is stated that, 

" While the strength of the rebel batteries seems to be greatly over- 
rated, their fleet of rams and gunboats is much larger than mine. It con- 
sists of eight [?] gunboats, which usually lie just below the fort, and four 
[?] others at Randolph, a few miles further down. Commodore Davis will 
not join me in a movement against them, nor contribute a gunboat to my 
expedition, nor allow any of his men to volunteer, so as to stimulate the 

Foote) ready for action. Most of the vessels Commander Walke informs me that he fired a 

were prompt in obeying the signal to follow the fifty -pound rifle shot through the boilers of the 

motions of the commander-in-chief. third of the enemy's gunboats, of the Western 

The leading vessels of the rebel squadron line, and rendered her for the time being 

made directly for mortar boat No. 16, which was helpless. 

for a moment unprotected. Acting Master The action lasted during the better part of an 

Gregory and his crew behaved with great spirit hour, and took place at the closest quarters, 

during the action; he fired his mortar eleven The enemy finally retreated, with haste, below 

times at the enemy, reducing the charge and the guns of Fort Pillow. 

diminishing the elevation. I have to call the esiiecial attention of the de- 
Commander Stembel, in the gunboat Cincin- partment to the gallantry and good conduct ex- 
nati, which was the leading vessel in the line on hibited by Commander Stembel and Kilty, and 
that side of the river, followed immediately by Lieut. Commanding S. L. Phelps. 
Commander Kilty, in the Mound City, hastened I regret to say, that Commander Stembel, 
to the support of the mortar boats, and were re- Fourth Master Reynolds, and one of the seamen 
peatedly struck by the enemy's rams, at the of the Cincinnati, and one of the Mound City, 
same time that they disabled the enemy and were severely wounded. The other accidents of 
drove him away. the day were slight. 

The two leading vessels of the enemy's line I have the honor to be your most obedient 

were successively encountered by this ship. servant. 

The boilers, or steam chest, of one of them was C. H. Davis, 

exploded by our shot, and both of them were Captain Commanding Mississippi Flotilla pro 

disabled. They, as well as the first vessel tern,." 
encountered by the Cincinnati, drifted down the 

river. " i History of the Navy, p. 166. 



THE CONFEDERATE STATES NAVY. 257 

pride and emulation of my own. I shall therefore first weed out some bad 
material and then go without him." 

Premising that, instead of twelve gunboats, Capt. Mont- 
gomery's fleet consisted of only seven; six of which carried two 
guns, and one carried four, making a total of sixteen guns; 
the reluctance of Commodore Davis to risk his flotilla was an 
inheritance handed down to him by Flag-officer Foote, who 
on March 12th wrote to Secretary Welles : "I shall be very 
cautious, as I appreciate the vast responsibility of keeping our 
flotilla from falling into the rebels' hands, as it would turn the 
tide against us"; and again on the 20th: "Were we to attempt 
to attack these heavy batteries with the gunboats, or attempt 
to run the blockade and fail, as I have already stated in a 
former communication, the rivers above us — Mississippi, Ohio 
and Cumberland — would be greatly exposed, not only frustrat- 
ing the grand object of the expedition, but exposing our towns 
and cities bordering on those rivers." These considerations, 
like those that operated to keep the Monitor' out of reach of the 
Virginia in Hampton Roads after the first fight, were con- 
clusive with Commodore Davis, after his experience with the 
rams on May 10th, to take no risks in such expedition as that 
proposed by Col. Ellet, Jr. 

Brig. Gen. Villepigue, in obedience to orders from Gen. 
Beauregard, evacuated Fort Pillow on June 4th, and that 
opened the river to Memphis; below which the River De- 
fence expedition of Capt. Montgomery had retired to obtain 
coal. 

On the morning of the 6th of June, the Federal fleet of gun- 
boats, Commodore Davis, at Memphis, commanding, consisted 
of the flag-ship Beiiton, Lieut. Commanding S. L. Phelps; the 
Louisville, Commander B. M. Dove; the Carondelet, Comman- 
der Henry Walke; the Cairo, Lieut. Commanding N. C. Bryant; 
and the St. Louis, Lieut. Commanding Wilson McGunnegle, 
and the ram fleet of Col. Ellet, Jr., of the Queen of the West, 
the Monarch, the Lancaster, and the Switzerland, iron-shod, 
and especially constructed, as to draft and power, for oper- 
ation by ramming. This ram fleet, like that of Montgomery, 
was independent of the navy, and not under command or obe- 
dient to the orders of naval officers. The combined fleets of 
the enemy numbered in all nine vessels, while that of Mont- 
gomery numbered eight vessels; but the inequality in number 
of guns was as eighty -four to fourteen, and, in the character 
and adaptability to fighting, the odds were also greatly in 
favor of the Federal fieet. To that disparity must also be ad- 
ded the morale and experience of educated naval and army 
officers, and the esprit de co?jJs of both United States services 
as against the total want of both in Montgomery and the 
other Mississippi pilots who had been improvised into officers 
afloat, without any of the essential characteristics, except that 
of personal courage. 



258 THE CONFEDERATE STATES NAVY. 

As the battle of Memphis was a fight more particularly 
between the ram fleets, its particulars are best derived from 
the commanders of those fleets. The movements of the United 
States ram fleet, given by Col. EUet, Jr., were, that: 

" Approaching Memphis, the gunboats were in advance. I had re- 
ceived no notice that a fight was expected, but was informed, on landing 
within eight miles of Memphis, that the enemy s gunboats had retreated 
down the river. My first information of the presence of the enemy was a 
shot which passed over my boat. I had four of my most powerful rams 
in the advance in any emergency. The others were towing the barges. 
On advancing to the attack I expected of course to be followed by the 
Monarch, the Lancaster, and the Switzerland. The Monarch came in 
gallantly. Some of the officers of the Lancaster, which now held the next 
place in the line, became excited and confused, but the engineers behaved 
well. The pilot erred in signals and ran the boat ashore and disabled 
her rudder. The captain of the Switzerland construed the general signal 
order to keep half a mile in the rear of the Lancaster to mean that he 
was to keep half a mile behind her in the engagement, and therefore 
failed to participate. Hence the whole brunt of the fight fell upon the 
Queen and the Monarch. Had either the Queen or the Switzerland fol- 
lowed as the Monarch did, the rebel gunboat Van Born would not have 
escaped, and my flag - ship would not have been disabled. Three of 
the rebel rams and gunboats which were struck by my two rams sank out- 
right and were lost. The Gen. Price was but slightly injured, and I pro- 
pose to add her to my fleet." 

At daylight of the morning of June 6th, Montgomery 
moved up the river to engage the enemy— in ignorance 
of the presence of the combined fleets — while the gun- 
boats were firing at long range. The United States ram fleet 
accepted the challenge, and, advancing ahead of the Federal 
gunboats, steamed rapidly to the front, and gallantly engaged 
the Gen. Lovell, which the Queen of the West struck with a 
crushing blow amidship, breaking through her timbers, and 
almost instantly filling her with water; she drifted and sunk 
on the Tennessee shore. The Queen, recovering from her 
shock with the Lovell, was rammed by the Beauregard, and 
so much injured that she, too, floated to the Arkansas shore. 
Boats from the shore were instantly pushed out to rescue the 
drowning crew, but received a heavy and well-directed fire 
from the sharp-shooters on the rams, by which many were 
killed and wounded. Flag-officer Davis, in his report, says, 
that while the rams were engaged. " the firing from our gun- 
boats was continuous and well-directed. The Oe7i. Beaure- 
gard and the Little Rebel were struck in the boilers and blown 
up." The gunboats were too far off for accurate observation. 
The Beauregard, rushing at the United States ram Monarch, 
missed her object and ran into the Price, tearing off her 
wheel-house and disabling her so that she floated out of the 
fight and sunk on the Arkansas shore. The Lovell and the 
Price, thus destroyed, reduced Montgomery's fleet to five. 
The Little Rebel next came in for her coiip de grace, by a 
heavy shell from the gunboats striking her near the water- 
line, and, exploding among her machinery, gave her pilot 



THE CONFEDERATE STATES NAVY. 259 

time only to turn her head to the shore, where the current 
drifted her, and she sank. Capt. Montgomery and Capt. 
Fowler escaping ashore, saved themselves and part of the 
crew in the swamps on the Arkansas side. The Bragg and the 
Siunter and the Jeff. Thompson continued the hopeless fight — 
backing down stream, followed by rams and gunboats. The 
Van born, having a most valuable cargo of powder and other 
munitions of war, and seeing the hopelessness of the contest, 
steamed rapidly to Vicksburg, where she arrived in safety. 
The Bragg and the Sumter, though run ashore, were captured 
before they could be destroyed, and the Jeff. Thompson was 
blown up by her officers. Thus, six of the River Defence fleet 
were destroyed in its second battle with the enemy. No list 
of Confederate casualties is now obtainable. Capt. Cable, of 
the Lovell, perished, and Col. EUet, of the United States ram 
fleet, died in a few days of wounds received in the battle. 

Capt. J. Henry Hart, who commanded the steamer Beau- 
regard, gives the following interesting account of the fight at 
Memphis: 

" Our gunboat flotilla arrived at Memphis on the evening of the 5th 
of June, 1862, to await the arrival of the Federal fleet, which came down 
about nine o'clock of the same evering, and laid on ' Paddy's Hen and 
Chickens,' in sight of Memphis. On being informed of this, our commo- 
dore sent up a small tug, in charge of Capt. Bennett, as a picket. By 
some mismanagement she got aground on the foot of the island, and she 
could not be got off with her own power; consequently the torch was ap- 
plied, and she was left to her fate in flames. Nothing more of importance 
happened during the night, but the general understanding with all the 
fleet was, that we would not make a stand. 

"After daylight, on the morning of the 6th, we could see by the move- 
ments of the enemy that they were making preparations to come down, 
for the heavens were one solid cloud of black smoke. In the meantime 
we were not idle in making preparations to back out in the stream, which 
we did, one after another, until our whole fleet, eight in number, were 
drawn in line of battle. It was here we received the first intelligence 
that we were going to make a stand. The enemy was now in full view, 
coming down in line of battle. The following boats were sent up to draw 
the Federal gunboats off of the bar: General M. Jeff. Thompson, Sumter, 
General Beauregard, and Colonel Lovell, from the fact that they had 
sixty-four pound guns mounted on their bows. The fire was opened by 
the Thoynpson, but not until she had fired three rounds did the enemy 
make any reply. The fire on the Federal side was opened by the flag- 
ship Benton. The fight now became general. Brisk firing from both 
sides was the order of the day. It was while the battle was raging with 
intense fury, between our rams and the Federal gunboats, that their 
rams made their appearance; first came the Qtieen of the West, which 
made a bee-line for the Colonel Lovell, which tried to back out of the way, 
but in so doing got in such a position as to show her opponent a broad- 
side, when she ran into her and sunk her immediately, in water to her 
hurricane deck, in the channel of the river. Life-boats were immediately 
dispatched from the Little Rebel, to assist her crew in getting ashore. 
Before the Queen of the West coxAA regain her position, the Confederate 
ram Sumter struck her in midships, sending her ashore, during the bal- 
ance of the engagement. Next came the Switzerland, bearing down on 
the Sumter. The Beauregard next in turn singled out the Switzerland 
for her antagonist. The Federal ram, seeing her intention, drew off from 



260 THE CONFEDERATE STATES NAVY. 

the Blunter, and headed down on the Beauregard; they struck head on, 
but glanced, placing the Switzerland hors de combat, knocking down her 
bridge-tree, when she had to go ashore, wliere she threw out her sharp- 
shooters as pickets. Next came tlie Federal ram Monarch, in chase of 
the Jeff. Thompson, she at the same time rounding to, head up stream, 
followed by the Monarch; here the General Price was put under a heavy 
head of steam, to overtake the Monarch, which she did, striking her a 
heavy blow in the starboard quarter, driving in her hull, and rounding 
her to, after which she stopped to back around and give her another 
blow; but, unfortunately, the Beauregard had made a dash at the Mon- 
arch, and missed her object, and striking the Price on the port-side, com- 
pletely disabling her. During this, with only one wheel left, she managed 
to get ashore, but too late for the ci*ew to make their escape; disabled as 
she was, the enemy kept up a constant fire into her; for humanity's sake 
the "stars and bars " were hauled down. It was about this time the 
Beauregard got headed up again to meet another of her adversaries, 
when a shell was shot into her hull and burst, damaging her boilers and 
hull; killed one engineer, and wounding three others, and scalding three 
firemen. She was unfit for duty, floated down the river about one-fourth 
of a mile, and sunk in twenty feet water, face to the enemy, and coloi's 
flying. It was about this time the Little Rebel made a dash at one of the 
rams; but before she could reach her received a shot in her boilers, when 
she kept her course into the shore, Avhere all but three made their escape. 
In the meantime, the Sumter had been run ashore, and crew all escaped; 
also the Thompson was run ashore, and burned to the water's edge. The 
General Bragg stood off and looked at the fight, likewise the General Earl 
Van Born; neither offering any assistance. The Bragg, in attempting to 
round to, to make good her retreat, was run into by one of the Federal 
rams, which drove in her side. The crew of the Bragg nearly all made 
their escape in yawls and life-boats. The Van Born, handling much bet- 
ter than the Bragg, was fortunate in making good her escape. Thus 
ended one of the hottest naval engagements ever fought in the Missis- 
sippi. 

" The following is a list of the principal officers, as far as we can as- 
certain: 

'•'•Earl Van Born — Captain, Isaac Fulkerson; Purser, Charles Rey- 
nolds; First Officer, John W. Jordan; Second Officer, John Mardis; Chief 
Engineer, William Hurst; First Assistant Engineer, John Swift, William 
Camon and William Molloy. 

'■'■ General /Sterling Price— Csipta,m, Thomas E. Henthorn; Purser, L. 
F. Delisdeimer; First Officer, N. J. Henthorn; Second Officer, George L. 
Richardson; Chief Engineer, William Brauden; First Assistant Engineers, 
William Orin, W. W. Hayden and Oscar Postall. 

" General Beauregard — Captain, J. Henry Hart; Purser, J. C. 
Haynes; First Officer, R. D. Court; Second Officer, John Rawson; Chief 
Engineer, Joseph Swift; First Assistant, Edward Connolly; Pilot, J. Pope 
Altram. 

" General Bragg — Captain, W. H. H. Leonard; Purser, William Riply; 
First and Second Officers, names unknown; Chief Engineer, John Porter; 
First Assistant Engineer, Henry Sisson ; Pilot, James Russel. 

" ASMmfer— Captain, Wallace W. Lamb; Purser, John Wilbanks; First 
Officer, Lemuel Murray; Second Officer, name unknown; Chief Engineer, 
Robert T. Patterson; First Assistant Engineer, John Ramsey; Pilots, 
Thad Siederburg and Moses Gray. 

''■Little i^e&e/— Captain, J. White Fowler; Purser, Charles Smedly; 
First Officer, James Wall; Second Officer, name unknown ; Chief Engineer, 
Gus Mann; First Assistant Engineer, William Reeder; Pilots, Newton Pue 
and John Bernard. 

" General M. Jeff. Thompson — Captain, John Burk; Purser, James 
Bissell; First Officer, Louis Camfield; Second Officer, Henry Moore; Chief 
Engineer, Thomas Mitchell; Pilots, Barney Arnold and Daniel Thomas. 



THE CONFEDERATE STATES NAVY. 261 

" General iotJeZZ— Captain, James C. Dellaney; Purser, Hardy; First 
Officer, Thomas Johnson; Pilot, WilUam Cable. 

" Commodore of the fleet, J. E. Montgomery. 

"The Federal fleet consisted of sixteen mortar-boats, six rams, and 
eight gunboats, besides any number of tugs and transports. " 

Col. Ellet's dispatch to Secretary of War Stanton is as 
follows: 

"Opposite Memphis, June 6th, via Cairo, June 8th. 
" To Hon. E. M. Stanton, Secretary of War: 

" The rebel gunboats made a stand early this morning opposite Mem- 
phis, and opened a vigorous fire upon our gunboats, which was returned 
with equal spirit. I ordered the Queen, my flag-ship, to pass between 
the gunboats and move down ahead of them upon the two rams of the 
enemy, which first boldly stood their ground. 

"Lieut. Col. Ellet, in the Monarch, of which Capt. Dryden is First 
Master, followed gallantly. The rebel rams endeavored to back down 
stream, and then to turn and run, but the movement was fatal to them. 
The Queen struck one of them fairly, and for a few minutes was fast to 
the wreck. After separating, the rebel steamer sunk. My steamer, the 
Queen, was then herself struck by another rebel steamer and disabled, 
but, though damaged, can be repaired. A pistol-shot wound in the leg 
deprived me of the power to witness the remainder of the fight. 

"■ The Monarch also passed ahead of our gunboats, and went most 
gallantly into action. She first struck the rebel boat that struck my fiag- 
ship and sunk the rebel. She was then struck by one of the rebel rams, 
but not injured. She then pushed on and struck the Beauregard and 
burst open her side. Simultaneously, the Beauregard was struck in the 
boiler by a shot from one of our gunboats. 

" The Monarch then pushed at the gunboat Little Rebel, the rebel 
flag-ship, and having but little headway pushed her before her, the rebel 
commodore and crew escaping. The Monarch then finding the Beaure 
gard sinking, took her in tow until she sank in shoal water. Then, in 
compliance with the request of Commander Davis, Lieut. Col. Ellet dis- 
patched the Monarch and the Sioitzerland in pursuit of the one remain- 
ing gunboat and some transports which had escaped the gunboats. 

" Two of my rams have gone below. 

" I cannot too much praise the conduct of the pilots and engineers 
and military guard of the Monarch and Queen, the brave conduct of 
Capt. Dryden, or the heroic bearing of Lieut. Col. Ellet. I will name all 
parties to you in a special report. I am myself the only person in my 
fleet who was disabled. 

[Signed] Charles Ellet, 

" Col. Commanding Ram Fleef'' 

This dispatch was also sent to the Federal War Depart- 
ment : 

" Opposite Memphis, June 6th, via Cairo, 8th. 
'■'■Hon. Edwin M. Stanton, Secretary of War: 

" It is proper and due to the brave men on the Queen and the Mon- 
arch to say to you briefly that two of the rebel steamers were sunk out- 
right and immediately by the shock of my two rams, one with a large 
amount of cotton, etc., on board was disabled by accidental collision with 
the Queen, and secured by her crew, after I was personally disabled. 

"Another, which was also hit by a shot from the gunboats, was sunk 
by the Monarch, and towed to shoal water by that boat. Still another, 
also injured by the fire of our gunboats, was pushed in to the shore and 
secured by the Monarch. Of the gunboats I can only say that they bore 
themselves, as our navy always does, bravely and well. 

[Signed] Chas. Ellet, Jr., 

" Col. Commanding Ram Fleet.''' 



262 THE CONFEDERATE STATES NAVY. 

This battle between the ram fleets on the Mississippi very 
nearly destroyed the River Defence expedition, and demon- 
strated the folly which conceived and executed a plan of 
defence expensive and inefficient, and which, intrusted to men 
incapable of commanding because unwilling to obey, was 
certain to meet with an early and ruinous defeat. 

Neither the Navy Department nor any naval officer was 
at any time identified with this fleet, and, as whatever it 
accomplished belongs to those commanding it, so the responsi- 
bility for its failure, destruction and expense rest on the C. S. 
War Department. 

The city of Memphis, being without defences of any kind, 
was surrendered to the Federal authorities, and the Mississippi 
from Cairo to Vicksburg was open to navigation by Federal 
gunboats: but its banks, infested with guerrilla bands, still 
rendered its use too hazardous for trade and business. ' 

1 On the morning of the 6th of June, Brig. " I saw a large portion of the engagement 

Gen. M. Jeff. Thompson and Capt. Montgomery from the river bank, and am sorry to say that in 

were given by Gen. Beauregard joint command my opinion many of our men were handled 

of the River Defence. It proved a very short badly, as the plan of battle was very faulty, 

and a very inelficient defence— for at 12:30 A. M. The enemy's rams (Col. Ellet's fleet) did most of 

on the 6th, after receiving Gen. Beauregard's the execution, and were handled more adroitly 

dispatch, Gen. Thompson reports, June 7th, than ours; I think, however, entirely owing to 

that he "immediately wrote a note to the the fact that the guns and sharp-shooters of the 

Commodore (Montgomery), asking what I enemy were constantly employed, while we 

should do to co-operate vrith him. He requested were almost without either. The Colonel Lovell 

two companies of artillery to be sent aboard at was so injured that she sank in the middle of 

daybreak (all of my men were at the depot the river; her eaiitain, Jas. Delancy, and a num- 

awaiting transportation to Grenada). I at once ber of others, swam ashore. The Beauregard 

ordered the companies to hold themselves in and Price were running at the Mmiarch (Yankee) 

readiness. At the dawn of day I was awakened from opposite sides, when the Monarch passed 

with the information that the enemy were from between them, and the Beauregard ran 

actiiaUy in sight of Memphis. I hurried on into the Price, knocking off her wheel-house, 

board to consult with Montgomery. He in- and entirely disabling her. Both were run to 

structed me to hurry my men to I'ort Pickering the Arkansas shore and abandoned. The Little 

Landing, and sent a tug to bring them up to the Rebel, commodore's flag-boat, was run ashore 

gunboats, which were advancing to attack the and abandoned after she had been completely 

enemy. I hastened my men to the place indi- riddled, and I am satisfied the commodore was 

cated, but before we reached it our boats had kUled. The battle continued down the river, 

been either destroyed or driven below Fort out of sight of Memphis, and it is reported that 

Pickering, and I marched back to the depot to only two of our boats, the Bragg and Van Dorn, 

come to this place (Grenada) to await orders. escaped." 



CHAPTER XII. 
BUILDING A NAVY AT NEW ORLEANS. 



AMONG the earliest acts of the C. S. Navy Department, 
March 17th, 1861, for the increase of the navy, was the 
appointment of a commission, consisting of Commander 
L. Rousseau,CommanderE.Farrand,and Lieut. Robert T. 
Chapman, to purchase and contract for building the ten gun- 
boats authorized by Acts of Congress, March 15th and August 
19th, 1861, which were to be ship-rigged propellers of 1,000 tons 
burden, capable of carrying at least one ten-inch and four 
eight-inch guns. These vessels were to be of light draft and 
great speed. The commission entered upon its duties early 
in April, 1861, at New Orleans, and at Algiers opposite, where 
there were several ship-yards which had been formerly largely 
engaged in building and repairing river craft of all descrip- 
tions; but no war vessel had ever been built at New Orleans. 
The commission did not find at New Orleans one vessel 
suitable for war purposes, but upon instructions from the 
Secretary it examined and purchased the Habanna and the 
Marquis de la Habanna, the former becoming the Sumter and 
the latter the McEae. Instructions for building vessels were 
given to Commander Rousseau, at New Orleans, on March 27th. 
and upon his report, after examination on April 22d, the steam- 
propeller Florida was purchased and fitted up for service 
on the lakes. An ineffectual effort was made to purchase a 
steamer offered for sale by Hollingsworth & Co., of Wilming- 
ton, Del., but the vessel failed to reach New Orleans. The 
Star of the West, captured in Texas, was used as a receiving- 
ship, as she was not adapted to war purposes. Commander Rous- 
seau, after a thorough examination of all the facilities at New 
Orleans for rolling iron plates, ascertained and reported that it 
was not possible to roll plates from 2| to 5 inches in thickness 
in any shop in New Orleans. His examination of the steamer 
Miramon was not favorable; but on the 9th of May he pur- 
chased the steamer Yankee, which was afterwards called the 
Jackson, and fitted her out, and with the McEae sent them 

(263) 



264 



THE CONFEDERATE STATES NAVY. 



up the river to Columbus, Ky. In Federal accounts of up- 
river operations this vessel is always styled the Yankee. 

On the 21st of May, 1861, Congress enacted a law, amend- 
ing the tenth section of the act, recognizing a state of war 
with the United States; so that, in addition to the bounty 
therein mentioned, the government of the Confederate States 
would pay to the cruisers of any private armed vessel com- 
missioned under said act twenty per cent, on the value of such 
vessel belonging to the enemy as may be destroyed by such 
private armed vessel. Under that act, the ram Manassas was 
built at New Orleans by private subscription; but after Com- 
modore Hollins' successful clearing of the enemy's fleet from 
the mouth of the Mississippi River, on the 12th of October, 
1861, the Manassas was purchased by the C. S. government. 




THE "MANASSAS." 



The Manassas was constructed out of the Enoch Train, 
built in Boston, in 1855, by J. O. Curtis. Her correct dimen- 
sions were: Length on deck, 128 feet; breadth of beam, 26 
feet; depth of hold, 12 feet 6 inches; depth of hold to spar 
deck, 12 feet 6 inches; draft of water, when loaded, 11 feet; 
387 tons burden. Her frame, when built, was of white oak, 
and cross-fastened with iron and tree-nails. Her engine was 
of the inclined description, with two cylinders 36 inches in 
diameter, and a stroke of piston of 2 feet 8 inches. She was a 
propeller. Her machinery was constructed by Harrison 
Loring, of Boston; Capt. John A. Stephenson, a commission 
merchant of New Orleans, undertook the conversion of the 
Enoch Train. She was built up with massive beams, seventeen 
inches in thickness, making a solid bow of twenty feet, and 
fastening them in the most substantial manner. Over this 
impenetrable mass was a complete covering of iron plates, 
riveted together, and fitted in such a way as to render her 
bomb-proof. Her only entrance was through a trap-door in 



THE CONFEDERATE STATES NAVY. 265 

her back, and her port cover sprang back as the gun was 
withdrawn. Her shape above water was nearly that of 
half a sharply pointed egg - shell, so that a shot would 
glance from her no matter where it struck. Her back was 
formed of twelve-inch oak, covered with one-and-a-half -inch 
bar-iron. She had two chimneys so arranged as to slide 
down in time of action. The pilot-house was in the stern of 
the boat. She was worked by a powerful propeller, but could 
not stem a strong current. She carried only one gun, a sixty- 
eight-pounder, in her bow. To prevent boarding, the engine 
was provided with pumps for ejecting steam and scalding 
water from the boiler over the whole surface. Such was the 
craft which in the earliest days of the war the enterprising 
people of New Orleans, without aid from city, State or Con- 
federacy, contrived, and which proved not only, as Capt, 
Hollins said, the " most troublesome vessel of them all" at 
the fight at the passage of the forts, but which cleared the 
river in October, 1861, of the blockading fleet. 

In the interval between March 17th, 1861, and February 
1st, 1862, the utmost efforts of the Navy Department were 
made to put afloat a naval force competent to meet that being 
prepared at St, Louis by the United States, To that end, river 
boats were purchased and converted, not into gunboats, but 
into steamboats with guns on them. They were side-wheel 
steamboats of light draft, and though substantially built for 
commercial uses, were too frail to withstand the effect of 
heavy ordnance. They had no rails and no breast-works, but 
were pierced for eight or nine guns. Their armament was old 
navy smooth-bore forty-two-pounders, with a rifle thirty -two- 
pounder to each boat. 

The movements of the enemy's fleet down the river com- 
pelled Commodore Hollins, in December, 1861, to take his im- 
provised fleet of steamboats up the river. This was composed 
of the General Polk, the Ivy, the Livingston, the Maurej)as, 
the McRae and the Manassas, which last *was, as we have 
stated, sheathed with one and one-half inches of iron. In 
January and February, 1862, the Bienville, Ponchartrain and 
Carondelet were completed, all of which were also converted 
river boats. The Livingston, built by Hughes & Co., under 
contract with the Secretary of the Navy, had more of the pre- 
tensions of a gunboat than any of the others; she was com- 
pleted on the keel of a ferry or tow-boat, laid before hostilities 
began, and was more substantially constructed than her 
consorts. 

The floating batteries New Orleans and Ilemphis, the 
gunboats Mobile and the Leger, in Berwick's Bay, the St. 
Mary's and the Calhoun, with twenty-six fire-boats, were all 
prepared, and, as far as they were capable of being adapted to 
war purposes, were completed in less than nine months at 
New Orleans alone. 



266 



THE CONFEDERATE STATES NAVY. 



The character and strength of the enemy's fleet on the 
upper and lower Mississippi having been fully reported to 
the Confederate Navy Department, a more effective means of 
defending the river from these threatened attacks was sub- 
mitted to and approved by Capts. Ingraham and Collins, 
Lieut. Brooke, and Naval Constructor Pierce, and for that 
purpose §800,000 was appropriated by the Act of Congress of 
July 30th, 1861. 

The construction of the Louisiana by E. C. Murray was be- 
gun in New Orleans on October 15th, 1861. The blockade of the 
river having begun prior to that date, the timber had to be pro- 
cured from Lake Ponchartrain and from the forests along the 
New Orleans and Jackson Railroad. There was used in her con- 
struction 1,700,000 feet. The engines of the steamer Ingomar 




THE "LOUISIANA. 



were bought and transferred to the Louisiana, but it required 
two months for their removal by Leeds & Co. The contractor 
used 500 tons of railroad iron in the vessel. Delays of construc- 
tion were frequent, in consequence of strikes among the hands 
for higher wages, from having to. wait for iron, and from alter- 
ation in the port-holes. Mr. Murray, the contractor, had been 
a practical ship-builder for twenty years, and had built over 
120 boats — steamers and sailing-vessels; but with all possible 
diligence on his part, it was not within his power to complete 
the boat earlier than thirty days before the fall of New Or- 
leans. It was a practical impossibility to have completed the 
boat earlier than she was launched, while other vessels were 
building at New Orleans, and the blockade of the river pre- 
vented the receipt of timber and iron from abroad. The gun- 
boat Livingston was under construction at that time in the 
yard of John Hughes & Co., but was not iron-shielded. The 
Bienville and Carondelet — the former built by Hughes & Co., 



THE CONFEDERATE STATES NAVY. 2G7 

and the latter by Naval Constructor Sidney D. Porter — were 
also being at this time built in New Orleans yards. The Liv- 
ingston was completed February 1st, 1862, the Bienville April 
5th, 1862, and the Carondelet March 16th, 1862, the first in 
seven months, the second in six months; and in November, 
1861, Mr. Mallory had at New Orleans, under construction, a 
fleet consisting of the floating battery New Orleans, 20 guns, 
the floating battery Memphis, 18 guns; the gunboat (incom- 
plete) to carry 6 guns; the gunboat Grotesque, afterwards the 
Maurepas, 6 guns; the Lizzie Simmons, afterwards the Pon- 
chartrain, 6 guns; the Bienville and Carondelet (incomplete) 
each to carry 6 guns; the Pickens and the Morgan, each 3 
guns, and the two iron-clads, the Louisiana and the Missis- 
sippi, each, when complete, to mount 16 guns. When the 
Federal fleet reached New Orleans, Capt. Porter, U. S. N., 
wrote to Senator Grimes, of Iowa, that of the naval vessels 
constructed at New Orleans, " the best one I saw floating ^ 
by me was a dry dock turned into a floating battery, mount- 
ing 16 guns, and the entire engine, which was to propel it, 
hermetically sealed by a thick iron turret against shot. She 
was sunk, but floated down to Southwest Pass, and is now 
aground on the bar and can be easily raised." 

The failure to complete at New Orleans the iron-clad 
steamer Mississippi was a matter of much discussion .and 
of crimination against the Navy Department. Of that ves- 
sel, Commodore Hollins stated before the joint committee 
that " she was the greatest vessel in the world. I don't sup- 
pose there was ever such a vessel built." Of the same 
tenor was the testimony of Capt. Sinclair, C. S. N. : " She 
was entirely a new conception, and a remarkably fine ves- 
sel, and very formidable, in my opinion. I am satisfied that 
she could have, as I stated before, kept that river clear 
against the blockade. That vessel, as I have said, was 
entirely a new conception. She was a ship that was most 
creditable to the country, as far as my judgment goes." 
Capt. Porter, U. S. N., in his letter of May 6th, 1861, to Sen- • 
ator Grimes, bore testimony to the strength of the Missis- 
sippi, by saying: 

"In New Orleans our naval ofHeers found the most splendid speci- 
men of a floating battery the world has ever seen (a sea-going affair, 
and had she been finished and succeeded in getting to sea, the whole 
American navy would have been destroyed. She was 6,000 tons, 270 feet 
long, 60 feet beam; had four engines, three propellers, four inches (and in 
some places more) of iron, and would steam eleven knots an hour. She 
cost Mr. Mallory & Co. $2,000,000." 

The projectors of the Mississippi were the Messrs. Nel- 
son and Asa F. Tift. These gentlemen were brothers, the 
former a citizen of Georgia, and the latter a citizen of Flor- 
ida, who had been a member of the Convention of that 
State which passed the Ordinance of Secession, which Mr. 



268 THE CONFEDERATE STATES NAVY. 

Tift signed, and for this his property in that State, at Key 
West, had been seized by the authorities of the United 
States, and Mr. Tift removed to Georgia, to the estate of his 
brother. These unimportant facts are stated because super- 
servicable Confederates, like the Hon. Henry S. Foote, of Mis- 
sissippi, who abandoned the Confederacy in the hour of its 
supreme trial, and made his individual peace with Mr. Lin- 
coln, endeavored by insinuation and innuendo to impeach the 
loyalty of the Messrs. Tift to the Confederate cause. 

At the breaking out of the war, Mr. N. Tift considered 
that the weakest point of the Confederacy, as well as the strong- 
est point of the United States, was on the water, where the 
greatest deficiency of the Confederacy existed, and where the 
supreme necessity existed for maintaining, at least, the ability 
to hold communication with foreign nations, and there the 
enemy possessed the means and the skill of inflicting the most 
serious injury to our means of defence both on water and 
land. To contribute all that was in his power towards the 
public defence, he set his mind to considering the best means 
of attack and defence which the Confederates could make, in 
their then situation of almost utter destitution of mechanics 
skilled in naval architecture, as well as of the means of build- 
ing the ships. To supply necessities, and overcome obstacles, 
Mr. Tift saw that it was necessary to work the abundant pine 
timber into vessels by the ordinary house - carpenter. And 
that, if war -vessels made of green pine timber could be 
shielded with iron, the Confederate States would have 
taken a very important step in equalizing the conditions of 
war with the United States. To that end he applied his mind, 
and perfected the model of the Mississippi. Having sub- 
mitted his design to the judgment of his brother, they both 
went to Richmond, where the model, which had been exam- 
ined and approved in Savannah by Commander Tatnall, and in 
Charleston by prominent naval officers, was submitted to the 
examination of Mr, Mallory. The Messrs. Tift asked no com- 
pensation for their model, did not seek fortune by contracting 
to build the ship, but tendered their services to the govern- 
ment without compensation to superintend the building of the 
vessel. 

The model of the Mississippi was the adaptation of 
straight timber to her construction, in a new and simple form, 
upon which the ordinary house-carpenter could work, and by 
which strength and efficiency could be obtained, rather than 
the old lines of curved frames, crooks and knees, peculiar to 
the old style of naval architecture. The model avoided the 
necessity of employing skilled ship-carpenters and joiners, of 
which there were very few in any of the ports of the Confed- 
erate States. All surfaces of the Mississippi were fiat, or in 
straight lines, except the four corners which connected the two 
ends of tlie ship with her sides. There was to be no frame; 



THE CONFEDERATE STATES NAVY. 269 

but the work was solid for the required thickness, which was 
three feet, and to be covered with three-inch iron plates. The 
model first submitted to the Navy Department was during 
construction lengthened in the middle division 20 feet, by 
which two sets of 8 boilers, each 42 inches in diameter, and 
30 feet long, gave the necessary steam to work 3 engines 36 
inches in diameter, 2 feet stroke shelf valves, with 3 pro- 
pellers 11 feet in diameter, on wrought-iron shafts. 

The Mississippi was 260 feet long, 58 feet extreme breadth, 
15 feet depth of hold, about the same size as the U. S. 
steamers Colorado and Roanoke. The Algerine News Boy, of 
December 30th, gives the following items : 

"The bottom of this gunboat is twenty-two inches thick, in soUd 
planks, sohdly bolted and calked, and its walls two feet solid in thickness, 
with numerous thick keelsons to brace it. 

" The hold will be fourteen feet in depth, and on its summit will be 
placed the battery, composed of several heavy rifled and shell guns, all 
under casemates. 

"Above this is a cupola, which will contain various conveniences, 
and be surmounted with another battery, and a shooting-gallery for 
sharp-shooters. 

' ' The vessel is to be strengthened by iron bolts through and through, 
and be plated over with three-inch iron. She will be drawn by three pro- 
pellers, worked by powerful engines. Another such a gunboat will imme- 
diately follow this one. Near by is another just begun, still larger, which 
will combine the breadth of the floating battery with some of the advan- 
tages of a self-propelled boat." 

Much difficulty was experienced in procuring a first-class 
designer, and after trying several who iailed to satisfy the 
projectors of the ship, E. M. Ivens and Chief Engineer 
Warner completed the designs, and Acting Naval Constructor 
Pierce was appointed superintendent ; and on September. 
25th, 1861, the preparation of the ship-yard was commenced 
on the east side of the river, immediately above the corpo- 
rate limits of the city, and within the corporate lines of 
Jefferson City, on the property of Mr. Millandon, who ten- 
dered its use without charge. There Constructor Pierce com- 
menced his preparations for building on the 28th of September. 
In thirty days he made the body, and put the floors in the 
ship; in two months the sides had risen three feet high; in 
110 days the wood- work was completed. This extraordinary 
dispatch was owing to the peculiar plan of construction. 

Before the Investigating Committee of the Confederate Con - 
gress, E. C. Murray, a practical ship-builder of twenty years and 
the contractor for building the Louisiana, testified that: 

"I think the vessel was built in less time than any vessel of her 
tonnage and character, and requiring the same amount of work and 
materials, on this continent. That vessel required no less than 10,000,- 
000 feet of lumber, and, I suppose, about 1,000 tons of iron, including the 
false works, blockways, etc. I do not think that amount of materials 
were ever put together on this continent within the time occupied in 
her construction. I knew many of our naval vessels requiring much less 



270 THE CONFEDERATE STATES NAVY 

material than were employed in the Mississippi, that took about six or 
twelve months in their construction. She was built with rapidity, and 
Imd at all times as many men at work upon her as could work to advan- 
tage. She had, in fact, many times more men at work upon her than 
could conveniently work. They worked on nights and Sundays upon her, 
as I did upon the Louisiana, at least for a large portion of the time." 

Contracts for every part of the steam machinery were 
made immediately with the Messrs. Jackson & Co., of the 
Patterson Iron Works, at New Orleans, to be completed in 
ninety days. There was not a foundry and hammer in the 
Confederacy capable of making the wrought-iron shafts for 
the vessel. Three of these shafts were required; that for 
the middle to be fifty feet long, and those on the sides each 
forty feet long, and all nine inches in diameter. The middle 
shaft was fitted up at the Tredegar Works in Richmond and 
did not reach New Orleans until April 9th, at which time one 
of the side-shafts was at Leeds & Co.'s, and the third shaft 
was just forged and would not be ready for nine or ten days. 
New Orleans fell on April 24:th; Capt. Whittle was informed 
that the Mississippi would be ready for her guns on April 23d, 
and ready for service on the 1st of May; the plating was going 
on as fast as possible, but it would require from twelve to 
fourteen days to completely shield the ship with iron. 

It was not the purpose of the projectors to launch the ship 
until the shafts and propellers had been put in, but Capt. 
Mitchell and Capt. Sinclair having given their opinion that 
the enemy might pass the forts at any moment, the Missis- 
sippi was launched on the 19th of April with her iron on be- 
low the surface of the gun-decks, and the remaining iron was 
being rapidly put on; the furnace work was completed and all 
the machinery on board; the wood-work was entirely done, 
and two weeks of more time would have seen the Mississippi 
fully completed, equipped and commissioned. 

When the Federal fleet passed the forts, the Mississippi 
in her unfinished state could neither fight nor run away, and 
Commander Sinclair, who was in charge of her, made every 
effort to obtain boats to tow the vessel up the river. To that 
end he employed the St. Charles and the Peytona, which, after 
an unaccountable delay of nearly twelve hours, was unable to 
move the ship up stream on account of the current.there being a 
freshet at the time which made the current even stronger than 
usual. After the whole night spent in fruitlessly trying to move 
the ship up stream, and finding that they were losing ground 
and floating down towards the approaching enemy, the 3Iis- 
sissippi was committed to the flames and burned to the water's 
edge, and sunk in the river. 

Commander Arthur Sinclair testified before the Court of 
Inquiry, that 

" The Mississippi might doubtless have been launclied and towed up 
the river many days previous to the enemy s passing the forts, and there 



THE CONFEDERATE STATES NAVY. 271 

finally completed; but her completion would have been greatly retarded, 
as all the workshops, material, workmen — in fact, the whole naval estab- 
lishment — would have had to be transferred from New Orleans to the 
place of transfer, and there was no place of safety above, that I know of, 
short of Fort Pillow, and all above on the river was tlien menaced by the 
enemy. Her completion was a momentous affair, and, therefore, the 
work was prosecuted up to the last moment with all the energy in our 
power. I received no orders from the commander of the station. Com- 
mander Whittle, under whose orders 'I was, or from the Navy Depart- 
ment, to remove her until the morning of April 24th, the day upon which 
the enemy passed the forts. On that day Commander Whittle sent for 
and informed me that the enemy had passed the batteries, and were 
coming up, at the same time directing me to take the sliip up the river, 
if possible, to some place of safety, but not to let her fall into the hands 
of the enemy. I immediately sent orders to tlie steamers engaged by the 
Messrs. Tift to proceed at once up to the ship-yard for the purpose of 
taking the ship in tow. The officers sent by me ujjon this duty returned, 
and informed me that the steamers referred to had been detained by 
order of Gen. Lovell. I called myself upon Col. Lovell, the general being 
out of his office upon business, and obtained from him the release of two 
of the three which were engaged for this purpose, the Peytona and tlie 
St. Charles. Although directed to proceed at once, they did not reach the 
ship-yard until late in the evening. The captains of these boats showeil 
every disposition — in fact, determination— to thwart me in my wishes, and, 
to accomplish my ends, I had, with my own officers, to lash and secure 
them alongside, and furnished one of them, the steamer St. Charles, with 
an engineer, as the captain said he had only one. I finally succeeded in 
getting ofi", but found, after many hours of hard tugging against a power- 
ful current, that I could not succeed. Assistance was promised me by 
Col. Baggs (or Biggs) of the Safety Committee, but none was received. 
Still unwilling to give up the ship, I went myself back to the city in the 
Peytona, and urged the aid of the steamers, but in vain. Every variety 
of excuse was ofifered by their captains, and no disposition manifested to 
help me; in fact, a fixed determination not to move in the matter. 
While thus negotiating, the enemy hove in sight, and I at once started 
back for the sliip, four miles above, intending to fire her; but the officer in 
charge, Lieut. Waddell, anticipated me, and applied the torch. After re- 
maining in the stream until the ship was nearly consumed, I held a 
council of war with my officers, and it was determined to return to the 
city and offer our services to Gen. Lovell. I was on my way back when I 
met Lieut. McCorkle, of the navy, who informed me that the enemy were 
off Canal Street, and that Gen. Lovell had marched his troops out. I 
then proceeded up the river with my officers to Vicksburg. I will also 
state that the assistance of several steamers, which passed up the river, 
while engaged in towing the Mississippi, was asked and refused. I also 
engaged the services of navy workmen to accompany me up in the ship to 
try and finish her, and put on board, while awaiting the arrival of the 
steamers, much of the material for her completion. Some was afterwards 
put aboard the steamer St. Charles before firing the ship, and taken up 
to Vicksburg and saved 

" The Mississippi was launched on Saturday, April 19th, and burned 
the Friday following. In this connection, I would state that on my 
arrival at New Orleans there was a great desire upon the part of manj^ 
persons expressed that the ship should be launched. The Tifts objected, 
and I agreed with them that to launch her in her then condition would 
cause much delay in shipping her propellers, and involve the expense of 
building the box or dry dock for that purpose, of which I have already 
spoken; but, finding the attack about to be commenced, I recommended 
her being launched to her builders, the Tifts, in which Commander 
Mitchell joined me; the suggestion was heeded, but not until many days 
after, for reasons which they assigned; * * * if the Mississipjn had 



272 THE CONFEDERATE STATES NAVY. 

been completed, and with her armament and men on board, she alone 
could have held the river against the entire Federal fleet coming up from 
below; and she would have been the most formidable ship that I ever 
knew or heard of — very creditable to her projectors, builders and country." 

Admiral Porter remarks in his Naval History, that if New- 
Orleans had " been left three months longer to perfect its de- 
fences and finish its work of offence, our wooden fleet would 
have been driven North, and the entire Southern coast would 
have been sealed against us. The blockade would have been 
raised, and the independence of the South recognized by the 
powers of Europe ''; that "truly the Queen City of the South 
Avas doing her share of building rams to annihilate our navy 
and commerce, but where were our rams that should have 
been built by the North, which boasted of its great skill and 
resources ? These should have been ready to sally out within 
three months after the war began, to drive the Louisiana. 
Manassas, Mississippi, Tennessee, A?'ka7isas, Alhe^narle and 
others back to their holes, or crush them like so many egg- 
shells." The Mississippi was raised by the Federal authori- 
ties, and sent to Brooklyn navy-yard. 

Admiral Farragut's experience of the Confederate gun- 
boats constructed out of frail river craft was sufficient for 
him to say that '' the rebel gunboats cannot stand before ours; 
but what they dignify by the name of iron-clad rams is an 
article entirely different, and, had they succeeded in getting 
any one of those on the Mississippi finished before our arrival, 
it would have proved a most formidable adversary"; and that 

" We have destroyed, or made the enemy destroy, three of the most 
formidable rams in the country. Arthur Sinclair declared that the Mis- 
sissippi (ram) which he was to connuand was far superior to the Merri- 
mac. But we were too quick for them. Her machinery was not in work- 
ing order, and when I sent after her they set her on fire, and she floated 
past us, formidable even in her expiring flames. Mitchell commanded 
the other as flag-offleer. Poor Charlie Mcintosh was her captain, and is 
now going on shore in a dreadful condition. It is not thought he will live, 
but he has a good constitution, and that will do a great deal for him. 

"Their fleet has suffered very much in this affair, both in reputa- 
tion and in vessels. We destroyed them ah, some fourteen or fifteen, and 
many lives were lost." 

While this work of building ships and converting old 
steamboats into vessels - of - war was going on, there were 
naval expeditions undertaken from New Orleans, which 
served to keep alive the spirit of naval enterprise and to teach 
those lessons which can only be learned in time of war. 

While the McRae was being fitted out, her officers were 
impatient to be about some duty other than that which held 
them down in New Orleans. Capt. Higgins, formerly of the 
U. S. navy, but at that time acting as aid to Gen. Twiggs, 
undertook to capture the launches of the enemy prowling and 
marauding in the Mississippi Sound; and obtaining volunteers 
from Lieut. Thomas B. Huger, of the McRae, started with two 



THE CONFEDERATE STATES NAVY. 273 

lake steamers, armed with one thirty-two pounder, one eight- 
inch gun, and two howitzers. Tlie steamer Oregon, commanded 
by Capt. A. L. Myers, and the steamer Sivaim, by Lieut. A. F. 
Warley, C. S. N., proceeding to Bay St. Louis, and filling 
bags with sand, they left the bay at nine o'clock on July Gth 
for the cruising-ground of the enemy, the Swaim taking the 
mainland or side passage, and the Oregon the outside, and 
proceeded to Ship Island Pass. 

Finding no enemy in sight, the Oregon proceeded to sea 
from Ship Island, and soon saw two vessels and gave chase. 
They proved to be two Confederate fishing -smacks. The 
Oregon then returned to Ship Island, and Capt. Higgins, who 
was in command of the exj^edition, deemed it advisable to take 
possession of Ship Island. Accordingly he signalled the Swaim 
to come to and go alongside of the island. The Oregon then 
came alongside the Swaim, and both proceeded to disembark 
the men and munitions of war, provisions, etc. After the 
disembarkation the guns on the boats were put in battery, 
and protected by sand-bags. 

The Swaim was left at the island while the Oregon pro- 
ceeded to New Orleans, via Pass Christian, for the purpose of 
sending a dispatch to Gen. Twiggs to send forward reinforce- 
ments of ammunition and men. There she was ordered to take 
on board guns, gun-carriages, and munitions to reinforce Ship 
Island — Major Twiggs, and Capt. Higgins and Major Smith, 
using every possible effort to get everything in readiness. 
The steamer Grey Cloud was also taken into requisition, and 
was loaded and got underway, also well armed. The Oregon 
followed the same night with provisions, and proceeded directly 
to Ship Island. 

On Tuesday morning, when within eight miles of the fort 
on Ship Island, Capt. Mj^ers saw a large U. S. steamer 
and a tender lying off about two miles outside the island. At 
this moment the troops at the sand batteries opened fire on the 
steamer, which was immediately returned, and the battle 
commenced in good earnest. The Grey Cloud coming up 
slowly, the Oregon took off her ammunition and proceeded at 
once to the scene of action. Major Smith directing the Grey 
Cloud to follow at a safe distance. 

Having arrived at the island, Capt. Myers proceeded at 
once in his yawl, with Major Smith, with a load of shell and 
powder, being received with cheers by Capt. Thom, of the C. S. 
marines, and the sailors and soldiers, who at once carried the 
supplies to the batteries. The enemy had fired some thirty 
odd rounds of shell and round shot, which sank in the sand, 
and were used by our sailors in returning fire. The explosion 
of the enemy's shells did no other damage than slightly to 
injure one man in the leg. 

The steamers immediately commenced landing their guna 
and provisions, during which time the enemy again opened 

18 



274 THE CONFEDERATE STATES NAVY. 

fire, the shot falling short, but being returned with great effect. 
It is supposed that the attacking steamer, the Massachusetts, 
was hulled three times, and a shell was seen to explode over 
her decks, which, it was supposed, did some damage, as she 
immediately hauled off and put for the Chandeleur Islands, a 
distance of twelve miles. 

After taking possession of the island, Capt. Higgins de- 
tailed the following officers, with the marines and sailors, to 
hold and defend it : Lieut. Warley, commanding; Lieut. R. T. 
Thom, of the marines; Surgeon Lynah and the midshipmen. 
After the enemy had retired, the steamer Sivaim arrived with 
Lieut. Col. H. W. Allen, of the Fourth Regiment, from Missis- 
sippi City, with three companies, who set to work fortifying 
the island. 

The proclamation of blockade, issued by Mr. Lincoln on 
the 19th of April, 1861, was put in force for the Mississippi 
River in June following, when the Powhatan, Lieut. D. D. 
Porter, took station off the Southwest Pass; and the Brooklyn, 
Commander Charles Poor, off Pass a I'Outre. But the escape 
of the Sumter from the latter pass soon called the attention of 
the U. S. naval authorities to the necessity of a closer watch 
over the many exits from New Orleans, and suggested the 
holding of the "head of the passes" by a naval force. This 
point, where the vast volume of the waters of the Mississippi 
divides into three great outlets to the ocean, is distant sixteen 
miles by the Southwest Pass, and fourteen miles by Pass a 
rOutre,'from the bar. The river at the " head of the passes " 
broadens into a bay two miles wide, and from the telegraph 
station to the point of firm land, between Southwest and South 
Passes, the distance is also two miles — so that there is wide 
and deep water at the head — ample to float a fleet, and for 
naval manoeuvres. To hold the "head of the passes" the 
Federal authorities attempted to erect a battery on the point 
of firm ground at the junction of the Southwest and South 
Passes, but the movements of Captain Hollins, about to 
be related, broke up the battery before it was more than 
marked out. In that deep and broad water, the Federal 
squadron, consisting of the screw-steamer Eichmond, twenty- 
two nine-inch guns, Capt. John Pope; the Vincennes, sloop-of- 
war, ten guns. Commander Robert Handy; the sloop Preble, 
eleven guns. Commander Henry French, and the screw- 
steamer Water Witch, four guns, Lieut. Francis Winslow, 
arrived on the 12th of October, 1861. The squadron mounted 
forty - seven guns, and, properly handled and commanded, 
could have successfully met and destroyed the little Confed- 
erate fleet which Capt. George N. Hollins had improvised. 
The ships of Hollins' fleet were the McRae, whose defective 
machinery had prevented her from following the Sumter to 
sea, and changed her destination from a cruiser to a River 
Defence craft, was at that time commanded bv Lieut. Com. 



^ THE CONFEDERATE STATES NAVY. 375 

Joseph Fry, who after the war commanded the Virginius, 
and met so sad a death in Cuba. The Ivy, the Tuscarora, the 
Calhoun, the Jackson, and the ram Manassas, under Lieut. 
Warley, and the unarmed tow-boat Watson, under Lieut. 
Averett — the whole under command of Capt. Hollins. 

In the early morn of the 13th of October, the U. S. S. Rich- 
mond lay at anchor taking in coal from a schooner alongside. 
The night was intensely dark, and it was almost impossible to 
see twenty yards ahead. The Manassas put on a heavy head 
of steam and dashed on in the direction where it was thought 
the enemy were lying. Suddenly a large ship was discovered 
only a length ahead, and, before Lieut. Warley could fire 
the signal - rocket into her they went together with an aw- 
ful crash! An appalling shriek was heard on board of the 
Richmond, or the schooner, as the ram crushed into the Rich- 
mond, and broke loose the schooner, the latter having acted as 
a cushion, and breaking somewhat the force of the ram's 
blow. Immediately, the Richmond fired a rocket, beat to 
quarter, and poured a shower of iron hail on the dark waters 
and into the still darker air. Though the force of the Man- 
assas' blow broke in the side of the Richmond, it was not with- 
out injury to her own machinery. This was most inoppor- 
tune and perilous; and the Richmo7id, soon observing that 
something was wrong, began playing upon her with all the 
power of her guns. Lieut. Warley found that only one engine 
would work, and with that he began working his way out of 
reach towards shore; but the shot fell thick and fast around, 
and upon the " old turtle," and her fate seemed hanging on 
a hair, when the brave little Tuscarora v^n^ the Watson^ came 
up with five barges on fire, and soon cut them adrift on the 
stream. A ram and a fire-raft were too much for Capt. Pope's 
nerves, and signalling *' danger" with a red light, he ordered 
the Preble and the Vince7ines to proceed down the Southwest 
Pass, which they did, not standing on the order of their going. 
His oflScial report says: 

" At this time three large fire-rafts, stretching across the river, were 
rapidly nearing us, while several larger steamers and a bark -rigged pro- 
peller were seen astern of them. The squadron proceeded down the river 
in the following order : First, the Preble; second, the Vincemies; third, 
the Richmond; fourth, the Water Witch ; \fith. the prize schooner i^roZ/c 
in tow. When abreast of the pilot settlement, the pilot informed me that 
he did not consider it safe to venture to turn this ship in the river, but 
that he believed he could pass over the bar. I accordingly attempted to 
pass over the bar with the squadron, but in the passage the Vincennes 

1 "The Watson did not run aground as 'has shot and shells of the enemy's ships into their 

been stated, did not sutfer any mishap, made midst. The expedition was a complete success 

no blunder, had no confusion, and made so so far as opening the way to the sea from New 

little noise as she steamed to her position ' to Orleans was its object, but the oflScers of the 

turn loose her fire-boats on the enemy's ships,' McRae were greatly disappointed, when it was 

that the Confederate fleet above her in the river discovered that her machinery was so defective 

supposed she had been disabled and was drift- as, in the judgment of Flag-officer Hollins, to 

ing helplessly between the flames of her own render the steamer unfit for sea service.— £Sc<rari 

fire-boats — one on either side — and under the from private letter of Lieut. Averett. 



\u. 



276 THE CONFEDERATE STATES NAVY. 

axid Rich?nond grounder], whUe the Preble went over clear. This occur- 
red about eight o'clock, and the enemy, who were now down the river 
with the fire steamers, commenced firing at us, while we returned the fire 
from our port battery and rifled gun on the poop— our shot, however, 
falling short of the enemy, while their sheM burst on all sides of us, and 
several passed directlj' over the ship." 

Capt. Hollins did not know what had been the result 
of the firing, neither did the rest of the officers. It was 
too dark to make observations, and he did not wish to risk 
signals. So daylight was waited for impatiently. It came at 
last, and presented the following picture: The enemy, some 
miles down, heeling it for the open sea by way of the South- 
west Pass. The Manassas close in shore, among the willows, 
concealed as well as possible; the Tuscarora aground on the 
bank, and the Watson not far off. The Tuscaroi^a was soon 
pulled off by the rest, and the fleet commenced a pursuit of 
the retreating enemy. They soon came within range, and a 
heavy cannonade began. The Richmond drew up on the out- 
side, and the other vessels of the enemy soon got aground, but 
near by, but were in a great measure protected by the Rich- 
moncFs guns. 

The fight ended not with the return of light, for Pope 
says: 

"At half-past nine C6mmander Handy, of the Vincennes, mistaking 
my signal to the ships outside the bar to get underway for a signal to 
him to abandon his ship, came on board the Richmond with all his offi- 
cers and a large number of the crew, the remainder having gone on board 
the Water Witch. Capt. Handy before leaving his ship had placed a 
lighted slow match at the magazine. Having waited a reasonable time 
for an explosion, I directed Commander Handy to return to his ship with 
his crew, to start his water, and, if necessary, at his own request, to throw 
overboard his small guns for the purpose of lightening his ship, and to 
carry out his kedge with a cable to heave-off by. At 10 A. M. the enemy 
ceased firing and withdrew up the river. During the engagement a shell 
entered our quarter port, and one of the boats was stove by another 
shell.'" 

Cotemporaneous, but not official, accounts report Handy 
as appearing on the deck of the Richmond with the large flag 
of the United States wrapped in folds around his person, ' and 
reporting that he had put a slow match to the magazine of the 
Vincennes. The Manassas drew off from the collision with 
the Richmond without trouble, though she undoubtedly twisted 
her prow badly when swayed to one side by the current, for it 
was found broken and bent to one side. The balls which 
struck her bounded off without effecting any damage, except 
in one case, when a ball hit on the bluff of the bow and made 
an ugly, though not serious, dent in the iron. 

In the actual fight, the other Confederate vessels took no 
part — their presence, however, and the fire-rafts added to the 
enemy's demoralization, and they shared in the artillerv duel 

1 Porter's Naval History and Soley's Blockade. 



THE CONFEDERATE STATES NAVY. 277 

at long range. The Confederates took great credit for this 
gallant dash at the enemy; but it may well be asked, why, 
after having done so much, they did not do more ? A demoral- 
ized and retreating enemy, aground, and scrambling to get 
over the bar, offered the opportunity of winning the fruits of 
victory by following up the blow. All day Friday the ships 
lay fast aground,and offered a fair opportunity to the victorious 
Confederates, but they had steamed back to New Orleans. A 
letter from on board the Eichmond says : " On Saturday we 
were glad to seethe JfcCZe//cm coming in from sea with two rifled 
Parrott guns for us. She made fast to us, and before midnight 
we had the steamer South Carolina at anchor near us. On 
Sunday the two steamers succeeding in towing our ship and 
the Vincennes off the bar, and here we are, all afloat, and ready 
for any emergency." 

No Confederate report, except newspaper accounts, of 
this very gallant little affair is extant, if any was ever made. 
But it is to be taken for granted that good and sufficient 
reasons moved so gallant a sailor as Capt. Hollins to abandon 
the scene of action at the time he did. There were many half- 
won victories by the Confederates in the war, both on land 
and water, of which history can give no explanation — and this 
one is not an exception. Heavy censure and unsparing ridicule 
were visited upon the officers of the Federal fleet — greater than 
they deserved — for they were new to the situation, and fresh 
from that national fear of "masked batteries" — rams and fire 
ships — all of which passed off as the experience of war in 
reality increased. Unlimited praise was extended to Hollins 
and his officers, without either the authorities or the public 
stopping to inquire why he left the stranded fleet without at 
least trying to destroy them. The war was young in the Fall 
of 1861 — all its honors had been won by the Confederates; and 
when the Bull Run of the " Passes " was reported, " cowardice 
and pusillanimity" were charged upon Captains Pope and 
Handy, while Hollins, like Beauregard, was never required to 
say why he did not follow the retreating foe. If historians of 
the U. S. navy blush as they record the flight of their ships at 
the " Passes," those of the Confederate navy must express an 
almost equal dissatisfaction at the lack of results that the 
victory brought. The blockade was not raised, as Capt. 
Hollins claimed, for the Federal fleet remained off the mouths 
of the " Passes " — and soon after returned and held the head of 
the "Passes" until Farragut and his fleet recaptured the con- 
trol of the river. 



CHAPTER XIII 



MISSISSIPPI RIVER FROM THE GULF TO VICKSBURG. 



THE movement by the Federal Administration at Wash- 
ington, to open the Mississippi River, begun by Com. 
Foote at Cairo, in the summer of 1861, was continued 
from the Gulf by Admiral Farragut, in the spring of 
1862. During the winter and early spring the largest and best 
appointed fleet that ever flew the U. S. flag was organized, 
and placed under the command of the boldest, ablest and most 
enterprising officer in that service. In order to hold what 
Farragut might capture, an army of 15,000 men, under Gen. 
Butler, was dispatched in the wake of the admiral's squadron. 
The combined fleet of men-of-war, mortar -schooners and 
transports arrived on the 16th of April, below Forts Jack- 
son and St. Philip, which guarded the river approach to New 
Orleans. The Federal fleet, ' consisting of 46 vessels, carry- 
ing 348 guns and 21 mortars, anchored below ; and on the 



1 Vessels composing Farragut's fleet: 

Flag-ship Hartford, twenty-five guns, Capt. 
Richard Wainwright; executive officer, Lieut. 
J.S. Thornton. 

Steam-sloop Brooklyn, twenty-four guns, Capt. 
Thomas T. Craven; executive officer, Lieut. R. B. 
Lowry. 

Steam-sloop Richmond, twenty-six guns, Capt. 
James Alden. 

Steam-slooj) Mississippi, twelve guns, Capt. M. 
Smith; executive officer, Lieut. Dewey. 

Steam-slooj) Verona, ten guns, Capt. Chas. S. 



Steam-sloop Pensacola, twenty -four guns, Capt. 
Henry W. Morris ; executive officer, Lieut. 
Francis Roe. 

Steam-sloop Oneida, nine guns. Commander S. 
Phillips Lee; executive officer, Lieut. Sicord. 

Steam-sloop Iroquois, nine guns. Commander 
John De Camp; executive officer, David B. 
Harmony. 

Gunboat Westfield, six guns, Capt. William B. 
Benshaw. 

Gunboat Katahdin, six guns, Lieut. Command- 
ing George Preble. 

Gunboat Pinola, five guus, Lieut. Command- 
ing Crosby. 

Gunboat CHfion, five guns. 

(2 



Gunboat Cayuga, five guns, Lieut. Command- 
ing Harrison. 

Gunboat Itaska, five guns, Lieut. Commanding 
C. H. B. Caldwell. 

Gunboat Kennebec, five guns, Lieut. Command- 
ing John Russell. 

Gunboat Kanawha, five guns, Lieut. Com- 
manding John Febiger. 

Gunboat Sciota, six guns, Lieut. Commanding 
Edward Donaldson. 

Gunboat Miami, six guns, Lieut. Commanding 
A. D. Harroll. 

Gunboat Owasco, five guus, Lieut.Commanding 
John Guest. 

Gunboat Winona, four guns, Lieut. Command- 
ing Edward T. Nichols; executive officer, John G. 
Walker. 

Gunboat TVissahickm}, five guns, Lieut. Com- 
manding Albert N. Smith. 

Gunboat Kineo, five guus, Lieut. Commanding 
George H. Ransom. 

.Schooner KiUatinny, nine guns. Acting Vol- 
unteer Lieut. Lamson. 

Gunboat Harriet Lane, six guns, Lieut. Com-, 
manding J. M. Wainwright, with Commander 
David D. Porter, who had twenty-one schooners, 
composing "Porter's mortar fleet," each carry- 
ing a heavy mortar, and two thirty-two guns. 



THE CONFEDERATE STATES NAVY. 2?9 

morning of April 18th, commenced the Dombardment of the 
forts. ' 

At that time the defences of New Orleans consisted of 
Forts Jackson and St. Philip, under Gen. Johnson K. Duncan, 
the former fort mounting seventy-five guns, and the latter 
fifty-three guns, both together manned by about 700 men. The 
naval defence consisted of the C. S. steamer Louisiana, 16 
guns, Capt. Charles F. Mcintosh; the ram Manassas, one 
thirty-two-pounder, Lieut. A. F. Warley; the McRae, 7 guns, 
Lieut. Thomas B. Huger; the Jackson, 2 guns, Lieut. F. B. 
Renshaw; launch No. 6, Acting Master Fairbanks; launch No. 
3, one howitzer. Acting Master Telford, the fleet under com- 
mand of Commodore John K. Mitchell. Co-operating with 
the fleet of Commodore Mitchell were two Louisiana State 
gunboats: the Ooveimor Moore, two thirty-two-pounder rifled 
guns. Commander Beverley Kennon, C. S. N., and the Gen. 
Quitman, Capt. Grant; in addition was the remnant of the 
River Defence fleet of converted tow boats : the Warrior, 
Capt. Stephenson; the Stonewall Jackson, Capt. Phillips; the 
Resolute, Capt. Hooper; the Defiance, Capt. McCoy, and the 
R. J. Breckenridge, all under command of Capt. John A. 
Stephenson, and mounting from one to two guns each.' There 
were also the following unarmed steamers, acting as tenders 
and for towing purposes: the Phoenix, to the Manassas; the 
W. Burton, Capt. Hammond, and the Landis, Capt. Davis, to the 
Louisiana; also the Mosher, Capt. Sherman; the Belle Algerine, 
the Star, Capt; La Place, and the Music, Capt. McClellan. 

To a complete understanding of the effort of the Con- 
federate navy in defence of the city of New Orleans, a full 

1 Commaiuler Beverley Kennon, in the Ce«f«/-!/ two-pounders; about forty were rifled twenty 

Magazine for July, 1886, says ; to eighty -jjounders, nineteen werethirteeu-inc-h 

•' The Navy Register of January, 1863, gives mortars, thirty were howitzers. To meet tUem 
Flag-officer Farragut's seventeen vessels 193 the Confederates had 128 guns of assorted sizes 
guns, and Commander Porter's seven vessels, in the two forts, and forty-one on board their 
sixty-five guns. The frigate CotocatZo, being un- vessels. Of this number thirty-two only were 
able to cross the bar, transferred April 11th her of recent manufacture and fully equipped. The 
twenty-four-pounder howitzer to the Scioia ; on remainder were out of date by several years, 
tlie 6th of April, four nine-inch guns to the and were commanded and manned, as a rule, by 
Oneida and Iroquois; and, on April 9th, three inexperienced though brave men; 122 were old- 
officers, 142 meu, and her spar-deck battery of time thirty-two pounders. There were also 
twenty eight-inch guns, for distribution in the three seven-inch and thirteen six-inch rifles, 
fleet. Add thirty-eight thirty-two pounders, and four brass field-pieces, eleven mortars (eight 
nineteen thirteen-inch mortars on board the ten and one thirteen-inch), four eight-iuch, four 
'bombers,' and twenty-nine twelve-pounder nine-inch, and eight ten-inch guns; total, 169. 
howitzers, one to each of twenty-four vessels. If 1 have erred, it is in not giving all the guns 
the five larger ones having two, both in their on the United States ships, as the ije^risier always 
tops, and we find they had in all three bun- gives the least number mounted. Howitzers are 
dred and sixty -nine gims of recent construction, never included any more than pistols, but when 
fully equipijed with latest improvements, and mounted in a vessel's tops to be fired at men on 
commanded and handled by trained men. Ex- an exposed deck, as was the case with the 
cepting one sailing ship and the mortar vessels. Federal ships in this action, they become for- 
all of the guns were mounted on board steam- midable weapons." 
ers, the larger ones protecting their boilers and 

engines by tricing up abreast them on their 2 it is necessary to mention the presence of the 

outer sides their heavy chain cables, sixty links River Defence boats, but by reference to a former 

of one of them weighing more than all the iron page where this expedition is described at length, 

on the bows and elsewhere on all the Confederate it will be seen that their ijresence was more of an 

Slate and Biver Defence Fleet, numbering nine " embarrassment than an aid" in the action at 

vessels, and all built of wood. In the above the forts. Admiral Porter in his Naval History 

list of guns, about twenty-six were eleven-inch says: "Little assistance came to the fleet from 

pivots; about 140 were nine-inch; about fifty- theemployment of these boats, on account of thi' 

four were eight-inch ; about sixty were thirty- insubordination of their division commander." 



280 THE CONFEDERATE STATES NAVY. 

account of the figliting condition of the vessels composing 
the fleet of Commodore Mitchell is necessary. This is the 
more required because northern writers have endeavored to 
exalt the performances of the U. S. navy by magnifying the 
fighting capacity of Confederate vessels. To that end Ad- 
miral Porter, in a letter to Senator Grimes, of Iowa, of May 
6th, 1862, from Ship Island, set the key-note by saying of the 
Louisiana : 

" That vessel was 4,000 tons, 270 feet long, and had sixteen heavy 
rifle guns, all made in Secessia. She intended to take position that 
night when she would have driven off all our fleet, for as a proof of 
her invulnerability one of our heaviest ships laid within ten feet of 
her and delivered her whole broadside, making no more impression on 
her than if she was firing peas. The Louisiana's shot, on the contrary, 
went through and through the above-mentioned sloop-of-war, as if she 
was glass. 

" The iron ram Manassas hit three vessels before her comman- 
der ran her ashore and abandoned her. She has been a troublesome cus- 
tomer all through." 

The real condition of the Louisiana, as given by Lieut. 
William C. Whittle, Jr., is that 

"The Louisiana was in an entirely incomplete condition when she 
was sent down from New Orleans, and Commodore William C. Whittle, 
the naval commander at New Orleans, only sent her down in that condi- 
tion in obedience to positive orders from Richmond to do so, and against 
his remonstrance and better judgment. Her guns were not mounted and 
the machinery of her two propellers was not put together. The machin- 
ery of her miserably conceived wheels, working in a ' well ' in her midship 
section, one immediately forward of the other, was in working order, but 
when she cast off her fasts at New Orleans on, I think, April 20th, 1863, 
the wheels were started, but with them she went helplessly down the 
stream, and tow-boats had to be called to take her to her destination. 
That point was where she was afterwards destroyed, on the left bank of 
the river, just above Fort St. Philip, where she was tied up to the river 
bank, with her bow down stream. Machinists and mechanics were taken 
down in her and worked night and day to complete the work on the ma- 
chinery, and to prepare the ship for service. 

" Our gallant and efficient commander, the lamented Charles F. Mc- 
intosh, aided by active, zealous and competent officers, bent all their en- 
ergies to put the ship in a fighting condition, and by the time the Federal 
fleet came up to run by the batteries, on April 24th, all the guns, except 
I think two, were mounted. At that time the work on the machinery of 
the propellers was far from completion and the vessel was, in that regard, 
as helpless as when she went there. 

" The port-holes for the guns were so miserably constructed as simply 
to admit of the guns being run out, and were so small as not to admit of 
training laterally or in elevation." 

Commodore Mitchell testified before the Court of Inquiry 
as to the number of vessels, their armament and condition, 
that : 

"The principal vessel of my command, the steamer Louisiana, 
iron-clad, mounting sixteen guns, was without sufficient motive power 
even to stem the current of the Mississippi without the aid of her two 
tenders, the Landis and W. Burton. Her two propellers were not ready 




COMMANDER CHARLES F. McINTOSH, C. S. N. 



/ \ 



THE CONFEDERATE STATES NAVY. 281 

for use, and were designed more to assist in steering than in the expec- 
tation of adding to her speed, and her rudder had httle, if any, power to 
control her movements. Most of her guns had to be dismantled, after 
arriving at Fort St. Phihp, and shifted to pivots where they could be 
worked, and one of them was not in position in the action of April 24th, be- 
ing dismounted. The crew of the Louisiana, aided by the men from the Mc- 
Kae, were employed constantly night and day, in arranging the battery for 
action. The decks were thus, from this cause and the presence of numer- 
ous mechanics employed in completing machinery for the propellers, the 
ironing of the decks, and calking wheel-houses, much incumbered, and 
being very cramped at best for room, prevented the proper exercise of the 
men at their guns. This condition of her motive power and battery ren 
dered her not only unfit for offensive operations against the enemy, but 
also for defence, as, being immovable, her guns all around could only com- 
mand about 40 degrees of the horizon, leaving 320 degrees of a circle on 
which she could have been approached by an enemy without being able 
to bring a gun to bear upon him. Her guns, from the small size of her 
ports, could not be elevated more than 4 to 5 degrees, which with our best 
guns would not have given a range probably of more than 2,000 yards. 
The means for purchasing her anchors were inadequate, and it was utterly 
impossible to weigh them, when once they were let go, either from the 
bow or stern, and, indeed, her steering apparatus prevented her being 
anchored by the stern in the middle of the river, a position, under all the 
circumstances, I should have preferred to being tied to the river bank, by 
which more guns might have been used against the enemy, and the vessel 
might have been warped or sprung, so as to bring some of her guiis to 
bear upon any given point. The quarters for the crew of the Louisiana 
were wholly insufficient, and for her officers there were none at all, except 
on the shield deck or roof, under a tented awning. Most of the officers 
and crew had to live on board two tenders, which were also required as 
tugs, without which the vessel could not be moved at all. The shield of 
the Lotiisiana was effective, for none of the enemy's projectiles passed 
through it ; but as it only extended to the water line, a shot between 
wind and water must have penetrated the perpendicular pine sides. In 
addition to the Louisiana, the following vessels of the C. S. navy were 
under my command at the forts, viz. : The steamer McRae, Lieut. Com. 
Thomas B. Huger, with six light thirty-two pounder smooth-bore broad- 
side guns, and one nine-inch shell gun pivoted amidships — total, seven; 
the steamer Jackson, Lieut. Com. F. B. Renshaw, two pivoted smooth- 
bore thirty-two pounders, one forward and one aft ; the iron-plated ram 
Manassas, Lieut. Com. A. F. Warley, one thirty-two pounder in bow; 
launch No. 3, Acting Master Telford, and one howitzer, twenty men; 
launch No. 6, Acting Master Fairbanks, one howitzer and twenty men. 
Also, the following converted sea steamers into Louisiana State gunboats, 
with pine and cotton barricades to protect the machinery and boilers, 
viz.: The Governor Moore, Commander Beverley Kennon, two thirty-two- 
pounder rifled guns ; the General Quitman, Capt. Grant, two thirty-two- 
ix)under guns. All the above steamers, being converted vessels, were too 
slightly built for war purposes. The following unarmed steamers belonged 

to my command, viz. : The Phoenix, Capt. , tender to the Manassas; 

the W. Burton, Capt. Hammond, tender to the Louisiana, and the Landis^ 
Capt. Davis, tender to the Lotiisiana. The following-named steamers, 
chartered by the army, were placed under my orders, viz. : The Mosher, 

Capt. Sherman, a very small tug ; the Belle Algerine, Capt. , a 

small tug ; the Star, Capt. La Place, used as a telegraph station, and the 
Music, Capt. McClellan, tender to the forts. The two former were in bad 
condition, and were undergoing such repairs as could be made below pre- 
vious to the 24th. On arriving below I delivered to Capt. Stephenson 
written orders from Major Gen. M. Lov611, requiring him to place all the 
River Defence gunboats under my orders, which consisted of the follow- 
ing converted tow boats, viz.: 1st, the Warrior, under the immediate 



282 THE CONFEDERATE STATES NAVY. 

command of Capt. Stephenson ; 2d, the Stonewall Jackson, Capt. Philips; 
3d, the Resolute, Capt. Hooper; 4th, the Defiance, Capt. McCoy, and 5th, the 

General Lovell, . The R. J. Breckenridge , joined 

the evening before the action. All of the above vessels mounted from 
one to two pivot thirty-two pounders each, some of them rifled. Their 
boilers and machinerv were all more or less protected by thick double 
pine barricades, filled in with compressed cotton, which, though not re- 
garded as proof against hea\'y solid shot, shell, and incendiary projectiles, 
would have been a protection against grape and canister, and ought to 
have inspired those on board with sufficient confidence to use their boats 
boldly as rams, for which they were in a good measure prepared with flat 
bar iron casing around their bows. In thus using them their own safety 
would be best consulted, as well as the best way of damaging the vessels 
of the enemy." 

In the " Naval History of the Civil War," Admiral Porter 
says : "The machinery (of the Louisiana) consisting of twin 
screw engines, and central paddles, was unfinished, and her 
inactivity at the time of the fight was due to that fact." With 
that knowledge of the cause of the Louisiana s "inactivity," 
Admiral Porter, in the Century for April, 1885, attempts to 
cast an imputation upon Commodore Mitchell by saying: 

"Fortunately for us. Commodore Mitchell was not equal to the occa- 
sion, and the Louisiana remained tied up to the bank, where she could 
not obstruct the river or throw the Union fleet into confusion while pass- 
ing the forts." 

On the 22d of April. Gen. Duncan wrote to Commodore 
Mitchell : 

" It is of vital importance that the present fire of the enemy should 
be withdrawn from us, which you alone can do. This can be done in the 
manner suggested this morning under the cover of our guns, while your 
work on the boat can be carried on in safety and security. Our position is a 
critical one, dependent entirely on the powers of endurance of our case- 
mates, many of which have been completely shattered, and are crumb- 
ling away by repeated shocks ; and, therefore, I respectfully but earnestly 
again urge my suggestion of tlais morning on your notice. Our magazines 
are also in danger." 

Upon the receipt of that request Commodore Mitcnell 
held a consultation with his officers, and it was unanimously 
and wisely determined that it would be unwise to comply with 
Gen. Duncan's request, as Lieut. Whittle said : 

' ' For the reason that it would place her under the fire of the whole 
Federal fleet connnanded by Admiral Farragut without its being in her 
power to reach them by a single shot, in consequence of her ports not ad- 
mitting of an elevation of more than five degrees, and, in addition, to the 
terrific fire of Admiral Porter's mortar fieet, '2,800 shells in twenty-four 
hours,' any one of which falling upon her unprotected upper deck would 
have gone through her bottom and sunk her : under which combined fires 
it would be impossible for any work to be done on our machinery, which 
we so hoped to complete in time for service when the Federals should 
come up." 

Fair and just criticism of the conduct of officers on either 
side of the late war, is proper, and useful to the avoidance of 



THE CONFEDERATE STATES NAVY. 283 

errors and mistakes on future occasions, but the misrepresen- 
tation and unprofessional innuendoes of Admiral Porter are 
unworthy alike of an officer and of a historian. 

It is not probable that Admiral Farragut would have 
steamed on to New Orleans and left the Louisiana ' in his rear, 
if he had not been aware that she was unable to move from 
her position at the bank of the river, or if he had formed the 
opinion of her fighting power which Admiral Porter expressed. 

In aid of the forts and the fleets defending the passage of 
the river there was a formidable obstruction placed between 
Forts Jackson and St. Philip, consisting of heavy logs between 
forty and sixty feet in length, lashed together by large chains 
across the river under the logs, and fastened on both sides of 
the river by planting very heavy anchors. There were also 
about thirty anchors let into the bottom of the river. So pow- 
erfully had this raft been built and fastened on both shores, 
and so thoroughly had it been anchored, that it was believed 
by those who constructed it that nothing save the giving 
way of the bottom of the Mississippi itself could break it. It 
was impossible for vessels to pass the forts while the raft 
was across the river. It held three months, but was swept 
away finally by the high water, the rapid current and the 
drift. A steamer and men were constantly employed to at- 
tend to the raft, and to keep away the drift, etc., which, how- 
ever, it was found impossible to do. This raft cost not less 
than $55,000 or $60,000, and had it not been for the un- 
precedented high water, it is supposed that it would have an- 
swered the purpose for which it was intended. 

1 Wm. C. 'Vpiittle, Jr., who was third lieuten- The novel conception, which proved entirely 

ant on the Louisiana during the contest against inefficient, was that right in the centre section 

Farragut's fleet in the Mississippi, sent to the of the vessel there was a large well, in which 

Century the following statement concerning her worked the two wheels, one immediately for- 

armament : ward of the other. I suppose they were so 

" The hull of the Louisiana was almost en- placed to be protected from the enemy's fire, 
tirely submerged. Upon this were built her "The machinery of these two wheels was in 
heavy upper works, intended to contain her order when my father. Commodore W. C. Whit- 
battery, machinery, etc. This extended to tie, the naval commanding officer at New Or- 
within about twenty-five feet of her stem and leans, against his better judgment, was corn- 
stern, leaving a little deck forward and aft, pelled to send the vessel down to the forts, 
nearly even with the water, and surrounded by The vessel left New Orleans on the '20th of 
a slight bulwark. The structure on the hull April, I think. The work on the propellers 
had its ends and sides inclined inward and up- was incomijlete, the machinists and mechanics 
ward from the hull, at an angle of about forty- being still on board, and most of the guns were 
five degrees, and covered with T railroad iron, not mounted. The centre wheels were started, 
the lower layer being firmly bolted to the wood- but were entirely inefficient, and, as we were 
work, and the upper layer driven into it drifting helplessly down the stream, tow-boats 
from the end so as to foiTU a nearly solid plate had to be called to take us down to the point, 
and a somewhat smooth surface. This plating about half a mile above Fort St. Philip, on the 
resisted the projectiles of Farragut's fleet (none left side of the river, where we tied up to the 
of which perforated our side), although one of bank with our bow down stream. Thus, as 
his largest ships lay across and touching our Farragut's fleet came up and passed, we could 
stem and in that position fired her heavy guns. only use our bow-guns and the starboard broad- 
Above this structure was an open deck which side. 

was surrounded by a sheet-iron bulwark about " Moreover, the port-holes for our guns were 

four feet high, which was intended as a protec- entirely faulty, not allowing room to train the 

tion against sharp-shooters and small arms, but guns either laterally or in elevation. I had 

was entirely inefficient, as the death of our gal- practical experience of this fact, for I had im- 

lant commander, Mcintosh, and those who fell mediate charge of the bow division when a ves- 

around him, goes to prove. sel of Admiral Farragut's fleet got across our 

"The plan for propelling the ioMisi'ana was stem, and I could only fire through and through 

novel and abortive. She had two propellers aft, her at point blank instead of depressing my 

which we never had an opportunity of testing. guns and sinking her." 



2S-1: THE CONFEDERATE STATES NAVY. 

After the raft was carried away another obstruction was 
placed across the river, as soon aspossible. by anchoring small 
vessels, and running chains from one to the other, after their 
masts were removed. The men worked night and day to ac- 
complish this. The obstruction thus made remained in posi- 
tion until within two or three days of the fight, when it too was 
carried away in a storm by fire vessels breaking adrift above it 
and coming down against it, which they did with great violence, 
the current being very rapid and the wind blowing very hard. 
Vessels were immediately set to work to put this obstruction 
in position again, but the enemy would not allow them to do 
it, firing upon them whenever they attempted it. The obstruc- 
tions between the forts cost not less than $100,000. 

The mending of the obstruction was a work of difficulty, 
the breaking of it one of scarcely any labor; so that whether 
Capt. Bell, when dispatched by Admiral Farragut, found his 
work anticipated by the current, or was aided by defective 
patching of the obstructions, is not material. A way was 
open when the enemy's fleet moved up, on the morning of the 
24th of April, 1863. The first division of the enemy's fleet, 
consisting of eight gunboats, under command of Capt. Bailey, 
moved through the obstruction, having Fort St. Philip for its 
objective. The Cayuga, flag -ship of Bailey's division, in 
fifteen minutes had run b}^ both forts, and was above and 
beyond the range of the guns of Fort St. Philip. Capt. Bailey 
says he "encountered" the Montgomery flotilla, consisting 
of eighteen gunboats, including the ram Manassas and the 
iron battery Louisiana. As the "'Montgomery flotilla" never 
numbered but twelve vessels, and six had been destroyed a 
month before at Memphis, there were but six of that flotilla at 
the forts; so, instead of eighteen, Capt. Bailey encountered but 
six, for that was all that were left of that flotilla. If that was 
. a " moment of anxiety to Capt. Bailey it could not have been 
produced by the * Montgomery flotilla,' for they immediately 
left the scene of the flght, not standing on the order of their 
going." Commander Beverley Kennon says: 

" Suddenly two, then one Confederate ram darted through the smoke 
from the right to the left bank of the river, passing close to all of us. 
They missed the channel for New Orleans, grounded on and around the 
point above, and close to Fort St. PhiUp; one was fired and deserted, and 
blew up soon after, as we passed her; the others, the ram Defiance and 
ram Resolute, were disabled and deserted." 

At the report of the first gun on that morning, Lieut. 
Warley, on the Manassas, and Commander Beverley Kennon 
on the Governor Moore, started for the approaching fleet of 
the enemy. The little tug-boat, the Belle Algerine, was fouled 
and disabled, but cleared by the Governor Moore, which pressed 
forward and, hampered for room to gather headway for ram- 
ming, was compelled to make haste slowly, by moving under 
the east bank to tlie bend above, and then to turn down 
stream. From the bend. Commander Kennon witnessed the 



THE CONFEDERATE STATES NAVY. 



l>85 



burning of the telegraph steamer Star, and the companion ship 
of the Governor Moore, the Quitman, which had been set on 
fire at their berths on the right bank by the enemy's fleet. 

Once clear of the entanglement with the Louisiana, McRae 
and the Manassas, and out of the cross-fire of the forts, the 
Governor Moore encountered the Oneida and the Cayuga, on 
her port beam. To the hail, "What ship is that?" Com. 
Kennon replied, "the U. S. steamer Mississippi," which was 
also a side-wheel steamer; but he could not deceive the com- 
mander of the Oneida, whose reply was with a starboard 
broadside at a few feet distance, while the Cayuga was not less 
prompt with another broadside at a distance of thirty yards. 
The Pensacola or the Brooklyn, the haze of the early morning 




THK C. S. STEAMER " GOVEBNOR MOOBE." 



and the smoke of battle preventing the exact distinguish- 
ing of vessels, poured in a charge of shrapnel from how- 
itzers in her tops, which killed and wounded twelve men at 
the guns. The Pinola, five guns, close on the port-quarter 
of the Governor Moore, delivered a fire which killed five men. 
This combined attack cut the Moore up very badly, but just 
then, seeing a large two-masted steamer rushing up stream, 
and recollecting that Gen. Lovell was on board the Doub- 
loon, and but a short distance ahead, Com. Kennon moved 
to engage the steamer, which proved to be the Varuna, 
which he could see, while a dark background of woods par- 
tially covered the Moore from observation. The chase for 
a fight continued for several miles up the river; the Varuna 
evidently mistaking the Moore for a Federal vessel until 
Com. Kennon, at broad daylight, revealed his true character 
by discharging a gun at the Varuna. which promptly ac- 
cepted battle. At close quarters the two vessels continued 



286 THE CONFEDERATE STATES NAVY. 

to pour their shots into each other until, a fair opportunity 
offering, Com. Kennon rammed the Varuna twice near the 
starboard gangway — receiving her broadside at the very 
instant of striking and sinking his enemy, which, as she 
lay on the bank, was also rammed by the Stoneivall Jack- 
son. The Moore, having finished the Varuria, turned down 
stream to meet the approaching ships of the enemy. The 
Oneida had lost time by imperfect information and mis- 
taken signals, and was not aware that the Varuna was ahead 
up stream, until Commander Lee came upon the stranded 
Varuna, and her triumphant foes. As the Moore came round 
to head down stream, the Oneida fired a shower of heavy pro- 
jectiles which crashed through the Moore, and swept her decks 
already nearly without a working or a fighting force. The 
Oneida's shots quickly disabled the Moore, and she was beached 
just above the sunken Varuna. Such is the account given by 
Kennon of the fight between the Varuna and the Moore, but 
on the other hand, Capt. Boggs, of the Varuna. says: " While 
still engaged with her [the Moore and not the Morgan, as Capt. 
Boggs calls Com. Kennon's ship,] another rebel steamer, iron- 
clad, ' with a prow under water, struck us in the port gangway, 
doing considerable damage. She backed off for another blow, 
and struck again in the same place, crashing in the side; but 
by going ahead fast, the concussion drew our port around, and 
I was able, with the port guns, to give her, while close along- 
side, five eight-inch shells abaft her armor. This settled her, 
and drove her ashore in flames." That could not have been 
the Stonewall Jackson,for that vessel escaped and was destroyed 
thirteen miles above the forts, and out of gunshot of the 
enemy; and as no other Confederate vessel was present, it is 
probable that Com. Kennon's account of the disabling and 
sinking the Varuna is the correct one. Capt. H. W. Morris, of 
the Pensacola, in his report claims the credit of having fired 
the shots that disabled the Moore. '' The ram (the Moore) 
after having struck the Vaimna- gunboat, and forced her to 
run on shore to prevent sinking, advanced to attack this ship, 
coming down on us right ahead. She was perceived by Lieut, 
F. A. Roe, just in time to avoid her by sheering the ship, and 
she passed close on our starboard side, receiving, as she went, 
a broadside from us." It is proper to say that in the report of 
the officers commanding the Cayuga, the Oneida, the Pinola, 
and the Brooklyn, each claims to have been engaged with the 
Governor Moore. If all are correct, she sustained more of the 
battle than all other Confederate vessels. 

As soon as the enemy's approach was known the McRae 
stood over towards the opposite side of the river, and was soon 
engaged by the gunboat Iroquois, to which the McRae gave 
first one and then the other broadside. Just at that moment 
the McRae discovered a short distance astern two ships — one 

1 There was no iron-clad about the Moore or tbe Stoneivall Jackson. 



THE CONFEDERATE STATES NAVY. 287 

on each quarter — coming rapidly up. Calling all hands to 
quarters to repel boarders, which were expected from the 
approaching steamer, Lieut. Commander Huger was much 
surprised to see the enemy pass without firing a gun, having 
mistaken the McRae for one of his own gunboats — but as the 
McRae stood across the river, the enemy discovered his error 
and opened with their starboard guns. Lieut. Read says: 

"One of their shells striking us forward, and exploding in the sail- 
room, set the ship on fire. The engine and deck pumps were immediately- 
started, but owing to the combustible nature of the articles in the sail- 
room, the fire burned fiercely. The sail-room was separated from the shell 
lockers by a third bulkhead' The commander directed the ship to be run 
close into the bank.and ordered me to inform him when the fire should reach 
the shell locker bulkhead. I repaired to the scene of fire, and succeeded 
in smothering and extinguishing it. Two large ships and three gunboats 
were now engaging us, at a distance of about 300 yards. We backed off 
the bank with the intention of dropping down near the forts, when the 
Manassas came to our relief. She steered for the enemy's vessels, and as 
soon as they discovered her, they started up the river. 

"Just as we were backing off the bank, Lieut. Commanding T. B. Hu- 
ger fell severely wounded. * I now directed the course of the vessel across 
and up the river, firing the starboard guns as rapidly as possible, and, 1 
think, with much accuracy. We soon reached a position which furnished 
a view of the river around the first bend above the forts, where I discov- 
ered eleven of the enemy, and not deeming it prudent to engage a force 
so vastly superior to my own, I determined to retire under the guns of the 
forts. Having dropped a short distance, and getting into an eddy, I 
thought it best to turn and steam down; as the ship was turning, the 
tiller ropes parted. The ship was instantly stopped, and the engines re- 
versed, but too late to avoid striking the bank. I endeavored to back her 
off the shore, but could not succeed. One of the river fleet, called the 
Resolute, had been run ashore early in the morning, just above where we 
were now lying, and had a white flag flying. I sent Lieut. Arnold, with 
ten men on board of her, with orders to haul down the white flag, and 
fight her guns as long as possible. 

"At 6:80 the enemy stood up the river — and as soon as our guns would 
no longer bear we ceased firing. At 7 a tow-boat came up from the forts, 
and hauled us off. 

"The McRae received three shots through her hull — all near the 
water-line. Most of the enemy's shell passed over us; every stay was car- 
ried away, and three-fourths of the shrouds. One shell passed through 
the smoke-stack — also, a number of grape. 

" The sides of the ship received a large number of grape and canister 
which did not pass through. The enemy's firing upon the whole was very 
bad. '' 

The centre division of the Federal fleet, composed of the 
Hartford, Brooklyn and Richmond, under Admiral Farragut, 
followed the leading division through the obstructions, and, 

1 Lieut. Thomas B. Huger, who died in New The Navy Register of 1861 gave Lieut. Huger 

Orleans on the 25th of April, 1862, from woiinds sixteen years and three months of sea service, 

received in the engagement with the U. S. fleet three years shore duty, and six years and six 

on the day before, was a son of Dr. Benj. Huger, months unemiiloyed. At the time he resigned 

of Charleston. South Carolina. He belonged to from the U. S. navy, he was First Lieutenant of 

a family which has always borne honorable con- the steam sloop Iroquois:, on the Mediterranean 

nection with the history of the United States. Station, and was among the first to tender his 

He was appointed in the navy as midshipman resignation. He was a brave and chivalric offi- 

on the .5th of March, 1835, and made his first cer, and his death was lamented by his assoel- 

oruise in the ship-of-the-line North Carolina. ates in the C. S. navy. 



288 THE CONFEDERATE STATES NAVY. 

passing the forts, was met by the Confederate tug Mosher, 
whose brave captain, Sherman, pushed a burning raft along- 
side the Hartford, under the very muzzles of her guns. The 
flames quickly leaped up the sides and rigging, and the mizzen 
shrouds were instantly afire. The disciplined crew responded 
to the call for firemen, and the flames were soon extinguished. 
This attack showed what might have been done if the material 
wasted in rafts abandoned singly to the current had been ex- 
pended in organized attack of several rafts at a time, con- 
trolled by steam-power and launched at propitious moments. 
This incident Admiral Farragut mentioned on the same day 
in a letter to Capt. Porter, saying: '' The ram (it was a tug- 
boat) pushed a fire-raft on me, and, in trying to avoid it, I 
ran the ship on shore. He again pushed the raft on me, and 
set the ship on fire all along one side. I thought it was all up 
with us, but we put it out and got off again, proceeding up the 
river, fighting our way." Porter says: "The fire was a sharp 
one; and, at times, rushing through the ports, would drive the 
men back from the guns. Seeing this, Farragut called out: 
' Don't flinch from that fire, boys; there's a hotter fire than 
that for those who don't do their duty! Give that rascally 
little tug a shot, and don't let her get off with a whole coat.' '' 
Commander Albert Kautz, who was at this time lieutenant 
on the Hartford, in a letter to the editor of the Century, thus 
describes this memorable scene: 

" No sooner had Farragut given the order ' Hard-a-port,' than the 
current gave the ship a broad shear, and her bows went hard up on a 
mud-bank. As the fire-raft came against the port side of tlie ship, it be- 
came enveloped in flames. We were so near to the shore that from the 
bowsprit we could reach the tops of the bushes, and such a short distance 
above Fort St. Philip that we could distinctly hear the gunners in the case- 
mates give their orders; and as they saw Farragut's flag at the mizzen, by 
the bright light, they fired with frightful rapidity. Fortunately, they 
did not make sufficient allowance for our close proximity, and the iron hail 
passed over our bulwarks, doing but little damage. On the deck of the 
ship it was as bright as noonday, but out over the majestic river, where 
the smoke of many guns was intensified by that of the pine-knots of the 
fire rafts, it was dark as the blackest midnight. For a moment it looked 
as though the flag-ship was indeed doomed, but the firemen were called 
away, and, with the energy of despair, rushed aft to the quarter-deck. 
The flames, like so many forked tongues of hissing serpents, were pierc- 
ing the air in a frightful manner, that struck terror to all hearts. As I 
crossed from the starboard to the port side of the deck, I passed close to 
Farragut, who, as he looked forward and took in the situation, clasped 
his hands high in air, and exclaimed, ' My God, is it to end in this way ! ' 
Fortunately, it was not to end as it at that instant seemed, for just then 
Master's Mate Allen, with the hose in his hand, jumped into the mizzen 
rigging, and the sheet of flame succumbed to a sheet of water. It was but 
the dry paint on the ship's side that made the threatening flame, and it 
went down before the fierce attack of the firemen as rapidly as it had 
sprung up. As the flames died away, the engines were backed 'hard,' 
and, as if providentially, the ram Manassas struck the ship a blow under 
the counter, which shoved her stern in against the bank, causing her bow 
to slip off. The ship was again free; and a loud, spontaneous cheer rent 
the air as the crew rushed to their guns with renewed energy." 




LIEUTENANT THOMAS B. HUGEK, 

CONFEDEEATE STATES NAVT, 



THE CONFEDERATE STATES NAVY. 389 

The disagreement briefly stated in these extracts, was a 
material matter in the responsibility which rested on the 
officers of the Confederate army and navy, to whom was en- 
trusted the defence of New Orleans. To a complete under- 
standing of the situation and to ascertain the reasons of the 
disagreement between the commanding officers in the forts 
and afloat, the accompanying diagram will illustrate the posi- 
tions taken by Commander Mitchell as well as that indicated 
and desired by Gen. Duncan. 

In his testimony before the Confederate Court of Inquiry 
upon the fall of New Orleans, Gen. Duncan says, that on 
April 22, " everything afloat, including the tow-boats and the 
entire control of the fire barges, was turned over to Capt. 
John K. Mitchell, C. S. navy," that : 

" In an interview with Capt. Mitchell, on the morninp: of this date, I 
learned that the motive power of the Louisiana was not likely to be com- 
pleted within any reasonable time, and that in consequence it was not 
within the range of probabilities that she could be regarded as an 
aggressive steamer, or that she could be brought into the pending action 
in that character. As an iron-clad invulnerable floating battery, with 
sixteen guns of the heaviest calibre, however, she was then as complete 
as she would ever be. 

"Fort Jackson had already undergone and was still subjected to a 
terrible fire of thirteen-inch mortar-shells, which it was necessary to re- 
lieve at once to prevent the disabling of all the best guns at the fort; and, 
although Fort St. Philip partially opened out the point of woods con- 
cealing the enemy and gallantly attempted to dislodge him or draw his 
fire, he nevertheless doggedly persisted in his one main object of battering 
Fort Jackson. Under these circumstances I considered that the Louisi- 
ana could only be regarded as a battery, and that her best possible posi- 
tion would be below the raft, close in on the Fort St. Philip shore, where 
her fire could dislodge the mortar-boats from behind the point of woods 
and give sufficient respite to Fort Jackson to repair in extenso. This 
position (X on the accompanying diagram) would give us three direct 
cross-fires upon the enemy's approaches and at the same time ensure the 
Louisiana from a direct assault, as she would be immediately under the 
guns of both forts. Accordingly, I earnestly and strongly urged these 
views upon Capt. Mitchell in a letter of this date (copy lost), but without 
avail, as will be seen by his reply, attached as document D. ^ 

1 [Inclosure D.] these circumstances it woiild, in my estimation. 

Confederate States Steamer " Louisiana,") be hazarding too much to place her under the 

Off Fort Jackson, La., April 22, 1862. ) fire of the enemy. Every effort is being made 

General: I have the honor to acknowledge to prepare her for the relief of Fort Jackson, the 

the receipt of yours of this date, asking me to condition of which is fully felt by me, and the 

jjlace the Louisiana in position below the raft very moment I can venture to face our enemy 

this evening, if possible. This vessel was hurried with any reasonable chance of success, be as- 

away from New Orleans before the steam power sured, general, I will do it, and trust that the 

and batteries were ready for service, without a result will show you that I am now pursuing 

crew, and in many other respects very incom- the right course. 

plete, and this condition of things is i)ut parti- I am, very respectfully, your obedient ser- 

ally remedied now. She is not yet prepared to vant, jjjo ^ Mitchell 

offer battle to the enemy, but should he attempt Commanding C. S. Naval Forces, lower 

to pass the forts, we wUl do all we can to pre- Misnssumi 

vent it, and it was for this purpose only that General Johnson K Duncan 

?or^7 h7rSic.?on""" J^^nT'''^'^"^ '"i^'^* C™a«S Co«^fiie/e«cT.'/^W Jaclson. La. 

force her mto action, inadequately prepared as ^ ,».„■,, 

she is at this moment. P- 8.— The Jackson, with Launch ^o. 3, will 

We have now at work on board about fifty S" '^V to the quarantine this afternoon to 

mechanics, as well as her own crew and those watch the enemy, as suggested in your note 

from other vessels, doing work essential to the ^^^^ morning. KespectfuUy, etc., 

preparation of the vessel for battle. Under J. K. M. 
19 



290 



THE CONFEDERATE STATES NAVY. 



" Being so deeply impressed myself "with the importance of this posi- 
tion for the Lonsiana and of the necessity of prompt action in order to 
ensure the success of the impending struggle, I again urged this subject 




DIAGRAM OF liOMBARDMENT OF FORTS JACKSON AND ST. PHILIP, APRIL 16tH-19tH. 1862. 

upon Capt. Mitchell, during the latter part of the same day, as absolutely 
indispensable and imperativ^e to the safety of New Orleans and to the 
control of the lower Mississippi. My efforts were ineffectual to get him. 



THE CONFEDERATE STATES NAVY. 291 

to move the boat from her original position above the forts. His reply is 
attached, as document E, in which he is sustained by all the naval officers 
present having the command of vessels. 

" I also addressed him two other notes through the day — one in re- 
gard to sending the fire barges against the enemy, and the other relative 
to keeping a vigilant lookout from all his vessels, and askmg for co-oper- 
ation should the enemy attempt to pass during the night. 

'^ Bombardment continued throughout the day and night, being at 
times very heavy. During the day our fire was principally confined to 
shelling the point of woods from both forts, and apparently with good 
reeults, as the mortar fire was slackened toward evening. The casemates 
were very much cut up by the enemy's fire, which was increased at night. 

"There was little or no success in sending down fire barges as usual, 
owing in part to the condition of the tow-boats Mosher, Music and Belle 
Algerine^ in charge of the same, explained by attached document G. This 
does not excuse the neglect, however, as there were six boats of the river 
fleet available for this service, independent of those alluded to, and fire 
barges were plentiful. 

" April 23. — The day broke warm, clear and cloudless. No immediate 
relief being looked for from our fleet, the entire connnand was turned out to 
repair damages under a very heavy fire of the enemy. 

" The bombardment continued without intermission throughout the 
day, but slackened off about 12 m., at which hour there Avas every indi- 
cation of an exhaustion on the part of the mortar flotilla; hence it be- 
came evident that the tactics of the enemy would necessarily be changed 
into an attack with broa Isides by his larger vessels. In consequence, 
these views were laid before Capt. Mitchell, and he was again urged to 
place the Louisiana at the point before mentioned, below the raft and 
near the Fort St. Philip bank of the river, to meet the emergency. 
(See attached, document H.) Capt. MitchelFs reply is attached, in docu- 
ments E, I, J, and K, wherein he positively declines again to assume the 
only position which offered us every possible chance of success. andCapts. 
[Chas. F.] Mcintosh, [Thomas B.] Huger, and Warley sustain Capt. 
Mitchell in his views of the case. 

"Just before sundown, under a very heavy mortar fire, the enemy 
sent up a small boat, and a series of white flags were planted on the Foit 
St. Philip bank of the river, commencing about 350 yards alcove the lone 
tree upon that shore. (See diagram.) 

''This confirmed my previous views of an early and different attack 
from the usual mortar bombardment, especially as I presumed that these 
flags indicated the positions to be taken up by the several vessels in their 
new line of operations. 

" As nothing was to be expected from the Louisiana after the corre- 
spondence during the day, I could only inform Capt. Mitchell of this new 
movement of the enemy (see attached document L), and particularly im- 
press upon him the necessity of keeping the river well lit up with fire 
barges, to act as an impediment to tlie enemy and assist the accuracy of 
our fire in a night attack. 

"Lieut, [(jreo. S.] Shryock, C. S. N. (Capt. Mitchell's aide\ came on 
shore about 9 p. m. to inform me that the Louisiana would be ready for 
service by the next evening— the evening of the 24th. I informed him that 
time was everything to us, and that to-morrow would in all probability 
prove too late. Lieut. Col. Higgins warmly seconded my opinion, 
and warned Lieut. Shryock that the final battle was imminent within a 
few hours. 

" In regard to lightingthe river, Lieut. Shryock stated that fire barges 
would be regularly sent down throughout the night every two hours, and 
as none had been sent up to that hour (9:30 p. M. ), he left, informing me 
that this matter would be attended to as soon as he arrived on board. To 
my utter surprise, not one single fire barge was sent down the river, not- 
withstanding, at any hour of this night. It was impossible for us to send 



392 THE CONFEDERATE STATES NAVY. 

tlieui down, as everything: afloat had been turned over to Capt. Mitchell 
by order of the major general commanding, and the fire barges and the 
boats to tow them into the stream were exclusively under his control. In 
consequence of this criminal neglect, the river remained in complete dark- 
ness throughout the entire night. The bombardment continued all night 
and grew furious toward morning."' 

The reply of Commander Mitchell, which is referred to by 
Gen. Duncan as inclosure E, is accompanied, as he states, by 
the concurring views of his subordinate officers as to the im- 
practicability of placing the Louisicma i\X point X, in the dia- 
gram; but he added, that through the labors of the mechanics 
then at work on the Louisiana he hoped " that by to-morrow 
night the motive power of the Louisiana will be ready, and 
that in the meantime her battery will be in place and other 
preparations will be completed so as to enable her to act 
against the enemy. "When ready you will be immediately 
advised." 

Though the darkness and smoke of battle prevented Gen. 
Duncan from observing how the Louisiana was fought, he 
was able, notwithstanding the obscuring media, to observe 
the Defiance, the Manassas, the McRae, the Resolute, the 
Warrio?'. and the enemy's fleet. Tiie disappointment and 
chagrin of defeat, it is probable, may have made Gen. Duncan 
dissatisfied with the reasons of Commander Mitchell and his 
officers for not complying with the request to take position in 
the Louisiana below the forts, but in the light of all the facts 
and circumstances now available, the refusal of Commander 
Mitchell will be sustained by militar}' and naval critics. That 
" to-morrow" came heralded by the passage of the forts by 
the enemy's fleet, and thus the opportunity was lost, cannot 
be charged upon the conduct of Com. Mitchell, but must be 
credited to the enterprise and dash of Farragut, who waited 
not for the completion of the Confederate defences, but took 
advantage of their incompleteness and steamed past the forts 
and the fleet. The incompleteness of the Louisiana, and the 
unfinished condition of the Mississippi, were due to circum- 
stances, perhaps, beyond control of the Confederate Navy 
Department, but there were defects of organization — in this, 
that there were two separate and distinct organizations afloat — 
one under the Secretary of War and the other under the 
Secretary of the Navj^ entirely independent of each other; 
and, though cordially co-operating, yet doing so under differ- 
ent and sometimes conflicting orders. 

During the proceedings of the Court of Inquiry the Judge 
Advocate raised the point that the court had no jurisdiction 
to inquire into and pronounce upon the official conduct of the 
naval officers in command at or near the forts, and after 
hearing argument upon the point, the court directed that " the 
order convening the court did not restrict its investigation to 
the conduct of Major Gen. Mansfield Lovell and the troops 
of his command except as to the mere evacuation of the city. 



THE CONFEDERATE STATES NAVY. 293 

In relation to the capture of the city the words of the order 
prechide the idea of such restriction, and they do not imply it 
in respect to the defence. "It is required of the court, too, 
in these matters, to examine into the attending facts and cir- 
cumstances, without limit as to persons or arm of the serv- 
ice" — so the witnesses were permitted to enter into naval as 
well as army matters. In the Report of Facts the Court found 
that: " Between Gen. Lovell and the naval officers on duty 
in Department ISTo. 1 there existed good feeling and a desire 
to co-operate for the public defence." Gen. Lovell often sup- 
plied the navy with guns and ammunition. During the bom- 
bardment it was designed by Gens. Lovell and Duncan that 
the Louisiana should be placed in a position from which they 
thought she could enfilade and drive off the mortar-fleet of 
the enemy, but this request was not complied with — Com. J. K. 
Mitchell, commanding the defences afloat, alleging in reply, 
that the Louisiana was without motive power, and in the posi- 
tion indicated her guns could not be given sufficient elevation 
to reach the enemy, while she would be in full range of his 
mortar-fleet, and that her top-deck was flat and vulnerable. 
These statements are proven to be true. He also added, as 
his opinion, sustained by a council of naval officers, that " the 
desired movement would result in the destruction of the ves- 
sel by the enemy," and upon that finding of facts, the opinion 
of the court was that " the non-completion of the iron-clad 
gunboats Louisiana and Mississippi made it impossible for the 
navy to co-operate efficiently with Gen. Lovell." 

The following is the finding and opinion of the Naval 
Court of Inquiry into the official conduct of Commander 
Mitchell: 

" C. S. Navy Department, Richmond, Dec. 5, 1863. 
" Finding and opinion of a Naval Court of Inquiry, convened in the 
city of Richmond, Va., January 5, 1863, by vii-tue of the following pre- 
cepts • 

" C. S. Navy Department, ) 

" Office of Orders and Detail, >• 
" Richmond, December 24, 1862. ) 
" Sir : By order of the Secretary of the Navy you are hereby ap- 
pointed president of a court of inquiry to be convened in this city on the 
."ith of January next. 

" Capt. S. S. Lee and Commander Robt. G. Robb have been ordered 
to report to you and with you will compose the court. 

" Mr. George Lee Brent will report to you as recorder. You will in- 
quire into the whole ofHcial conduct of Commander John K. Mitchell, 
C. S. N., while in command of the steamer Louisiana axid in charge of the 
vessels of the Confederate navy at and below New Orleans and report the 
same to this department, with your opinion whether the said oiUcer did 
or did not do all in his power to sustain the honor of the flag and pre- 
vent the enemy from ascending the Mississippi River, and if he did not to 
what extent did he fail so to do. 

" Respectfully, your obedient servant, 

" F. Forrest, Chief of Bureau. 
'' Flag-ojfflcer' Samuel Barron, G. S. N., commanding, etc., James 
River, Fa." 



294 THE CONFEDERATE STATES NAVY. 

FINDING OF THE COURT. 

"That Commander Mitchell assumed command of the Louisiana at 
New Orleans on the 20tli of April, 1862, and from that time until the de- 
struction of the vessel only a period of eight days was embraced. 

" That the whole force under his command consisted of the Louisiana^ 
the IIcRae, the Manassas, the Jackson and one launch. 

" That on the day he took command Capt. Mitchell descended the 
River Mississippi in the Louisiana and took up a position on the left bank 
of the river, about half a mile above Fort St. Philip. 

" That on leaving New Orleans the machinery of the Louisiana was 
Incomplete, her motive power imperfect and her battery improperly 
mounted. That she could not on a fair trial stem the current of the Mis- 
sissippi with her own motive power aided by two steam tugs. 

" That every exertion was made by Commander Mitchell, the oflB- 
cers and mechanics, to get the Louisiana in a proper state of efficiency 
for defence of the passage of the river, and that the defects in mounting 
the battery had been remedied and the battery served with efficiency, 
with the exception of two guns out of place. It appears that a request, 
or order, was sent by Gen. Duncan, commanding Fort Jackson, to Com- 
mander Mitchell to change the position of the Louisiana to a point lower 
down the stream, which, by a council of officers, was unanimously deemed 
impracticable, and to a certain extent impossible on account of the great 
depth of water, and that such change of position would endanger the 
safety of the Louisiana. That in the position Gen. Duncan desired the 
Louisiana to assume she would have been in range of the mortar boats 
of the enemy and perfectly helpless, inasmuch as she could not give her 
guns more than five degrees elevation, not. enough to reach the enemy. 
That the best disposition possible was made of the vessels under the com- 
mand of Commodore Mitchell to resist the passage of the enemy. 

" That on the 24th of April the enemy appeared and his passage was 
hotly contested by the Louisiana, the McRae and the llanassas. That 
the Jackson was previously sent up the river to guard certam passes and 
the launch down the river to signal the approach of the enemy, and that 
they took no part in the fight. That every possible resistance was offered 
by the vessels mentioned to the passage of the enemy up the river. 

" That at no time was the Louisiaiia able to leave her moorings and 
pursue the enemy, from want of sufficient motive power. That the inter- 
val between the i^assage of the enemy and the destruction of the Louisi- 
ana (four days) was employed in completing the machinery, to render her 
more able to cope with the enemy, and that it was Commander Mitchell's 
intention to make an attack when the Lottisiana was capable of doing so. 

"That Commander Mitchell, when he heard that Gen. Duncan, in 
command of Fort Jackson, had accepted the terms of surrender offered 
the day before by Capt. Porter, U. S. N., remonstrated with Gen. Dun- 
can against such a course, but was told it was too late, as a flag of truce 
boat had already been sent ; that the enemy appeared in overwhelming 
force, and that at the time it was determined in council to destroy the 
Louisiana the position of affairs was as follows : There were from ten to 
fourteen large vessels of Flag-officer Farragut's fleet above the Louisiana 
and the mortar fleet and gunboats of Capt. Porter were below. Two ves- 
sels of the enemy, with white flags flying, were coming up the river in 
sight to accept the surrender of Forts Jackson and St. Philip, which had 
Avhite flags in answer to them. That the Louisiana could not move from 
where slie was moored to the bank, nor could she fire on the boats with 
flags of truce flying, and in a short time the forts would be in the hands 
of the enemy and the Louisia7ia between them. It was then unanimously 
determined in a council of the officers to destroy the Louisiana, as it was 
the only course left to prevent her from falling into the hands of the 
enemy. This destruction was accordingly effected under the direction 
and supervision of Commander Mitchell, in an orderly and deliberate 
manner, and every precaution was taken to insure the safety of his men. 



THE CONFEDERATE STATES NAVY. 295 

OPINION. 
" And the court is of the opinion, from all the evidence adduced, that 
Commander Mitchell did all in his power to sustain the honor of the flag 
and to prevent the enemy from ascending the Mississippi River, and that 
his conduct and bearing throughout the period of his service while in 
command of the vessels of the navy for the defence of the Mississippi 
River, under the trying and embarrassing circumstances under which he 
was placed, was all that could be expected by the country and the naval 
service of a capable and gallant officer. 

" S. Barron, Flag-officer, 

" President of the Court. 
"Geo. Lee Brent, Recorder.'''' 



"Navy Department, March 17th. 1863. 
" Proceedings and finding approved. Office of Orders and Detail will 
dissolve the court. 

"S. R. Mallory, Secretary of the Navy.'''' 



"C. S. Navy Department, i 

"Office of Orders and Detail, [• 
" Richmond, March 18th, 1863. ) 
*' Flag-officer S. Barron^ Commanding, etc. 

"Sir — The Naval Court of Inquiry on Commander Mitchell, of which 
you are the presiding officer, is hereby dissolved. The court convened in 
this city on the 5th of January, and has been continued thus long in ses 
sion awaiting the attendance of Gen. Mansfield Lovell and Lieut. Col. 
Edward Higgins, who were summoned to appear before it as witnesses 
by orders from the War Department. Learning that one of these gentle- 
men, Lieut. Col. Higgins, cannot be spared from his present command, 
and that Gen. Lovell has made no answer to the summons from the War 
Department, although they have been more than two months since sum- 
moned again and again, there is no course left but to dissolve the court, 
which is done accordingly, and you will so inform the members and the 
Judge Advocate. You will be pleased to have this letter, or a certified 
copy, spread upon the records of the court. 

"Respectfully your obedient servant, 

"F. Forrest, Chief of Bureau. 
" The foregoing is ordered to be published for the information of all 
whom it may concern. 

"S. R. Mallory, Secretary of the Naiay.'' 

The tug escaped from the Hartford, though afterwards 
she was destroyed. The Brooklyn followed the Hartford 
through the obstructions, but as soon as she appeared above 
the forts was engaged by the Manassas, Lieut. Com. A. F. 
Warley, who made directly for the Brooklyn's starboard side, 
which lie struck twice but the Bi^ooklyii's chain protection turned 
the blows, which glanced from her side, and in the darkness 
the Manassas passed astern of the Brooklyn and turned up the 
river, where, near quarantine, the Mississippi turned and at- 
tempted to run the Manassas down, but by a quick turn of the 
helm, the ram escaped the blow, but ran ashore, where her in- 
jection pipes were cut by her crew and she drifted afterwards 
away from the bank and sank below the forts. The Manas- 
sas proved herself to be the most troublesome ship in the Con- 
federate fleet. At different times in that dark morning she 
rammed the Brooklyn, the Hartford, and the Mississippi. 



29(5 



THE CONFEDERATE STATES NAVY. 



A writer in the Army and Navy Journal, controverting- 
the right of the crew of the Mississippi to bounty money for 
her destruction, says: 

"It is certainly true that the Mississippi destroyed the Manassas by 
pouring a broadside into her, which punched several holes in her armor, 
and set her on fire, so that her small crew were glad to run her on shore 
and abandon her. I believe she afterwards drifted off, and, passing the 
forts, occasioned something of a panic among the mortar schooners, who 
took her for a live, and not*a defenceless monster. The Mississippi, 
however, was ordered to the duty of destroying her. She turned down 
stream to meet her coming up, in consequence of an order from the Hart- 
ford, and, going down, pressed the Kineo, Lieut. Com. Ransom, to assist 
her. The meeting was witnessed by all, or nearly all, the fleet, and was 
watched as one of the pretty things of that fight, being performed in 
broad daylight. Why, then, should the Mississippi be singled out to re- 
ceive bounty for the destruction of that rebel ram ? " 

Who should have the money? is an unimportant question 
to any but the recipient, but the facts upon which any money 




THE RAM "MANASSAS" AS SHE APPEARED AFTER BEING SET ON FIRE BY HER COMMANDER. 

was awarded ought to have been first settled. Capt. Smith, 
of the Mississippi, asserts having fired a broadside into the 
Manassas, but did that broadside, which laid the foundation of 
the claim for bounty, destroy the Manassas? That it did not is 
established Iby Lieut. Bead, who says that "at 8:30 we anchored 
near the Louisiana, while we were aground the ram Manassas 
was discovered fioating helplessly down the river. I sent a boat 
to her and ascertained that she was uninjured, but had her in- 
jection pipes cut. and that it would be impossible to save her.'^ 
The whole Federal fleet, except the Itasca, Kennebec, 
Winona and the mortar boats as they passed the forts, was 
met by the Louisiana lashed to the shore, and able to use 
but a part of her battery, yet receiving uninjured the broadside 
of nearly every Federal vessel. 

. Admiral Farragut, convinced that the Louisiana tied to 
the bank, however formidable she might be to an attacking 
party, was harmless herself to assault, left her, and sailed 




COMMAXDER JOHN K. MITCHELL, 

CONFEDERATE STATES NAVY. 



THE CONFEDERATE STATES NAVY. 297 

with his whole fleet that was above the forts, to New Orleans. 
Around the Louisiana lay the McRae and the Resolute, with 
the tender Landis. 

William C. Whittle, Jr., third lieutenant of the Louisi- 
ana, says: 

" The Louisiana had used her guns against all of the Federal fleet as 
they passed, and every man had fought bravely and well, and chafed un- 
der their powerlessness from causes and defects beyond their efforts to 
correct to do more. There she lay, with her little flag bravely flying, after 
having resisted every projectile from Admiral Farragut's fleet. 

" The guns used during the action on board the Louisiana were those 
of the bow division, pointing down the river, and those of the starboard 
broadside division, pointing across the river, the former consisting of two 
nine-inch smooth-bore shell guns, and one seven-inch rifle, and the latter, 
1 think, one o2 pound rifle and two eight-inch smooth-bores. 

"Of the bow division 1 had immediate command. I was the third 
lieutenant. During the conflict, one of the largest of Admiral Farragut's 
fleet, as if her steering gear was disarranged, was caught in the eddy cur- 
rent and came right athwart our hawse, her starboard side nearly if not 
actually touching our stem, with only the length of our short forward 
deck outside of her armor between her side and our armor. In that posi- 
tion we received her fire without any shot perforating, and the three guns 
of my division were fired as fast as they could be loaded and discharged. 
But here the abortively constructed port-holes prevented our depressing 
our guns to sink her. 

'• It was at this time that our brave commander, Charles F. Mcintosh, 
received his death wounds. ^ When this vessel was placed in this position, 
as if anticipating that she intended to try to board us, and chafing under 
the forced inactivity of our vessel, he called away his men to I'epel the at- 
tack and gallantly led them to the upper deck, when he was shot down, 
as were numbers of his brave followers. A braver man or set of men never 
gave up their lives to any cause." 

Statements and counterstatements, all differing and dis- 
agreeing in language and purport have been made as to the 
destruction of the Louisiana, and questions of honor raised 
as to Commodore MitchelFs destroying the vessels while flags 
of truce were flying over the forts and over the enemy's ves- 
sels. As there existed no power of command on the part of 
Gen. Duncan over the C. S. fleet which Commodore Mitchell 
commanded, each officer was free to follow his own dictates 
of duty. That Commodore Mitchell, in destroying the Louis- 
iana, took caution that no injury should fall to the enemy's 
fleet while under the flag of truce, is abundantly shown by 
the sequel as well as proven by the statement of Lieut. Wm. 
C. Whittle, Jr., who says : 

"I think it was on April 27th that Commodore Mitchell was informed 
by Ciren. Duncan that he had received a demand from Admiral Porter to 
surrender and offering terms of capitulation, and that he had perempto- 
rily refused. Our work was still going on, night and day, on our machin- 
ery. The next morning we were to test the efliciency of it. At daylight 
a note from Gen. Duncan came off to say that during the night a portion 
of his garrison had mutinied or deserted and that, not knowing the extent 
of the disaffection, he had determined to accept the terms offered by Porter. 

1 Commander Mcintosh died on the 28th of April, 1862. 



298 THE CONFEDERATE STATES NAVY. 

" Commodore Mitchell was, of course, astonished and, jumping into 
a boat, went ashore and asived if the note was genuine. Tlie reply was 
that it was. He learned that a portion of the garrison of Fort Jack- 
son, from New Orleans, becoming uneasy about their families, had de- 
serted. He remonstrated and urged that the garrison of St. Philip was 
true, as was the crew of the Louisiana, but he was told that it was too 
late, as a messenger had been dispatched. 

" Commodore Mitchell returned to the Louisiana. Admiral Porter's 
fleet, led by the flagship, Harriet Lane, was then seen coming up under 
a flag of truce, in reply to a flag of truce on Fort Jackson. A consulta- 
tion was called by Commodore Mitchell. The decision was, that with an 
enemy above, an enemy below soon to be in possession of our forts, with 
limited supplies, no reliable motive power, to destroy the vessel. 

" An orderly but rapid transfer to the unarmed tender Landis was 
made, and the magazines and charges in our guns were drowned as far as 
practicable. Commodore Mitchell, Lieuts. Wilkinson, Ward and I were the 
last to leave the Louisiana, after firing her effectually. Commodore 
Mitchell then called me to him and told me to go in a boat indicated to 
Admiral Porter's flagship, then anchored off Fort Jackson, distant about 
a mile, and say to him, with his compliments, that he had fired t\\e Louisi- 
ana aind drowned, as far as he could, the magazines and charges in the 
guns, but that she was secured to the bank with rope fasts, which 
might burn, and as he was indisposed to do him any damage while 
under a fiag of truce, in answer to a similar flag from the forts, he notified 
liim in case his burning ship should drift down among his fleet. 

" I started down in the boat, two men pulling. When I got about 
one-third of the distance I felt the boat tremble and, looking around, 
saw that the Louisiana had blown up at or near the spot wiiere I left her. 
I went on, however, and going alongside of the Harriet Lane was received 
by my old Naval Academy schoolmate, Edward Lee, who was on deck. I 
asked for Admiral Porter and was told that he was below. A mes- 
senger was sent down to him. The reply came back that he was arrang- 
ing the terms of capitulation of the forts. In a short time he came up. 
1 delivered the message of Commodore Mitchell. 

"He said, 'Where is the Louisiana'!'' A strange question fi-om. one 
who had been ' fairly shaken from his seat ' and whose flagship had been 
' thrown on her side.' I replied that she had been blown up." 

Admiral Porter, in his " Naval History," takes no account 
whatever of Lieut. Whittle having arrived on board the Har- 
riet La7ie, and advised the officer on deck of the purpose of 
Commodore Mitcliell to burn the Louisiana, but leaves the 
reader to suppose that no intimation of the purpose to destroy 
the Louisiana had been given, and continues — that he re- 
marked — " this is sharp practice, but if you can stand the 
explosion when it comes, we can. We will go on and finish the 
capitulation." But unfortunately for this pretended indiffer- 
ence to danger, the facts upset the probability of the remark 
having been made. The Louisiana had bio urn up before the 
officer reported below of her being on fire. The explosion took 
place while Lieut. Whittle was rowing to the HariHet Lane, and 
before he had informed his old schoolmate Edward Lee, on the 
deck of the Harriet Lane, of Commander Mitchell's message. 
The shock which Porter, in the Century for April, 1885, says 
" fairly shook us all from our seats, and threw the Harriet Lane 
over on her side" — ought to have rendered his question to Lieut. 
Whittle — "where is the Louisiana?''' totally unnecessary. 



{ 



THE CONFEDERATE STATES NAVY. 299 

In a letter to Admiral Farragut. Commander Mitchell 
says: *' Lieut. Whittle was sent in a boat, with a flag of truce, 
to inform Commander Porter that in firing the Louisiana, her 
magazine had not been effectually drowned, and that, though 
efforts were made to drown the charges in the guns, they may 
not have succeeded. This information was given in consider- 
ation of the negotiations then pending under flag of truce 
between him and Fort Jackson; but while the message was 
on its way the explosion took place — a fact that does not affect 
the honorable purposes intended by it." 

Commodore Mitchell was no part of Gen. Duncan's com- 
mand, nor did the latter pretend to any power to include the 
navy in the terms of his capitulation, but expressly disclaimed 
all connection with or power over the navy. It was within 
the province of Commodore Mitchell to continue the fight, 
to surrender, or to destroy his ships and effect escape if pos- 
sible. His consideration for the flag of truce between the 
enemy and the forts will commend his conduct, while his 
purpose to prevent the enemy from obtaining possession of 
his ship will be endorsed and sustained by every principle 
and precedent of naval warfare. The subsequent harsh treat- 
ment of Commodore Mitchell and the officers of the Louisiana 
resulted from the report which Porter made, but as soon as 
the authorities at Washington ascertained from Commodore 
Mitchell the truth and facts of the destruction, they were re- 
leased from confinement and treated as prisoners of war. 

Of the thirteen Confederate ships, the Governor Moo7^e, 
disabled and aground, was burned by her commander, Bev- 
erley Kennon; the C. S. S. Jackson escaped to New Orleans; the 
Manassas disabled, was destroyed by Lieut. Commander War- 
ley; the Stonewall Jackson, of the Montgomery flotilla, escaped 
up the river and was destroyed by her officers, thirteen miles 
above the forts; the Quitman and the Star were abandoned 
at the very opening of the fight and burned; the Warr^ior was 
abandoned and burned on the Fort St. Philip side of the river; 
to the north of her, on the other side of the river, the Brecken- 
ridge (or Defiance) perished in the same ignoble manner — 
having taken no part in the fight except escaping from it. 

The Louisiana, the McRae, the Resolute, of the Mont- 
gomery flotilla (which was abandoned by her crew, and taken 
possession of by Lieut. Arnold and the men from the McEae, 
and brought back into the fight), with the Bm^ton and the 
Landis, unarmed tenders, survived the fight, and for two days 
maintained their positions above the forts. Nor did Capt. Por- 
ter, who had with him the gunboats Itasca, the Winona, the 
Kennebec, the Harriet Lane, the Westfield, the Miami, and 
the mortar fieet. attempt their capture or even offer them 
battle. 

The fall of New Orleans, and the recovery of the control 
and navigation of the Mississippi River, was due to the 



;300 THE CONFEDERATE STATES NAVY. 

enterprise, sagacity and courage of Admiral Farragut and his 
officers, aided by the concurrence of many circumstances, 
which it was the duty and ought to have been the business 
of the Confederate authorities, army and navy, to have pre- 
vented and guarded against. Mr. Mallory wasted money 
in trying to be economical, and delayed important matters 
while he was hurrying them with all his energies. The mis- 
taken conviction that the danger to New Orleans was from 
up the river, rather than from the Gulf, was not only firmly 
held, but was persisted in after it Avas known that Farragut 
was in the Gulf, with the largest and best appointed fleet 
that the United States had ever organized. As late as the 
middle of April, and even when Farragut was working his 
fleet over the bar at the mouth of the Mississippi, Mr. Mallory 
retained the idea that the real danger which threatened New 
Orleans was from the seven " tin-clad " gunboats of Flag-officer 
Davis, then up the river at Fort Pillow; and even after Com- 
modore Whittle at New Orleans had recalled Hollins from up 
the river to the defence of New Orleans against the fleet of 
Farragut — Mr. Mallory still believing that the real attack was 
to be from Davis rather than by Farragut, would have sent the 
Louisiana up the river to meet Davis rather than down to the 
forts to engage Farragut. Reliance for the safety of New 
Orleans was placed upon Forts Jackson and St. Philip, notwith- 
standing the advice and opinion of the ablest naval officers in 
the Confederate service, given to the Naval Committee at 
Montgomery, that steam vessels could run by the forts. In 
that opinion Semmes, Rousseau, Bulloch, Hollins, Whittle and 
others, not only concurred but urged that the safety of the city 
could only be assured by defences afloat acting in co-operation 
with the batteries of the forts. Yet every vessel that could 
carry a gun was sent up the river, and the forts were left un- 
aided for months to defend the approach to New Orleans. 
The presence of the Louisiana, at the time Farragut appeared 
before the forts, was due to the assumed authority of Com. 
Mitchell, and in spite of the order of the Navy Department of 
April 10th to send her as soon as completed to Fort Pillow. 
The McRae and the Jackson were at the fight, because 
Capt. Hollins had ordered them down the river when he 
went to aid in the defence of the city, in response to Com- 
modore Whittle's telegram, ' and these were in New Orleans, 

1 Capt. William Conway Whittle was born in the banks of Newfoundland, and in 1854 and 

Norfolk, Va., in 1805, and was appointed a mid- 1855 the U. S. sloop Dale on the coast of Africa, 

shipman in the U. S. navy May 10th, 1820. He He resigned from the U. S. navy in 1861 upon 

served in various positions and in every grade the secession of Virginia, and was in the Virginia 

in the "old navy" from :uidshipman to com- navy. On June 11th, 1861, he was transferred 

mander inclusive, and on a large number of to the C. S. navy. He commanded the naval 

vessels, among which were the Ontario, Fairfield, defences on York River, Va., and the Confederate 

Columbia, Brandywine and Ohio. He was in flotilla on the upper Mississippi, and the Naval 

Florida during the Seminole disturbances, and Station at New Orleans. He honorably served 

in the Mexican war he was wounded at the the Confederacy in various places and during 

battle of the Tuspan, and afterwards com- the whole war. On October 23d, 1862, he was 

manded the dispatch steamer Col. Harney. In promoted to Cajstain. to rank from February 8th, 

1853 he commanded the U. S. sloop Decatur on 1862. He died in Virginia in 1878. 




CAPTAIN WILLIAM C. WHITTLE, C. S. N. 



THE CONFEDERATE STATES NAVY. 301 

against the judgment of Mr. Mallory. These facts are not re- 
called with any purpose of sustaining the charge of ineffi- 
ciency which was preferred against the Confederate Secretary 
of the Navy, but to show how a mistaken view of the enemy's 
purpose led to the weakening of the defences of the city, and 
that that error was in spite of the advice and opinion of naval 
officers. 

The divided command at New Orleans, by which the army 
and navy were responsible to no common authority, contrib- 
uted to that want of concert which hindered and embarrassed 
the fighting capacity of both arms when the hour came which 
needed all the efforts of each. The confidence reposed in the 
rams of Montgomery's flotilla, and in the capacity and courage 
of their captains — men without education, without naval 
training, with no esprit de corjjs—yvas repaid by almost in- 
stant flight after the exhibition and display of acts of insub- 
ordination criminal and contemptible. There is nothing 
about the naval defence of New Orleans to which a Confede- 
rate can look back without a feeling of disappointment, ex- 
cept the magnificent courage and seamanship displayed by 
Kennon in the Moot^e, by Huger and Read in the McRae, by 
Warley in the Manassas, and by Mitchell and his officers in 
the immovable Louisiana. 

Having destroyed every vessel of the Confederate navy 
below New Orleans, Admiral Farragut found himself before the 
city, with his victorious ships, but even then the unconquera- 
ble spirit of her people could not be made, even by threats 
which Farragut would never have executed, to haul down 
the fiag of Louisiana from the staffs of the public buildings. 
However much Farragut may have disappointed the people 
of the South, by remaining in the navy of the United States, 
there were about the old sailor those instincts and ideas 
of a Southern man which must have often returned to him 
and cost him much mental suffering. No man can shake 
off in a moment all the associations and convictions of a life- 
time, and turn at the prompting of self-interest against 
the people among whom he was born, had been bred, 
honored, promoted, and whom he loved and respected. Loy- 
alty to the Union will not explain such a revolution in 
a Southern man; and neither will the honors and applause 
which follow success completel}^ eradicate the quiet re- 
bukes which conscience gives, nor completely hide the 
blush that follows, when old friends turn away and refuse 
to recognize the apostate. "It is a strange thought," he 
wrote to his wife, " that I am here [in New Orleans] among 
my relatives, and yet no one has dared to say ' I am happy to 
see you.'" 

His Southern birth was not forgotten at the North, and 
notwithstanding his victories, his triumphs, and his apostasy 
to the South had cut him off from the friends of his youth and 



302 THE CONFEDERATE STATES NAVY. 

manhood, and separated him from the associates of his early 
naval training, Secretary Welles says:^ 

" That the last days of this brave, truthful, amiable, and exemplary- 
man, for whom his countrymen had, and always will retain, a deep and 
abiding? affection and regard, should have been subjected to petty annoy- 
ances from a few who were envious of his fame, or incapable of doing him 
justice. Although honored and loved by his countrymen, and at the head 
of the navy, he does not appear to have had the confidence of those who 
administered its affairs for the last eighteen months of his life, or to have 
been consulted in matters which personally and oflQcially interested and 
legitimately belonged to him as naval chief." 

It is the old story — they loved the treason, and they re- 
warded with honors and prize-money the exploits of the apos- 
tate son of the South, but they never took him wholly and 
singly to their hearts. Secretary Welles continues: 

" In various ways ignoble and ungenerous minds hastened to mortify 
the great and unassuming naval chief. In derogation of his real rank and 
position as chief and head of the navy, he was made port admiral or usher, 
to wait upon and receive naval officers at New York, an employment which 
self-respect and regard for the navy compelled him ;bo decline. Among 
other indignities was that of ordering the uniform and the flag of admiral, 
which he had adopted when the Government created and conferred upon 
him the office, to be changed and substituting therefor a different uniform 
and another flag, wholly unlike the coat he wore, and unlike the symbol of 
rank which was identified with him, and which from the time the office was 
created had floated above him. Parragut would neither change his coat 
nor permit the tawdry substitute for the admiral's flag to wave over him. 
On his special personal application, which he felt humiliated to make, the 
Secretary of the Navy permitted him to be spared these indignities during 
his life, but it was with the knowledge that the flag which he had earned 
— the emblem he had chosen and prescribed as the symbol of highest 
naval rank — was to be buried with him. It would be painful to dwell on 
the many annoyances to which this brave and noble officer was subjected 
during the last few months of his existence." 

1 Galaxy, December, 1871. 



CHAPTER XIV. 

THE RAMS "ARKANSAS," "QUEEN OF THE WEST,' 
"INDIANOLA," AND "WEBB." 



THE immense preparations for building gunboats at St. 
Louis and other Western cities, by the United States, 
as heretofore explained, greatly alarmed the Legislature 
of the State of Tennessee, which, by joint resolutions of 
June 24th, 1861, called the attention of the Confederate Govern- 
ment to the exposed and undefended condition of all Western 
waters, and asked for an immediate appropriation of $250,000, 
for their defence. These resolutions were laid before Con- 
gress by a special message from President Davis on July 31st, 
and the Act of August 24th, making additional appropriations 
for the navy, included a clause, "for the construction, equip- 
ment and armament of two iron-clad gunboats for the defence 
of the Mississippi River, and the city of Memphis, $160,000."' 
On the day of the approval of that act. Secretary Mallory en- 
tered into a contract with John T. Shirley, of the city of Mem- 
phis, "to construct and deliver to the Secretary of the Navy 
of the Confederate States, on or before the 24th day of Decem- 
ber, 1861, two vessels of the character and description provided 
in the plans and specifications " of the Department. Heavy 
penalties were imposed for delay beyond, and like amounts to 
be paid for each day previous to, the 24th of December, were 
embraced in the contract. 

The two vessels were the rams Arkansas and Tennessee. The 
constructor of the Arkansas was Prime Emmerson, of Memphis, 
Tenn. It w; is necessary for the contractor to begin his work by 
building two saw-mills, such as would saw long pine timber, 
which was brought from a distance of 104 miles by railroad; 
and in addition, the oak timber had to be prepared in five other 
saw-mills, which were located from ten to twenty miles away. 

1 It is said that this -am was found totally were supplied tardily by the government, Capt. 
inadequate, and in ordei to raise funds, which Shirley was compelled to sell his homestead. 



o04 THE CONFEDERATE STATES NAVY. 

The iron was purchased partly in Memphis and mOre largely 
in Arkansas, on the other side of the Mississippi River, and 
was altogether railroad iron. The bolts and spikes had to be 
rolled on the Cumberland River, and the first lot of these was 
seized by Confederate officers at Nashville, and taken and put 
into an iron boat under construction at that city. This required 
to have the spikes and bolts again rolled, and with increased 
difficulty. The complement of iron was picked up at one place 
and another in fifty and one hundred pound lots, wherever it 
could be found. Very little success attended efforts to procure 
ship-carpenters in New Orleans, St. Louis, Mobile, and Nash- 
ville. Details of these carpenters from the army were refused 
notwithstanding the efforts of the Secretary of the Navy. The 
contract was for the completion of the vessels in four months 
from August Si, 18G1. but over seven months passed before 
their completion. The successful passage of Columbus and 
Island No. 10, by the enemy, opened the way down to Mem- 
phis, and the passage of the Federal fleet of the forts below 
New Orleans, it was then thought opened the way up to Mem- 
phis, and hence the destruction of the Tennessee, and the re- 
moval of the Arkansas to Greenwood, on the Yazoo River, 
became a necessity. In the removal a barge laden with 400 
bars of drilled railroad iron was sunk in the Yazoo, which com- 
pelled a delay of several weeks before the barge was raised. 
Every bar of iron required six holes to be drilled through, and 
the steam machinery at Memphis for that purpose had to be 
taken down and transported, and set up before the new iron 
could be drilled. The Arkansas was removed to the Yazoo in 
April, 1862, before the actual fall of Memphis. These boats 
were commenced in October, and their construction carried on 
together; the Tennessee's frameiiaving been completed and the 
planking on her; Wl^AWiq Arkansas had her wood-work entirely 
completed, and her hull covered with iron nearly to the main 
deck. The iron for the Tennessee was on the Arkansas side of 
the river, when, on the evening before the enemy arrived at 
Memphis, the boat was burned. The failure to complete the 
Tennessee was due to causes and circumstances beyond the 
control of either the Secretary of the Navy or the con tractor — 
to the unprepared condition of the country for the speedy 
completion of such ships. Those natural and unavoidable 
impediments to speedy work were increased by the refusal 
of Gen. Polk to detail the carpenters in his arm.y to work 
upon the rams. The Secretary wrote to him on December 
24th, 18G1, that: 

" The completion of the iron-clad gunboat at Memphis, by Mr. Shirley 
is regarded as highly important to the defences of the Mississippi. 

"One of them at Columbus would have enabled you to complete the 
annihilation of the enemy. 

"Had I not supposed that every facility for obtaining carpenters 
from the army near Memphis would have been extendt^d to the enterprise, 



THE CONFEDERATE STATES NAVY. 305 

I would not have felt authorized to have commenced their construction 
then, as it was evident that ruinous delays must ensue, if deprived of the 
opportunity to obtain mechanics in this way. 

"These vessels will be armed with very heavy guns, and will be iron- 
clad, and with such aid as mechanics under your command can afford, 
they may be completed, I am assured, in sixty days. 

"Now I ask, therefore, that you will extend to this department the 
necessary aid." 

The refusal of Gen. Polk is the more extraordinary and 
unaccountable because he had particularly and emphatically 
endorsed and recommended Mr. Shirley to the Navy Depart- 
ment, as the contractor for these boats, and Gen. Polk ought 
to have known, without Secretary Mallory's statement, that 
"unless mechanics could be obtained from the forces un- 
der your command, the completion of the vessels will be a 
matter of uncertainty." That failure by Gen. Polk to comply 
with the request of the Secretary caused the latter, on Janu- 
ary 15th, to bring the matter to the attention of the Presi- 
dent, who was then informed officially that: 

"The two iron-clad ships being built at Memphis, and which 
would be worth many regiments in defending the river, progress very 
slowly from the difficulty of procuring workmen ; Gen. Polk, in com- 
mand there, having declined to permit the contractor to have any from 
his forces. 

"I have the honor to ask, therefore, that such measures may be 
adopted as will secure to this department the services of such ship- 
wrights, carpenters and joiners in the army as may be willing to work 
for it in the construction of vessels." 

On the 10th of April, 18G2, Capt. Hollins, then in command 
of the Upper Mississippi, telegraphed the Navy Department 
that three iron-clad gunboats of the enemy had passed Island 
No. 10, and was advised by the Secretary of the Navy to " act 
according to your best judgment — do not let the enemy get 
the boats at Memphis;" and on the same day. Commander 
McBlair, in command of the Arkansas, was advised by the 
Secretary of the passage of Island No. 10 by the enemy's 
fleet, and to "get your boat to New Orleans, and complete her 
as soon as possible, if she is in danger at Memphis." But 
on April 25th, Commander McBlair advised the Department 
by telegraph that in consequence of the passage of the forts 
below New Orleans by the enemy's fleet, that he would take 
the Arkansas up the Yazoo River, carrying the material for 
completing the gunboat, and also carrying the engines of 
the boat on the stocks, and that arrangements would be 
made to destroy the Tennessee. Accordingly, on the approach 
of the enemy's gunboats to Memphis the Tennessee, being on 
the stocks, was burned, and the Arkansas towed down to the 
mouth of the Yazoo and up that river to Yazoo City. Below 
the city, batteries were speedily erected and armed, and a raft 
was built across the river to protect the ram while being 
finished from the gunboats of the enemy. 



306 



THE CONFEDERATE STATES NAVY. 



On the 26th of May, 1862, Lieut. Isaac N. Brown/ C. S. N., 
received orders "to assume command of the Arkansas and 
finish the vessel without regard to expenditure of men or 
money." On the 28th this efficient officer took command at 
Greenwood. He found the Arkansas surrounded by refugee 
merchant steamers and four miles from dry land. Nothing 
could be done at that place toward rendering the vessel effec- 
tive. The barge which had brought down some of the railroad 
iron intended for armor was sunk in the Yazoo River, the guns 
and machinery lying on deck, and but one blacksmith's forge 
and five carpenters were at work. The timber from which 
the gun-carriages were subsequently made was still growing 
in the woods. The outlook was certainly anything but en- 
couraging. In two days time the barge was raised from the 
bed of the river with the railroad iron, and the Arkansas taken 
160 miles nearer the enemy to Yazoo City. Fourteen forges 
and 200 carpenters were immediately employed, and divided 
into day and night parties, were set to work upon the ram. Iron 
armor was brought by wagons from the railroad, twenty-five 



I Isaac N. Brown, son of Rev. Samuel Brown, 
of the Presbyterian Churcb, was born in Liv- 
ingston County, Ky„ and appointed an officer 
in the U. S. navy from Mississippi on the 15th 
of May, 1834. He served five years on the West 
India station and Gulf of Mexico, and performed 
efficient service in the Seminole war on the 
Florida coast in open boats, and also in the in- 
terior. In 1840 he stood his examination at the 
naval school, then in Philadelphia, and passed 
No. 1. He served in the Mexican War, first in 
the Gull, and was present at the capture of Vera 
Cruz. He was then transferred to the Pacific 
coast, where he performed arduous service 
during the remainder of the war. His service 
afloat took him three times around Capes Horn 
and Good Hope, including a voyage to Australia, 
and going twice around the globe. For a time 
he served on the Coast Survey, and also at the 
U. S. Naval Observatory, then under the charge 
of Commander M. F. Maury. He served one 
cruise as Executive officer of the U. S. frigate 
Stisquehannah in the Mediterranean, and assisted 
in the first attemi^t to lay the Atlantic cable. He 
was the Executive officer of the U. S. frigate 
Niagara when that vessel returned to their 
homes the first Japanese Embassy to the United 
States. On the return of the Niagara to Bos- 
ton in 1861. Lieut. Brown finding two govern- 
ments where the year previous he had left 
but one, promptly resigned his commission 
after having given twenty-seven years of his 
life to the naval service of the United States. He 
entered the service of the C. S. navy on June 
6. 1861, with the rank of lieutenant, and was as- 
signed for duty at the headquarters of the Army 
of the West, to aid in the defences of the Mis- 
sissippi River. When Randolph, Fort Pillow and 
Columbus were armed with heavy guns, Lieut. 
Brown was sent to Nashville with instructions 
to purchase and change into gunboats certain 
river steamers for the defence of the Cumber- 
land River. This work was entered into with 
his accustomed vigor, but was interrupted by 
the withdrawal of the Confederate forces from 
the Cumberland as a line of defence. He was 
then ordered to New Orleans to contract for 
and superintend the construction of four iron- 
clad gunboats. He was pushing this work at the 



ship yards at Algiers, opposite New Orleans, 
when that unfortunate city fell into the hands 
of the enemy. Lieut. Brown proceeded to Vicks- 
burg where he received on May 26th, 1862, a 
telegraphic order from the Navy Department to 
assume command of the gunboat Arl^ansas. For 
his gallant service on board of the Arkansas he 
was promoted to the rank of Commander on 
August 25th, 1862. After her destruction, during 
his absence on account ot sickness, he resumed 
command of her surviving officers and men, 
and was engaged on shore duty in the batteries 
at Port Hudson. In a short time most of the 
officers were detached for service on the sea- 
board, leaving Lieut. Brown with a small com- 
mand with which he defended the defences on 
the Yazoo River. While engaged in this diity 
he destroyed the Federal iron-clads DeKalb and 
Cairo by torpedoes in the Yazoo. He was 
then assigned by Lieut. Gen. Peniberton to the 
command of a body of troops, and in conjunction 
with an improvised cotton-clad squadron of 
river steamers, materially aided in the repulse 
of an expedition composed of 10.000 men, with 
several ivon-dads, under the command of Gen. 
Ross, which made an attack on Fort Pemberton. 
In this engagement a small detachment of the 
crew of the Ai-kansas with a sixty-four-pounder 
gun rendered the most effective service. After 
the fall of Vicksburg Commander Brown was 
ordered to the command of the C. S. iron-clad 
Charleston, at Charleston, S. C, where he per- 
formed good service in the defence of that heroic 
city. After the fall of Charleston he was ap- 
pointed to the command of all the naval defences 
west of the Mississippi, including the coast of 
Louisiana and Texas. Before reaching his des- 
tination, however, he received intelligence of 
the cessation of hostilities. Returning on parole 
to his plantation in Mississippi, without a <lollar, 
he overcame the difficulties of his situati<m, and 
surrounded by his interesting family cultivated 
it for the following twenty years. Half of this 
time he was disfranchised, but on the restora- 
tion of his citizenship he declined to take any 
part in civil or political affairs. Commander 
Brown is now [1887] a resident of Corsicana, 
Texas, though still retaining his property in 
Mississippi. 



THE CONFEDERATE STATES NAVY. 307 

miles distant, drilling machines started, gun-carriages con- 
tracted for, and the work energetically and intelligently 
pushed. ' 

While working thus assiduously on the ram, Lieut. 
Brown ordered Lieut. Read to go down to Liverpool Land- 
ing, and take measures to protect the Polk and the Liv- 
ingston, of the Hollins fleet, which had taken refuge up the 
Yazoo, from the enemy's gunboats. Lieut. Read's instruc- 
tions were to protect the two gunboats with cotton, turn 
their heads down the stream, keep steam up, and be prepared 
to fight and ram any gunboat of the enemy that might present 
itself on the river. But Commander Pinkney,then awaiting the 
arrival of Capt. William F. Lynch, who was to take command 
of all the naval forces in Western waters, determined to await 
the arrival of Capt. Lynch, and would not for that reason as- 
sent to the programme of operations designed by Lieut. Brown. 
There remained nothing then to do but to push forward the 
completi(jn of the ram. Upon his arrival, Capt. Lynch in- 
spected the ram, and dispatched to Secretary Mallory that 
''the Arkansas is very inferior to the Mennmac in every 
particular. The iron with which she is covered is worn and 
indifferent, taken from a railroad track, and is poorly secured 
to the vessel; boiler iron on stern and counter; her smoke-stack 
is sheet iron."'^ Nevertheless, Lieut. Brown completed the ram, 
and armed her with ten guns : two eight-inch Columbiads 
in the two forward or bow ports; two nine-inch Dahlgren shell 
guns, two six-inch rifled, and two thirty-two pounders, smooth 
bores in broadside, and two six-inch rifles astern. Her engines 
were new, having been built at Memphis, and on the trial trip 
had worked well; she had two propellers and separate engines. 

1 Lieut. George W. Gift, a gallant officer of the take more space than is necessary to recite all 
Arkansas, says: " The ship was in a very iucom- that was done and how it was done. It is suffi- 
plete condition. The iron of her armor exten- cientto say that within five weeks from the day 
ded only a foot, or a little more, above the water we arrived at Yazoo City, we had a man-ol-war 
line, and there was not a sufficiency of iron on (such as she was) from almost nothing — the 
hand to finish the entire ship. Ofguns we had credit for all of which belongs to Isaac Newton 
enough, but were short four carriages. In the Brown, the commander of the vessel." — Southern 
matter of ammunition and outfit for the battery Hist. Society Papers, Vol. XII., No. 5, May 1884. 
we were also very deficient. It was fearfully Brig. Gen. M. L. Smith, who first assumed 
discouraging, but Brown was undismayed. He command of Vicksburg and its defences, on the 
summoned the planters from the neighborhood 12th of May, 1862, in obedience to orders from 
and asked for laborers and their overseers. Major Gen. Lovell, in his official report, dated 
Numbers of forges were sent in, and the work August, 1862, says: "As bearing immediately 
commenced. The hoisting engine of the steam- upon the defence of this place, measures had 
boat Capital was made to drive a number of also been taken to push the Arkansas to comple- 
steam driUs, whilst some dozen of hands were tion. It was reported the contractor had virtu- 
doing similar work by hand. A temporary ally suspended work ; that mechanics and work- 
blacksmith shop was erected on the river bank, men were leaving; that supplies were wanting; 
and the ringing of the hammer was incessant. finally, that a very considerable quantity of iron 
Stevens went to Canton and got the four gun- prepared for covering her had been sunk in the 
carriages. I have often been greatly amused Yazoo River. Steps were taken to promptly fur- 
when thinking of this latter achievement. He nish mechanics and supplies, and bell-boat be- 
made no drawing before his departure, not ing obtained and sent up to the spot, the pre- 
knowing that he could find a party who would pared iron was soon recovered. It was consid- 
undertake the job. Being agreeably disap- ered fortunate that soon after this Capt. Brown 
pointed in this latter respect, he wrote back for was assigned to the duty of completing the boat, 
the dimensions of the guns. With two squares as after his assignment this important work gave 
I made the measurements of the guns (all differ- me no further concern." 
ent patterns) and sent on the data. In a week 

or a little more, Stevens appeared with four ox - Lieut. C. W. Read in So. Hist. Papers, Vol. I., 

teams and the carriages. However, it would No. 5, May 1876. 



308 THE CONFEDERATE STATES NAVY. 

Her boilers were in the hold below the water line, and her 
speed was about six knots in still water, or four miles an hour 
when turned against the current of the river ; she drew four- 
teen feet of water, and her full complement of officers and 
men was about 200. The crew of the Arkansas was formed of 
various detachments of men from lately burned gunboats, and 
of sixty Missouri volunteers from Col. Jeff. Thompson's com- 
mand, who had never before been on board a gunboat, or seen 
a heavy gun. They were under the command of Capts. Harris 
and McDonald. It required all the zeal and ability of these 
officers to get the crew trained at their guns during the two 
days they were on board before the conflict with the enemy's 
fleet. 

The naval officers formerly belonged to the old navy, and 
were young, ardent and skilled. The officers of the Arkan- 
sas were : 

Executive OflBeer, First Lieutenant Henry K. Stevens; Lieutenants, 
John Grimball, A. D. Wharton, Charles W. Read, Alphonso Barbot, 
George W. Gift; Surgeon, H. W. M. Washington; Assistant Surgeon, 
Charles M. Morfit; Assistant Paymaster, Richard Taylor; First Assistant 
Engineer, George W. City; Second Assistant Engineer, E. Covert; Third 
Assistant Engineers, William H. Jackson, E. H. Brown, James T. Do- 
land, John S. Dupuy, James S. Gettis; Acting Masters, Samuel Milliken, 
J. L. Phillips; Midshipmen, Richard H. Bacot, Dabney M. Scales, Clar- 
ence W. Tyler; Master's Mate, J. A. Wilson; Gunner, T. B. Travers; 
Pilots, J. H. Shacklett, William Gilm.ore, James Brady and John Hodges. 

The model of the Arkansas was a combination of the flat 
bottomed boats of the West and the keel built steamers de- 
signed for navigation in deep waters. Her bow was made 
sharp, and her stem tapered, so as to permit the waters to close 
readily behind her. In the centre of her hull she was very broad 
and of great capacity, and for nearly eighty feet along the mid- 
dle was almost flat bottomed. Her engines were low-pressure, 
and her two propellers acted independently. It is said she 
also had a steam hose apparatus by which she could repel 
boarders — a novelty flrst introduced in naval warfare. The 
iron mail of the Arkansas was of ordinary railway iron run- 
ning horizontally, of a single thickness. The quarter and 
stern had a thin coating of boiler iron. The wheel was within 
the shield, but the top of the pilot-house, two feet above the 
shield deck, and through which the pilot looked while steering, 
was in an unfinished state, having bar-iron over it. The top 
of the shield was flat and covered with inch bar-iron. The 
constructor's design was to have made the shield of the "gun 
box," as Commander Brown called his vessel, solid fore and 
aft, with side batteries only, and with an iron beak for ram- 
ra.ing. This plan was somewhat changed by Commander 
Brown, so far as to admit of two guns forward and two aft, 

1 It is said the militia went into the engage- peeled off, caused by constant exercise at the 
ment with the skin of their hands and Angers tackles of the great guns. 



THE CONFEDERATE STATES NAVY. 309 

with three on each broadside. This gave her a battery of ten 
guns, four of them mounted on raih-oad iron chassis, and the 
six broadside guns on carriages constructed at Canton. Not- 
withstanding the use of every available means, the Ai'kansas 
could not be made available for service before it became nec- 
essary, on account of the rapidly receding waters in the 
Yazoo, to move the ram down the river, across Satartia 
bar, below which there was deep water. This was on the 
13th of July, six weeks after beginning work on the mere 
Imll at Greenwood. Lieut. C. W. Read was sent with one of 
the pilots to sound the bar at Satartia. They found plenty 
of water for the Arkansas, but the pilot reported that if the 
river continued to fall as it had been doing for several days, 
in five more days there would not be enough for the ram to 
get down. The man who placed the obstructions in the i-iver 
said they could not be moved inside of a week. Lieut. 
Brown instructed Lieuts. Grimball, Gift and Read to examine 
the obstructions, and report if it was practicable to remove 
them, so as to allow the Arkansas to pass through, and if 
so, in what time the work could be done. The officers vis- 
ited the rafts, and after a careful examination reported that 
they could be removed in less than half an hour. 

As soon as Lieut. Commander Brown received this informa- 
tion, he decided to consult with Major Gen. Earl Van Dorn, 
commanding the defences of Vicksburg, and who had received 
authority from President Davis to use the Arkansas as part 
of his force. Lieut. C. W. Read was dispatched to Vicksburg 
to explain the position of the Arkansas, and to ask for instruc- 
tions. He was also directed to reconnoitre the position of the 
enemy's fleets above Vicksburg. Lieut. Read set out on his 
mission, riding all night — some fifty miles — and arrived at the 
general's headquarters about eight o'clock on the following 
morning and delivered his message. Gen. Van Dorn wrote 
a letter to Lieut. Brown in which he said that thirty-seven 
vessels of the enemy were in sight from Vicksburg, and 
" plenty more up the river,' but believed the Arkansas could 
run past them. He therefore commanded Lieut. Brown to 
take his vessel through the raft at Haines Bluff, and after 
sinking the Confederate steamer Star of the West in the open- 
ing of the obstructions, to go out of the Yazoo and attack 
the upper fleet of the enemy, to the cover of the Vicksburg 
batteries. 

The Yazoo empties into an old channel of the Mississippi, 
twelve miles above the city of Vicksburg, and this old channel 
runs into the main river, three miles below the mouth of the 
Yazoo. In order to reach the landing and get under cover 
of the Confederate batteries on shore, it was necessary for 
Commander Brown to pass his vessel by no less than fort}^ of 
the most formidable sloops, gunboats, rams and transports 
then in the service of the U. S. navy. 



310 THE CONFEDERATE STATES NAVY. 

The distance from Satartia bar to where the combined 
fleets of Davis, Farragut, and EUet were waiting the attack 
of the Arkansas, was less than sixty miles of open river; but 
as it was difficult to see why such an immense force should 
not meet the assailant half-way, it was not without anxiety 
that in the first twenty miles of the descent of the Yazoo the 
discovery was made that (owing to the defects in the engine 
and in the construction of the after-magazine) the steam had 
dampened the powder, so as to render it unfit for use. Fortu- 
nately the day was clear and the July sun very hot. The Ar- 
kansas was moored to the bank and, though looking for the 
enemy's approach at any moment, the powder was landed and 
spread in the sun to dry. This occupied the greater part of 
the 14th, and it was midnight before the ram reached Haines 
Bluff, a few miles from the main river. Here the anchor was 
let go until early dawn of the loth of July, a memorable day, 
on which Gen. Van Dorn truly says, Lieut. Brown " immortal- 
ized his single vessel, himself, and the heroes under his com- 
mand, by an achievement the most brilliant ever recorded 
in naval annals." 

On the night of the 14th, two deserters from the Arkansas 
came on board the U. S. gunboat Essex, and stated that the 
Arkansas meditated an attack on the Federal fleet either that 
niglit or the following morning. Flag-officers Farragut and 
Davis, who had joined their fleets on June 28th, above Vicks- 
burg, did not believe the Confederates had sufficient resources 
to build a formidable vessel in such an out-of-the-way place, 
but moved by the persistency of the two deserters, they finally 
decided on the following day to send an exploring expedition 
up the Yazoo " to procure correct information concerning the 
obstructions and defences of the river, and ascertain if possi- 
ble the whereabouts of the ram Arkansas." 

Soon after daylight on the morning of the 15th, Lieut. 
Commander Brown ordered the anchors of the Ai^kansas to be 
raised, and substituting an inferior vessel in place of the Star 
of the West in the obstructions, proceeded down the Yazoo. 
It was the intention to have made the attack on the Federal 
fleet at daylight, but on starting from the temporary anchor- 
age the ram ran aground and lost valuable time. At sunrise 
three of the enemy's vessels were seen rapidly ascending Old 
River. They were in a line abreast, the iron-clad Carondelet 
of thirteen guns in the centre, the iron-clad ram Queen of the 
West on the starboard, and the gunboat Tyler on the port side. 
At this moment the commander of the Arkansas called the 
officers around him on the shield, and addressed them in these 
words : "Gentlemen, in seeking the combat as we now do, we 
must win or perish. Should I fall, whoever succeeds to the 
command will do so with the resolution to go through the 
enemy's fleet, or go to the bottom. Should they carry us by 
boarding, the Arkansas must be blown up, on no account must 



THE CONFEDERATE STATES NAVY. 311 

she fall into the hands of the enemy. Go to your guns !" 
Lieut. Gift says : 

" Many of the men had stripped off their shirts and were bare to the 
waists, with handkerchiefs bound round their heads, and some of the 
officers had removed their coats and stood in their undershirts. The 
decks had been thoroughly sanded to prevent slipping after the blood 
should become plentiful. Tourniquets were served out to division officers 
by the surgeons, with directions for use. The division tubs were filled 
with water to drink ; fire buckets were in place ; cutlasses and pistols 
strapped on ; rifles loaded and bayonets fixed ; spare breechmgs for the 
guns, and other implements made ready. The magazines and shell-rooms 
forward and aft were open, and the men inspected in their places. Before 
getting under way, coffee (or an apology therefor) had been served to the 
crew, and daylight found us a grim, determined set of fellows, grouped 
about our guns, anxiously waiting to get sight of the enemy. 

" Shortly after sunrise, the smoke from sevei-al steamers was dis- 
covered by Capt. Brown, who with the First Lieut. Henry K. Stevens, ' 
stood on a platform entirely exposed to the enemy's fire. This was the 
signal for fresh girding up, last inspections and final arrangements for 
battle. Lieut. John Grimball and myself divided the honor of command- 
ing the eight-inch Columbiads. He fought the starboard and I the port 
gun. Midshipman Dabney M. Scales was his lieutenant, and a youngster 
named John Wilson, of Baltimore, was mine. Lieut. A. D. Wharton, of 
Nashville, came next on the starboard broadside, with Midshipman R. H. 
Baeot for his assistant. Lieut. Charles W. Read, of Mississippi, had the 
two stern chasers, both rifles, to himself, and the remaining two guns on 
the port side were under command of Lieut. Alphonso Barbot. Each 
lieutenant had two guns. Grimball and myself had each a bow-chaser 
and a broadside gun. The two Masters, John L. Phillips and Samuel 
Milhken, were in charge of the two powder divisions. Stevens busied 
himself passing about the ship, cool and smiling, giving advice here and 
encouragement there. Our commander, Lieut. Isaac Newton Brown, 
passed around the ship, and after making one of his sharp, pithy speeches, 
returned to his post with glass in hand to get the first sight of the ap- 
proaching enemy." 

Just then the Carondelet, for which the Arkansas had 
been steadily standing, fired her bov^ guns, at short range, 
wore round and accompanied by her consorts made for the 
fleet six or eight miles below. The bow guns of the Arkan- 
sas were now well served in the chase, whose superior speed, 
so evident at the beginning of this running fight, soon slack- 
ened under the effect of the Arkansas' raking fire. In the 
meanwhile the latter experienced much annoyance from the 
guns and small arms of the other vessels of the Federal 
squadron, and froin their attempts to gain positions for ram- 
ming and raking astern; but whenever the Arkansas, leav- 
ing the Carondelet, steered for them, as alternately and fre- 
quently she had to do, they would return to their positions in 
the line abreast with the Carondelet. In half an hour this 
latter vessel, superior in guns and armor to the Arkansas, 
was silenced and ran in among the willows, where her pur- 
suer, owing to her great depth of water, not caring to follow, 
left her, she no longer having the power or apparent disposition 

1 Afterwards killed on board steamer Cotton, iu Bayou Teclie, La. 



312 THE CONFEDERATE STATES NAVY. 

to offer further resistance, and if not actually surrendering, 
showing no colors, nor having a man or officer in sight. '■ 
The consort vessels, too, gave up the fight, abandoning their 
chief, made their way, at a speed far surpassing that of the 
Arkansas, for the shelter of their main fleet. 

In justice to Commander Henry Walke, of the Carondelet, 
we insert his official report of the action. He says: 

"We had reached six miles up, when we discovered a formidable 
looking ram gunboat, since proved to be the celebrated Arkansas. 
The Queen of the West, Tyler and Carondelet at once proceeded down 
the river to avoid being inevitably sunk, firing upon her with our stern, 
and occasionally with our side guns. The enemy vigorously returned the 
fire from her heavy bow guns as she pursued, and had greatly the advan- 
tage of us from being thoroughly protected by iron. We had continued 
the fight about one hour when the Arkansas came up, with the evident 
intention of running us down. I avoided the blow, and as we passed ex- 
changed broadsides at very close quarters. I endeavored to board her, 
but she passed us too quickly, and I could only fire our bow guns fairly at 
her stern. Not a shot entered her, however, the shot easily glancing off 
her invulnerable stern. 

" At this moment our wheel ropes were cut off for a third time, and 
we had to run the boat into shore. As she swung round, we gave the rebel 
vigorous discharges from our bow and starboard guns. * * * We had 
now received severe damages in our hull and machinery, more than twenty 
shots having entered the boat. In the engineer's department, three es- 
cape pipes, the steam guage and two water pipes were cut away. In the 
carpenter's department, nineteen beams were cut away, thirty timbers 
damaged, and three boats rendered useless. Our deck pumps were cut 
away also. We had some thirty killed, wounded and missing. 

'' When the escape pipes were cut away many of the hands jumped 
into the water." 

The following extract from the "log" of the gunboat 
Tyler, gives a partial account of her engagement with the 
Arkansas : 

" At 4 A, M. got under way, ran alongside of the Lancaster and sent a 
boat on board of her, which returned with a pilot. At five stood on up the 
river, followed by the ram Queen of the West, the Carondelet being ahead. 
Arrived at the mouth of the Yazoo River at forty-five minutes past five; 
stood on up. At 7 A. M. discovered a steamer standing down the river, at 
the distance of a mile, which proved to be the rebel tslvo. Arkansas, and im- 
mediately opened fire on her with our bow guns,which was returned. The 
Carondelet about a mile and a half astern, and the Queen of the Wes^ about 
a quarter of a mile. 

I As the Arkansas passed the Carondelet lying short speech to Commander Henry Walke of 
helpless and discomfited on the river bank, she the Carondelet, which he conld have plainly 
fired a broadside while almost touching her. heard had he been on deck. Notwitlistauding 
Commander Brown says: "No return fire came the contrary statements of Commander Walke, 
from the Carondelet, save the working of her en- the truth was that tlie Carondelet had been 
gines, no sound or sight of anything to indicate rendered by the fire of the Arkansas a help- 
that a Uve man remained; nor any flag or signal less wreck. Indeed he ran away before being 
flying to tell which side she belonged to." Lieut. shot at. 

Brown was all this time on the shield of the Lieut. Read says: "We had decreased our 

Arkansas, in full view, from his boots to the distance from the CarondeZe^ rapidly, and were 

crown of his cap -within easy pistol range— and only 100 yards astern, our shot still raking 

not a shot was fired at him. He even walked him, when he ceased firing and sheered into 

to tlie after part of the shield, as his vessel the i)ank; our engines were stopped, and rang- 

Bwuug off from the Carondelet into deep water, ing up alongside with the muzzles of our guns 

as the ,4 cAransas was a veesel of more than twice touching him, we poured in a broadside of 

her draft, and when near to her addressed a solid shot, when his colors came down. 




COMMANDER ISAAC N BROVTO. C. S. N. 



THE CONFEDERATE STATES NAVY. 313 

" We domraenced backing down the river, keeping up a fire with the 
guns that could be brought to bear. Finding that she was gaining on us 
rapidly, we rounded down stream and stood for the Carondelet, which 
vessel was standing down stream, and took a position on her port bow, 
about one hundred yards distant, keeping up a continuous fire on the ram 
from our stern gun, and an occasional fire from our broadside battery, 
the Carondelet having already opened on the ram with her stern guns. 

"About half -past seven the rebel ram closed with and struck the 
Carondelet, and forced her against the left bank of the river, receiving a 
discharge from her stern guns. Standing past her, she received the fire of 
her broadside guns, and stood du*ectly for us, at that time distant about 
two hundred yards. 

' We then stood down the river at all speed, and managed to keep the 
ram from two hundred to three hundred yards distant from us, keeping 
up a rapid fire from our stern gun and an occasional discharge from our 
broadside batteries as we could bring them to bear, receiving the fire 
of her two bow guns, and occasional discharges from her broadside bat- 
teries. 

" At half -past eight came within sight of the fleet; forty-five minutes 
past eight rounded to under the stern of the Essex, delivering a broad- 
side at the rebel ram as she was standing down past the fleet. 

" At this time the ram was receiving the fire of most all the vessels of 
our flotilla." 

The Tyler was a great deal cut up in the engagement, 
fourteen shot having struck her, eleven of which penetrated 
the vessel. During the last half hour of the engagement the 
after part of the gunboat was full of steam, caused by the 
escape pipe being cut. She had on board during the engage- 
ment a detachment of the Fourth Wisconsin regiment, de- 
tailed as sharpshooters. Her commander reported a loss of 
eight killed and sixteen wounded. 

The Tyler succeeded in reaching the Federal fleet nearly 
half an hour in advance of the Arkansas, thus giving sufficient 
time to prepare for the reception of the unwelcome visitor. 
None of the vessels had much steam up, though all had fires 
in their furnaces. Instantly the utmost efforts were made to 
get the gunboats ready to manoeuvre in case the Arkansas 
should really make an attack. 

In this minor conflict with Commander Walke and his 
consorts several casualties occurred among the officers and 
crew of the Arkansas. Chief Pilot John Hodges, a man of much 
worth, was mortally wounded at the wheel, and the wheel 
partly shot away, and the Yazoo River pilot, J. H. Shacklett, 
disabled and carried below. Lieut. Commander Brown, at his 
station on the upper or shield deck, received a severe contu- 
sion on the top of his head, and soon after was struck by a 
Minie ball which grazed his left temple, causing him to fall 
insensible through the hatchway to the gun-deck within the 
shield. While being carried to the cockpit he regained con- 
sciousness, sent his bearers to their guns, and resumed his 
place on the shield. He escaped further wounds save slight 
ones in the shoulder and right hand. Lieut. George W. Gift, 
a brave son of Tennessee, received a wound in the arm from 
a splinter. One of the crew, whose curiosity overcame his 



314 THE CONFEDERATE STATES NAVY. 

discretion, putting his head out of the port, while his gun was 
run in for loading, had it cut cleanly ofif by a cannon ball. 
Several others were slightly wounded. 

The now alarming fact was reported by the executive officer 
to the commander, that the temperature of the fire-room had 
risen to 130 degrees, and that the firemen had to be relieved 
every ten minutes, the steam which at the beginning of the 
chase was at 120 pounds, had gone down more than one 
half. Under this state of things, leaving out the original cal- 
culation of slow speed, under full pressure, the use of the 
Arkansas, as a ram, became hopeless, and the alternative of a 
fight through the Federal fleet, with guns alone, had to be 
accepted. 

Lieut. Gift, in his interesting " story of the Arkansas," 
says that : 

"It is quite probable that they \_Carondelet, Queen of the West, and 
A. 0. Tyler] imagined we would take to our heels when we saw the odds 
which were against us. They were mistaken. Owing to the fact that our 
bow-ports were quite small, we could train our guns laterally very little; 
and as our head was looking to the right of the enemy's line, we were 
compelled to allow them to begin the action, which was quite agreeable, 
as we had levelled all our guns with a spirit-level the day before, marked 
the trunnions, and agreed that we would not fire until we were sure of hit- 
ting an enemy direct, without elevation. The gunnery of the enemy was 
excellent, and his rifle-bolts soon began to ring on our iron front, digging 
into and warping up the bars, but not penetrating. Twice he struck 
near my port, and still we could not "see" him. The first blood was 
drawn from my division. An Irishman, with more curiosity than pru- 
dence, stuck his head out the broadside port, and was killed by a heavy 
I'ifie-bolt which had missed the ship. Stevens was with me at the time; 
and fearing tliat the sight of the mangled corpse and blood might demor- 
alize the gun s crew, sprang forward to throw the body out of the port, 
and called upon the man nearest him to assist. '' <3h ! I can't do it, 
sir!" the poor fellow replied, ''it's my brother.'' The body was thrown 
overboard. This incident of the brother was. related tome by Stevens 
afterwards, for by that time I had enough to do ahead. As soon as we 
could point straight for the enemy, with safety from grounding, the pilot 
steered direct for the Tylei\ and I got the first shot, with an eight-inch 
shell, with five-second fuse. It struck him fair and square, killing a pilot 
in its flight and bursting in the engine-room. She reported seventeen 
killed and fourteen wounded, and I think this shell did the better part of 
the day's work on her. Unfortunately, the gun recoiled off its chassis, 
and I was out of the action for five or ten minutes. However, Grimball 
made up for it. He had the best gun captain — Robert McCalla^in the ship, 
and a superb crew, and his gun seemed to be continually going out and 
recoiling in again. The broadside guns thus far were not engaged ; but 
they were not to remain entirely idle. The 'mustang,' summoning courage, 
shot up as though he would poke us gently in our starboard ribs. Capt. 
Brown divined his intent, and gave notice in time. The starboard bat- 
tery was trained sharp forward, and as the Queen ranged up. Scales gave 
her the first shell, followed quick by AVarton and Bacot. This settled the 
account on that side. The Lieut. Col. had business down the river, 
and straightway went to attend to it— that is to say, to quote Gwin 
[Lieut. Commander of the Tyler], he ' fled ingloriously.' This left us with 
the Tyler, now getting pretty sick, and the Carondelet, to deal with. 

'■ It was, I think, somewhere about this stage of the fight that a bolt 
entered the pilot-house and mortally wounded John Hodges, Mississippi 



THE CONFEDERATE STATES NAVY. 315 

pilot, and disabled Mr. Shaeklett, Yazoo River pilot, and broke the for- 
ward rim of the wheel. James Brady, the remaining Mississippi pilot, 
took charge, however, and by his admirable judgment and coolness kept 
the vessel in deep water until she got into the Mississippi, where he knew 
what he was about. The fight had been an advance on our part; we had 
never slowed the engines, but stood forward as though we held such small 
fry in contempt. Gwin handled and fought the Tyler with skill as long 
as there was any hope; but he finally took to his heels, badly crippled, 
and went after the 'mustang.' What Walke did in the Carondelet, in 
the first part of the engagement, I am not competent to say, as I was 
m^ounting my gun, but I think he was 'hacked' quite early, and did but 
little. At any rate, when I came on the scene again (not more than ten 
minutes had elapsed from the first gun), and ran out my gun, the Car- 
ondelet was right ahead of us, distant about one hundred yards, and 
paddling down stream for dear life. Her armor had been pierced four 
times by Grimball, and we were running after her to use our ram, having 
the advantage of speed. Opposite to me a man was standing outside on 
the port -sill loading the stern chaser. He was so near that I could readily 
have recognized him had he been an acquaintance. I pointed the Colum- 
biad for that port and pulled the lock-string. I have seen nothing of the 
man or gun since. We were now using fifteen pound charges of powder 
and solid shot, which latter were hastily made in Canton, and had very 
little windage; so that I think we bored the fellow through and through 
from end to end. It was an exceedingly good thing we had. If his stern 
guns were not dismounted, the crews had deserted them, for they were not 
used after my gun came into action the second time. I think I had hit 
four times, and our beak was nearly up to him, when Brady discovered 
that he was taking to shoal water with the hope of our grounding— we 
drew four [eight] feet more water than she. Therefore, we sheered off, 
and passed so close that it would have been easy to have jumped on 
board. Stevens passed rapidly along the port broadside, and saw the 
guns depressed to their utmost, and bid us wait for a good chance and 
fire down through his bottom. As we lapped up alongside, and almost 
touching, we poured in our broadside, which went crashing and plunging 
through his timbers and bottom. Although his four broadside guns- one 
more than we had — were run out and ready, he did not fire them. We were 
running near the left or Vicksburg side of the river ^ we are now in what is 
called Old River), and, as soon as passed, we headed for the middle of the 
stream, which gave Read his first opportunity— and right well did he use 
it. His rifles ' spoke ' to the purpose, for the enemy hauled down Ms 
colors. In an instant, Capt. Brown announced the fact from the deck, and 
ordered the firing to cease; but the ship still swinging, gave Wharton and 
the others a chance at her with the starboard guns before it was known 
that he had surrendered. White flags now appeared at her ports, and the 
news of our victory was known all over the ship in a moment. 

" Talk about yelling and cheering; you should have heard it at the 
moment on the deck of the Arkansas to have appreciated it. In fifteen 
minutes, without being checked in our progress, we had thrashed three 
of the enemy's vessels — one carrying arms as good as ours, and two more 
guns than we, and one of the others was a famous ram, whilst the third, 
though of but little account, gave moral support to the others. It was 
glorious. For it was the first and only square, fair, equal stand-up and 
knock-down fight between thetwo navies in which the Confederates came 
out first best. From the beginning our ship was handled with more pluck, 
decision, and judgment than theirs (the ^v^er excepted ) ; our guns were 
better fought and better served. Not an officer or man doubted the re- 
sult from the beginning. We went in to win, and we won. We now 
had no time to stop to secure cur prize, as the enemy would be apprised 
of our coming and swarm in the river like bees if we did not hurry. 
These fellows we had beaten were but skirmishers of a main army. 
Consequently we pushed down the river." 



316 THE CONFEDERATE STATES NAVY. 

On nearing the fleet, a line of men-of-war, seemingly in- 
terminable, on the east side of the river, inside of that line a 
moving mass of rams and iron-clads, on the west side an occa- 
sional gunboat, and directly ahead, as if by bulk alone to bar 
the way, a large ram and a double hull iron-clad flying the 
flag of an admiral. The grand river was level with its banks, 
and, as witnesses to the scene about to open and of the prelude 
just described in Old River, lay the Union camp of many thou- 
sand men of all arms, while numerous bomb vessels and an im- 
mense fleet of transport steamers lay securely on the west bank 
near the great host of auxiliaries to the naval investment of 
Vicksburg. It was not time for the commander of the Ar'kansas 
to count the hostile ships amidst which he was taking his brave 
comrades. There were in the Federal squadron at least six 
iron-clads, each singly superior in armor, guns and speed to 
the Arkansas; seven rams and ten sea-going ships of war 
among which were some of superior force, the whole com- 
manded by Rear Admirals Farragut and Davis, to say nothing 
of the river defence fleet under Col. Ellet, 3.000 men, 300 heavy 
guns, and a vast squadron of iron-clads. gunboats, f rigates,etc. , 
against a solitary Confederate vessel of ten guns and 200 men. 

The commander of the Arkansas had called his little ves- 
sel a " box of guns," but as she slowly moved into the Federal 
line of fire between the hours of seven and eight o'clock on 
the morning of Tuesday, July 15th, 1862, she became a citadel 
of flame. Passing grandly along within half a cable's length 
of Farragut's line, the Arkansas received and returned the fire 
of the entire fleet, and as the enemy closed in astern, from their 
double inshore line, the Confederate guns at the same moment 
were fired ahead, astern, port and starboard, dealing death at 
every point of the compass. The rapid succession of broad- 
sides, commingled with bursting shells, and the sharp hissings 
of grape, shrapnell and Minie balls, all these, though the noise 
of the cannonade was heard forty miles from the scene of 
action, seemed slight to the officers and crew of the Arkansas 
compared with the horrible din and constant concussion of 
the missiles crushing against and through the side of their 
vessel. The bright, clear morning was for a time so obscured 
by smoke, that the red flash from the cannon's mouth produced 
the illusion of a nocturnal combat. Slowly the combat drifted 
along the dreadful line, for now the breechings of the Ar- 
kansas'' boilers had been shot away and steam fell to twenty 
pounds. The temperature in the shield around the guns rose 
to 120 degrees, and the exhausted firemen coming from below 
found little relief, save in the nearer excitement of the battle. 

The first vessel encountered by the Arkansas was gunboat 
No. 6 of Farragut's fleet, carrying one heavy eleven-inch 
Dahlgren and two small twelve-pounders at the bow. This 
boat received several shots from the Arkansas, and replied 
vigorously with her big gun. Without stopping her engines. 



THE CONFEDERATE STATES NAVY. 317 

the Arkansas ran past No. 6, and next encountered the Louis- 
ville, which gave her the full benefit of her broadside and bow 
guns. The Arkansas had hj this time reached a position 
where her shot were effective in every direction, and she used 
all her guns at the same moment, firing at transports and gun- 
boats indiscriminately. None of the boats were able to give 
the Arkansas more than one or two broadsides before she was 
out of reach. Most of the balls were thrown at short range, 
but many of the solid projectiles glanced off, while the shells 
were shivered into a thousand fragments by the force of the 
concussion alone. The Benton, Louisville and Cincinnati 
moved as speedily as they could turn in the river, and fol- 
lowed closely upon the heels of the Arkansas. 

As the Confederate ram passed the Hartford, L^oquois, 
Richmond, Sumter, Louisville, Oneida, Cincinnati, Sciota, 
WissaTiickon, Winona and Essex, she received a heavy broad- 
side from each. Two of the enemy's eleven-inch solid shot, 
however, crushed through the sides of the Arkansas, doing 
fearful execution among her men. The iron on her port side, 
though pierced but twice, had been so often struck with heavy 
projectiles that it was very much loosened. A few more 
heavy shots would have caused nearly all of it to have fallen 
from the sides of the vessel. In many instances solid shot 
seemed to flatten against her armor, while shells were scattered 
into thousands of fragments. A shot from one of the boats, 
at short range, is said to have struck at right angles upon 
her side and rebounded, falling into the water close to the 
vessel from which it was discharged. It is also said by those 
who saw the engagement, that a flash of fire denoted the spot 
where every ball struck, so terrible was the concussion and so 
strong the resistance. 

The Arkansas during her progress down the river put holes 
in the Hartford, the Iroquois, Richmond and Benton, and half 
of the gunboats. Her iron prow was prominent to view ; but 
she did not attempt to use it upon any of the boats after the 
first attack. The U. S. ram Lancaster at one time started for 
the Arkansas, intending to run her down; but before proceed- 
ing far she received three shots from the bow guns of Grimball 
and Gift, one of which severed her steam pipe, by which a num- 
ber of her crew were scalded, three of them fatally. A daring 
ram attacking astern, was blown off by the rifle guns of Read 
and Scales. The iron-clad Benton, the flag-ship of Rear- Admiral 
Davis, guarding the gorge through which led the way to Vicks- 
burg, moved out of the way of the gallant Arkansas, and re- 
ceived for her courtesy, through her stern ports, from their 
very muzzles, the contents of the Arkansas' starboard guns. 
The Federal line was now forced, and the Arkansas emerged 
from the volcano of flame and smoke, from an hour's horizon- 
tal iron hail of every description, from thirty-two to two 
hundred-pounders, hurled by a fleet of about forty formidable 



318 THE CONFEDERATE STATES NAVY. 

war vessels, — shattered, bleeding, triumphant ! The brave 
men from below, almost suffocated, hurried up on the shield- 
deck and formed a group of hero faces around their com- 
mander; just then a heavy rifle shell passed close over their 
heads, — it was the last shot noticed, and in another half hour 
they were welcomed by the patriotic shouts of the army at 
Vicksburg — and the siege of that city was virtually raised ! 

The enemy continued the pursuit until a shot from one of 
the Confederate batteries on shore, thrown into their foremost 
vessel, announced that the Arkansas was no longer alone in 
the unequal contest. The enemy then hauled off their vessels 
and returned to their anchorage up the river. 

We cannot close this interesting story of the Arkansas^ 
without adding the graphic account of her passage through 
the Federal fleet, written by Lieut. G. W. Gift, who was one of 
her officers and an eye-witness to what he describes : 

" "We left the Caronclelet sinking and pursued the Tylei- and Queen of 
the West. Both were swifter vessels than the Arkansas, and in our efforts 
to overtake them we worked off steam too rapidly and the result was 
when we entered the Mississippi River they had gained sufficiently on us 
to notify the fleets of Parragut and Davis of our approach, and that be- 
fore we had come in sight around the i>oint. The result was instant and 
rapid preparations by the squadrons for our reception. Steam was hur- 
ried up on all the river vessels, and they weighed or slipped anchor, and 
took up such positions as would enable them to hit us and at the same 
time keep away from our powerful beak, if possible. On coming in sight 
of them the scene was one of intense interest. A dozen or more vessels 
were steaming about in an uneasy, uncertain way, somewhat after the 
manner of a brood of chickens on the approach of a hawk. Tugs, trans- 
ports and hospital vessels were smoking up or trying to hide. The heavy 
sloops-of-war and gunboats of Farragut's squadron were anchored in the 
middle of the stream with fires out, but with batteries manned and ready 
for battle. On the banks batteries of field artillery were run up and sev 
eral thousands of soldiers prepared to shoot Minie balls into our ports 
The ' mustang' rams — the same that beat our 'mustang,' Montgomery, 
in front of Memphis a short time before — were under way also, but they 
did not come to the front too close, with a chap carrying guns and men 
who knew how to handle them. 1 think I do not over-estimate the force 
of the enemy when I say he had twenty pennants flying ; and we were 
about to attack him in an unfinished and untried vessel, with engines 
totally and entirely unreliable. As we stood down to them there was a 
decided and painful pause. We were in range, but preferred to save our 
strength and ammunition for a close grapple. One of my best men was 
a tall, atliletic young Irishman who had greatly distinguished himself 
for zeal and courage half an hour before. Putting his eye to the gun he 
peeped out ahead and saw the immense force assembled to oppose us. In 
an instant he was overcome, and exclaimed : ' Holy mother, have mercy 
on us ; we'll never get through there!' I had been watching the chang- 
ing panorama ahead with many doubts and misgivings. A half dozen I 
would not have minded, but two dozen were rather more than we had 
bargained for. But we had ventured too far to think of backing out; 
through we must go The first vessel which stood out to engage us was 
' No. 6 ' (Kineo), against which we had a particular grudge, inspired by 
Read, who desired us all to handle roughly any seagoing vessel we should 
see with ' No. 6 ' on her smoke-stack, as that vessel was engaging the 
McRae, above Forts Jackson and St. Philip when Lieut. Com. Huger was 
killed. Read, who was first lieutenant under Capt. Huger, and devotedly 



THE CONFEDERATE STATES NAVY. 319 

attached to him, saw the ' No. G ' by the flashes of the pjuns, and had ever 
since treasured the hope of getting alongside the fellow some day. This 
' No. 6 ' came out like a game-cock, steamed to the front to take the fire 
of a great monster from which ' mustangs ' and river iron-clads were hid- 
ing and fleeing. I sent my powder boy to Read with a message to come 
forward, as his friend was in sight. He came leisurely and carelessly, 
swinging a primer lanyard, and I think I have never looked at a person 
displaying such remarkable coolness and self-possession. On observing 
the number ahead his eye was as bright and his smile as ge'nuine as if he 
had been about to join a company of friends instead of enemies. We 
were now getting close aboard ' No. 6,' and he sheered with his port helm 
and unmuzzled his eleven-inch pivot gun charged with grape. It was 
hastily pointed, and the charge fell too low to enter our ports, for which 
it was intended. This broke the terrible quiet which hung over us like 
a spell. Every man's nerves were strung up again, and we were ready 
for the second battle. With a sharp touch of the starboard helm Brady 
showed me ' No. 6,' straight ahead, and I gave him a shell through and 
through, and as we passed he got the port broadside. He did not follow 
us up. These two shots opened the engagement. Soon we were a target 
for a hundred or more guns, which poured in an unceasing and terrible 
fire. Generals Breckenridge, Van Dorn and others viewed the engage- 
ment from the top of the court-house in Vicksburg, and were appalled at 
the apparent rashness of attempting the passage. The fire of the en- 
emy was almost unceasing, nor were we idle by any means. As we have 
said before, every gun was fully manned, and wherever we looked, in 
every direction, we saw gunboats. It was only necessary to load the guns 
and fire and we hit. The rams were taking up a position to come out 
and strike us as we passed. One of them, the Lancaster, was slowly mov- 
ing across our path, and I heard Brady ask Capt. Brown if he should cut 
the boat in two. The captain returned an affirmative answer, and the 
game pilot steadied our ship for the ram. I had in a five-second shell, 
which I wished to get rid of before we got to the iron-clads, and so set it 
in motion. It struck his mud-drum, emptying the hot steam and water 
into the small, barricaded engine-room, where the crew and a company of 
sharp-shooters were seeking protection, about a hundred of whom were 
killed. The poor feUows came pouring up the scuttles, tearing off their 
shirts and leaping overboard as soon as they reached the air. But that 
gave us no rest. The shot struck upon our sides as fast as sledge-ham- 
mer blows. Capt. Brown was twice knocked off the platform, stunned, 
his marine glass was broken in his hand, and he received a wound on his 
temple ; but recovering himself, he gallantly — no, heroically — resumed 
his place, and continued to direct the movements of his ship from a po- 
sition entirely exposed to the fire of not only great guns, but thousands of 
sharp-shooters, who were pattering the balls all around and about him. 
The man of steel never flinched, but carried us straight and clear through. 
I know that this great battle, and the great commander, have been ig- 
nored by the sect which ruled the navy, but when the history of our corps 
is written. Brown will rank first. Some one called out that the colors had 
been shot away. It reached the ear of Midshipman Dabney M. Scales, 
and in an instant the glorious fellow scrambled up the ladder which was 
being swept by a hurricane of shot and shell, deliberately bent on the 
colors again, knotted the halyards and hoisted them up, and when they 
were again knocked away would have replaced them had not he been for- 
bidden by the captain. Midshipman Clarence Tyler, aide to the cap- 
tain, was wounded at his post alongside the captain We were passing 
one of the large sloops-of-war when a heavy shot struck the side abreast 
of my bow-gun. the concussion knocking over a man who was engaged 
in taking a shot from the rack. He rubbed his hip, which had been hurt, 
and said they would ' hardly strike twice in a place.' He was mistaken, 
poor fellow, for immediately a shell entered the breach made by the shot, 
and bedding itself in the cotton-bale lining on the inside of tlie bulwark 



320 THE CONFEDERATE STATES NAVY. 

proper, exploded with terrible effect. I found myself standing in a dense, 
suffocating smoke, with my cap gone and hair and beard singed. The 
smoke soon cleared away, and I found but one man (Quartermaster 
Curtis) left. Sixteen were killed and wounded by that shell, and the ship 
set on fire. Stevens, ever cool and thoughtful, ran to the engine-room 
hatch, seized the hose and dragged it to the aperture. In a few moments 
the fire was extinguished, without an alarm having been created. 

" The Columbiad was fired but once after its crew was disabled. By 
the aid of an army captain (whose name, I am sorry to say, 1 have forgot- 
ten , belonging to a Missouri battery, Curtis and myself succeeded in get- 
ting a shot down the gun, with which we struck the Benton. The ill-luck 
which befell the crew of the bow gun was soon to be followed by a similar 
misfortune to the crew of my broadside gtni. An eleven-inch shot broke 
through immediately above the port, bringing with it a shower of iron 
and wooden splinters, which struck down every man at the gun. My 
Masters Mate, Mr. Wilson, was painfully wounded in the nose, and I had 
my left arm smashed. Curtis was the only sound man in the division 
when we mustered the crew at quarters, at Vicksburg. Nor did the mis- 
chief of the last shot end with my poor gun's crew. It passed across the 
deck, through the smoke-stack, and killed eight and wounded seven men 
at Scales' gun. Fortunately, he was untouched himself, and afterward 
did excellent service at Grimball's Columbiad. Stationed on the ladder 
leading to the berth-deck was a quartermaster named Eaton. He was as- 
signed the duty of passing shells from the forward shell-room, and also 
had a kind of superintendence over the boys who came for powder. Eaton 
was a character. He had thick, rough, red hair, an immense muscular 
frame, and a will and courage rarely encountered. Nothing daunted him, 
and the hotter the fight, the fiercer grew Eaton. From his one eye he 
glared furiously on all who seemed inclined to shirk, and his voice grew 
louder and more distinct as the shot rattled and crashed upon our mail. 

"At one instant you would hear him pass the word down the hatch: 
"Nine-inch shell, five-second fuse. Here you are, my lad, with your rifle 
shell; take it and go back, quick. What's the matter that you can't 
get that gun out ?"' and, like a cat, he would spring from his place, and 
throw his weight on the side tackle, and the gun was sure to go out. 
"What are you doing here, wounded ? Where are you hurt ? Go back 
to your gun, or I'll murder you on the spot. Here's your nine-inch 
shell. Mind, shipmate (to a wounded man), the ladder is bloody; don't 
slip; let me help you.' 

" I have thrown in this slight sketch to show that our men were 
beginning to straggle, so badly were we cut up. But still the ship was 
not disabled ; seven guns were yet hammering away, and the engines 
were intact. But steam was down to a terribly low ebb. The party 
who fitted up the boilers had neglected to line the fire front with non- 
conducting materials; the consequence was that when a heavy fire of 
coal was put in the whole mass of iron about the boilers became red- 
hot, and nearly roasted the firemen, who had also got a tub of ice-water 
of which they drank freely. The result was that we had to hoist them 
all out of the fire-room during the action, and Grimball headed a party 
to supply their place. But I will not detain the reader. We got through, 
hammered and battered though. Our smoke-stack resembled an im- 
mense nutmeg-grater, so often had it been struck, and the sides of the 
ship were spotted as if it had been peppered. A shot had broken our 
cast-iron ram. Another had demolished a hawse-pipe. Our boats were 
shot away and dragging. But all this was to be expected, and could 
be repaired. Not so on the inside. A great heap of mangled and 
ghastly slain lay on the gun-deck, with rivulets of blood running away 
from them. There was a poor fellow torn asunder, another mashed 
flat, whilst in the "slaughter-house" brains, hair and blood were all 
about. Down below fifty or sixty wounded were groaning and complain- 
ing, or courageously bearing their ills without a murmur. 



THE CONFEDERATE STATES NAVY. 321 

"All the army stood on the hills to see us round the point. The flag 
had been set up on a temporary pole, and we went out to return the cheers 
the soldiers gave us as we passed. The generals came on board to embrace 
our captain, bloody, yet game." 

As soon as the Arkansas came in view of the lower fleet 
of the enemy a great commotion was noticed. Vessels were 
running hither and thither as if expecting an immediate at- 
tack. Presently flames burst out from one of the mortar- 
boats lying hard aground, and in thirty minutes she had 
burned to the water's edge. At the same time, several regi- 
ments of infantry, camped on shore, piled up their commissary 
stores, set them on fire, and fled to the transports, which 
immediately went down stream, the remainder of the fleet 
following until nearly out of sight, when seeing that the 
Arkansas was not pursuing, came to a halt and returned to 
its former anchorage. 

The New York Herald, in its account of the engagement, 
makes the following table of the total loss of the Federal 
fleet and the number of shots received by each vessel : 

Killed. Wounded. Shots Received. 

Carondelet 5 20 20 

Tyler 8 16 14 

Lancaster 18 10 1 

Benton 1 3 6 

Sumter 12 

Champion 3 

Dickey 3 

Great Western 1 

Farragut's Fleet 10 30 13 

Total 42 69 73 

It was ten minutes to nine o'clock in the morning, when 
the Arkansas moored to the wharf at Vicksburg. Her smoke- 
stack was riddled, and she was otherwise considerably dam- 
aged. The scene which followed the landing of the Arkansas 
was of the most thrilling character. Crowds in the city 
rushed to the wharf frantic with joy. As Commander Brown 
presented himself to view, the warm, fresh blood still trickling 
down his furrowed cheeks from his wounded head, the 
enthusiasm became irrepressible. All felt that the gratitude 
of the country, and the admiration of the navy, were due to 
Commander Brown and his brave officers and crew for their 
most brilliant achievement. 

Immediately upon his arrival at Vicksburg, Lieut. Brown 
sent the following official dispatch to the Navy Department at 
Richmond: 

" Vicksburg, Miss., July 15, 1863. 
'To Hon. 8. R. Mallory : 

"We engaged to-day from 6 to 8 A.M. with the enemy's fleet above Vicks- 
burg, consisting of four or more iron-clad vessels, two heavy sloops-of-war, 
four gunboats, and seven or eight rams. We drove one iron-clad vessel 
ashore, with colors down and disabled, blew up a ram, burned one vessel, 

21 



322 THE CONFEDERATE STATES NAVY. 

and damaged several others. Our smoke-stack was so shot to pieces that 
we lost steam, and could not use our vessel as a ram. We were otherwise 
cut up, as we engaged at close quarters. Loss, ten killed, fifteen wounded, 
and others with slight wounds. 

" [Signed] Isaac N. Brown, 

Lieut. - Commanding. " 

In recognition of Lieut. Brown's successful feat of gal- 
lantry, ranking among the most brilliant of the w^ar, the follow- 
ing tribute was paid him by the Confederate Government : 

" Confederate States of America, Navy Department, \ 

" Richmond, August 4th, 1863. \ 
'■'■Commander Isaac. N. Broivn, C.S.N'., commanding steam sloop Arkansas^ 
Vicksburg, Miss. : 
" Sir:— Your official report of the engagement of the 15th ultimo, 
between the screw sloop Arkansas, under your command, and the ene- 
my's fleet before Vicksburg, together with tlie details of the loss sustained 
by your ship, have been this day received. 

" Upon the receipt of your telegraphic dispatch, announcing this 
achievement, the following response was made : 

" Richmond, July 18, 1863. 
"■Lieut-Commanding Isaac IV. Brown, C.S.If., cojnmanding the Arkansas ,. 
Vicksburg, Miss.: 
" Your telegram announcing the action between the sloop-of-war Ar- 
kansas under your command, and the enemy's fleet before Vicksburg, 
has been received, and I am requested by the President to express, in be- 
half of the country, whose cause you have nobly sustained, his thanks to 
yourself, your officers and crew. 

"For gallant and meritorious conduct you are promoted, and made a 
commander for the war. 

" S. R. Mallort, Secretary of the Navy. 

" A grateful country, while deploring the loss of the gallant dead who 
fell upon this memorable occasion, will place their names upon the roll of 
her heroes, and cherish them with respect and affection. 

" You will please furnish the department with a perfect list of your 
officers and crew, in order that their names may become known to the 
country and the service which they have so signally served. 

" I am, respectfully, your obedient servant, 

" S. R. Mallory, Secretary of the Navy.'''' 

The War Department also received, at the same time, the 
subjoined dispatch from Gen. Earl Van Dorn : 

" Vicksburg, July 15. 

" The sloop-of-war Arkansas, under cover of our batteries, ran glori- 
ously through twelve or thirteen of the enemy's rams, gunboats and 
sloops-of-war. 

" Our loss is ten men killed, and fifteen wounded. Capt. Brown, her 
commander and hero, was slightly wounded in the head. 

" Smoke-stack of the Arkansas is riddled, otherwise she is not ma- 
terially damaged, and can soon be repaired. 

"Two of the enemy's boats struck their colors, and ran ashore to keep 
from sinking. 

"Many killed and wounded — glorious achievement for the navy, her 
heroic commander, officers, and men. 

" One mortar boat disabled and aground, is now burning up. All the 
enemy's transports and all the vessels-of-war of lower fleet, except a sloop- 
of-war, have gotten up steam and are off to escape from the Arkansas. 
" Earl Van Dorn, Major General Commanding.^'' 



THE CONFEDERATE STATES NAVY. 333 

In General Orders No. 51, under date of July 22d, Adju- 
tant and Inspector General S. Cooper, by order of the Secre- 
tary of War, paid the following compliment to the officers 
and crew of the Arkansas : 

" Lieutenant Brown and the officers and crew of the Confederate 
steamer A7-kansas, by their heroic attack upon the Fedei-al fleet before 
Vicksburg, equalled the highest recorded examples of courage and skill. 
They prove that the navy, when it regains its proper element, will be one 
of the chief bulwarks of national defence, and that it is entitled to a high 
place in the confidence and affection of the country." 

Congress also passed the following joint resolution of 
thanks to Lieut. I. N. Brown, and all under his command : 

^^ Resolved, hy the Congress of the Confederate States of America, 
That the thanks of Congress are hereby cordially tendered to Lieut. Isaac 
N. Brown, and all under his command, for their signal exhibition of skill 
and gallantry on the fourteenth day of July last, on the Mississippi River, 
near Vicksburg, in the brilliant and successful engagement of the sloop-of- 
war Arkansas with the enemy's fleet. 

"Approved Oct. 3, 1863." 

It was "with deep mortification" that Admiral Farragut 
announced to the Federal Naval Department the successful 
achievement of the Arkansas; and Lieut. -Col. Ellet command- 
ing the steam-ram fleet, in a letter to Flag-officer Davis, of 
the gunboat flotilla, said: "The continued existence of the 
rebel gunboat Arkarisas so near us is exercising a very per- 
nicious influence upon the confidence of our crews, and even 
upon the commanders of our boats." The Federal naval offi- 
cers feared that the Arkansas would run down to New Or- 
leans and capture that city. Immediately after she sought 
shelter under cover of the upper batteries at Vicksburg. all 
the commanders of the Federal fleet were called aboard of 
Commodore Farragut's flag-ship, the steam sloop-of-war Hart- 
ford, for consultation. A plan was immediately formed to 
get the entire upper fleet between the Arkansas and New Or- 
leans, and in passing, if possible, sink or capture the ram. An 
eye-witness gives the following graphic description of Farra- 
gut's fleet attempting to destroy the Confederate ram. 

"The fleet of Commodore Davis accordingly took up a station at 
about dark, and opened on the batteries to draw their fire. They suc- 
ceeded admirably, and at an unexpected moment the fleet of large vessels 
struck into the channel and descended the river. As each boat arrived 
opposite the Arkansas she slackened and poured her broadside into her. 
She answered as well as she could in such a storm of missiles, and put one 
or two balls into our vessels, but her main occupation was to be still and 
take it. Upwards of a hundred guns, some of them throwing ten-inch 
shots, poured their deadly charges into her. Seven-inch steel-pointed 
shot were fired into her. The firing was tremendous. The Sumter also 
ran into her and tried to knock a hole in her hull, but seemingly might as 
well have run into a rock. The batteries of course joined the engagement, 
and poured shot into our vessels as well as they could in the darkness. 

'' The roar of guns was like an earthquake, and nothing more terrific 
ever was conceived than this grand artillery duel by night. It lasted an 
hour, and then our vessels passed below and took up their old anchorage. 



324 THE CONFEDERATE STATES NAVY. 

"In the morning messengers were despatched to see what damage 
the Arkansas had sustained. By going up the opposite bank of the river, 
she could be plainly seen. Two battles, such as no boat in the world ever 
went through before, had failed to demolish her." 

As the Federal ships and gunboats moved slowly down 
stream, all the while throwing shot and shell by broadside at 
the Confederate batteries, into Vicksburg, and at the Arkansas, 
the ram returned the salutations most lleartil^^ Amidst the 
terrific booming of cannon and the bursting of shells, could 
be heard the rattle of musketry from a brigade of infantry, 
which poured volleys into the enemy's rigging and exposed 
places. For near an hour and a half the roar was deafening 
and incessant, and to add to the sublimity of the picture, two 
houses in the city, soon after dark, caught on fire from the 
shells, and ligiited up everything far and wide. 

During the furious bombardment, the Arkansas changed 
her position a few hundred feet, having gotten under way to 
fight to greater advantage, but found it impossible to generate 
sufficient steam, owing to her smoke-stack being riddled. A 
well-directed 225 -pound wrought-iron bolt struck near the 
water line of the Arkansas, passed through the port side into 
the dispensary, on the berth-deck, opposite the engine-room, 
mashed up all the drugs, etc., carried in an ugly lot of iron 
fragments and splinters, passed over the engine-room, disa- 
bling the engine, grazed the steam chimney, and lodged in 
the opposite side of the ship, between the wood-work and the 
iron plates. Several of the firemen and Charles Gilmore, one 
of the pilots, were killed, and James Brady, who had stood at 
the wheel while in Old River and in passing through the com- 
bined fleets above Vicksburg, was wounded and knocked over- 
board, and an engineer and several others were wounded. 
Lieut. Stevens stopped the leak, while the bow guns and port 
broadsides never ceased to pour into each passing vessel a con- 
stant fire of shot and shell. The enemy's fleet passed so close 
to the Arkansas that her shots could be distinctly heard crash- 
ing through the sides of their ships, and the groans of their 
wounded were also heard. With the exception of the destruc- 
tive shot described, the Arkansas was not materially injured, 
but brought five of her guns to bear on the passing vessels. 

Lieut. Gift, describing the passage of Farragut's fleet be- 
fore Vicksburg and the attempt of the enemy to destroy the 
Arkansas, says: 

" Our arrival at Vicksburg was hailed with delight by all the army. 
The officers came on board to see the marks of the struggle, whilst squads 
of eager privates collected on the bank to get a near view of the wonder- 
ful craft which had just stood so much hammering. This attracted a 
daring band of sharp-shooters to the other bank, and we were forced to 
open with our heavy guns to disperse them, which was easily accom- 
plished by half a dozen discharges. The enemy below showed decided 
signs of demoralization. A mortar boat which had been allowed to get 
aground was hastily set on fire and blown up. A sea-going vessel 



THE CONFEDERATE STATES NAVY. 3^5 

(commanded by Craven\ left to guard the transports, sprung her broadside 
athwart the stream to be ready for an attack. Everything got up steam, 
and Porter's flag-boat opened with a hundred-pounder Parrott gun in a 
spiteful, angry fashion, throwing her shot over and beyond us. If we had 
a smoke-stack, proper boiler fronts, good engines, a new crew, and many 
other things, how we would have made a smash of those fellows ! But as 
our smoke-stack was so riddled, the draft was destroyed, and as our en- 
gines were troublesome, faulty affairs, and our crew were nearly all killed, 
wounded, or used up, we had to bide where we were, and see the chance 
slip away from us. Read cast many longing glances down the river, and 
I think would have been perfectly willing to undertake the task, broken 
down as we were. But there is a limit to human endurance; we could do 
no more, and we rested. During the day the telegraph informed Capt. 
Brown that he had been promoted to the rank of commander, and we 
were thanked from Richmond for our brilliant achievement. Our dead 
were removed on shore for burial, and our wounded were taken to an army 
hospital. As soon as we arrived at Vicksburg the detachment of soldiers 
left us to rejoin their command, which reduced our force to a very low- 
ebb. As well as we could, we put the ship to rights, and the day wore 
away. As soon as dark began to set in, it was evident that the enemy 
meant mischief. 

"Everything was under way, and soon the guns from the upper bat- 
tery opened quick and sharp, to be replied to by the broadsides of the 
heavy ships coming down, the Richmond (Alden) leading. Our plucky 
men were again at their quarters, and steam was ready should we be com- 
pelled to cast off and take our chances in the stream against both fleets. 
About that time things looked pretty blue. It is true that we were under 
the batteries at Vicksburg, but practically we had as well have been a 
hundred miles from there. The guns were perched on the high hills; they 
were not provided with sights, and if ever they hit anything it was an ac- 
cident or the work of one of Brooke's rifles.^ 

"This we well knew, and stripped this time for what we supposed 
would be a death struggle. The sea-going fleet of Farragut was to pass 
down, drag out, and literally mob us; whilst the iron-clad squadron of 
Davis was to keep the batteries engaged. Down they came, steaming 
slowly and steadily, and seemed to be on the look-out for us. But they 
had miscalculated their time. The darkness which partially shrouded 
them from the view of the army gunners, completely shut us out from 
their sight, inasmuch as our sides were the color of rust and we lay under 
a red bank; consequently, the first notice they had of our whereabouts 
came from our guns as they crossed our line of fire, and then it was too 
late to attempt to check up and undertake to grapple with us. They 
came by singly, each to get punished, as our men were again feeling in 
excellent spirits. The Hartford stood close in to the bank, and as we spit 
out our broadside at her, she thundered back with an immense salvo. 
Our bad luck had not left us. An eleven-inch shot pierced our side a few 
inches above the water-line, and passed through the engine-room, killing 
two men outright (cutting them both in two) and wounding six or eight 
others. The medicines of the ship were dashed into the engine-room, and 
the debris from the bulkheads and splinters from the side enveloped the 
machinery. The shot bedded itself so far in the opposite side that its posi- 
tion could be told by the bulging protuberance outside. On account of my 
disabled arm, I had turned over my division to Scales, and remained 
with Capt. Brown on the platform. To be a spectator of such a scene was 
intensely interesting and exciting. The great ships with their towering 
spars came sweeping by, pouring out broadside after broadside, whilst 
the batteries from the hills, the mortars from above and below, and the 
iron -dads, kept the air alive with hurtling missiles and the darkness 
lighted up by burning fuses and bursting shells. On our gun-deck every 

1 Not then in position at Vicksburg. 



320 THE CONFEDERATE STATES NAVY. 

man and officer worked as though the fate of the nation hung on his in- 
dividual efforts. Scales was very near, and I could hear his clear voice 
continually. He coaxed and bulUed alternately, and, finally, when he 
saw his object in line, his voice rose as clear as a bell, and his ' ready! fireT 
rang out like a bugle note. The last vessel which passed us was that 
commanded by Nichols (' Bricktop'), and she got one of our shots in her 
out-board delivery. He pivoted his eleven-inch gun to starboard, heeled 
his vessel to keep the leak above water, and drifted past the batteries 
without further damage. 

"We had more dead and wounded, another hole through our armor 
and heaps of splinters and rubbish. Three separate battles had been 
fought, and we retired to anything but easy repose. One of our messmates 
in the ward -room (a pilot) had asserted at supper that he would not again 
pass through the ordeal of the morning for the whole world. His mangled 
body, collected in pieces was now on the gun-deck; another had been sent 
away to the hospital with a mortal hurt. The steerage mess was short 
four or five members, whilst on the berth-deck many poor fellows would 
never again range themselves about the mess-cloth. * * * * 
The enemy now had a fleet above and below us, and though foiled and 
angry, he made no immediate active effort to do us more harm, other than 
to shell us incessantly by day, and once by night, with mortar shells. Half 
a dozen or more thirteen-inch mortars kept missiles continually in the air. 
directed at us. We were twice struck by fragments, otherwise the busi 
ness was very harmless." 

On the morning after the passage of the Federal fleet be- 
low Vicksburg, the enemy finding that the Arkansas was still 
at her moorings, comparatively uninjured and with steam up, 
opened on her all their mortar boats above and below the town, 
throwing their huge thirteen-inch shells thick and fast around 
her. As the mortar-shells fell with terrible force almost per- 
pendicularly, and as the Arkansas was unprotected on upper 
decks, boilers amidship, a magazine and shell-room at each 
end, it was very evident that if she was struck by one of these 
heavy shells, it would cause her destruction. Her moorings 
were changed frequently to impair the enemy's range; but day 
and night from the 16th to the 22d of July, the officers and 
crew were exposed to the falling bombs. Quite a number ex- 
ploded a few feet above decks, and sent their fragments into 
the decks, and several burst so near under the water, as to 
shake the vessel with earthquake force. ' 

1 " Wheu the Arkansas started down the Yazoo and were made aware of the danger of the 

her crew were seamen with the exception of mortar-sbell that fell continually around the 

about fifty soldiers — vohinteera from a Mis- ship, those volunteers found many pretexts 

souri regiment. The seamen had been on the to go back to their commands; many took 

Yazoo swamps some time, and inconsequence the 'shell fever,' and went to the hospital, 

were troubled with chills and fever. Many had As a general thing, soldiers are not much 

been killed, a large number wounded, and a use on board ship, particularly volunteers, 

greater portion of the remainder sent to the who are not accustomed to the discipline 

hospital on the arrival at Vicksburg. The day and routine of a man-of-war. A scene that 

after we reached the city the Missouri volun- occurred on board the Arkansas one day at 

teers, who had agreed to serve only for the trip, Vicksburg is illustrative. We were engaged 

went on shore and joined their command ; so hauling the ship into a position near one of our 

we were now very short-handed. Capt. Brown batteries; but having but few sailors to haul on 

asked Gen. Van Doru to fill up our complement the wharf, we were ijrogressing slowly, when 

from the army, which he readily assented to ao, Lieut. Stevens, the executive officer, came on 

provided the men would volunteer, and make deck, and perceiving a crowd of volunteers sit- 

application for transfer through proper cUan- ting on deck playing cards, he said rather 

nels. At first quite a number volunteered, but sharply: ' Come, volunteers, that won't do; get 

when they got on board and saw the shot-holes up from there and give us a pull.' One of the 

through the vessel's sides, and heard sailors' re- plaj'ers looked up at Lieut. Stevens and replied: 

X)ort8 of the terrible effect of shell and splinters, 'Oh! hell! we aint no deck hands;' and eyeing 



THE CONFEDERATE STATES NAVY. 327 

Notwithstanding the immense hammering the Arkansas 
received from the combined fleets of the enemy, in a few days 
she was ready to assume the offensive. Upon one occasion, 
while under the command of Capt. WiUiam F. Lynch, who 
had relieved Commander Brown for a few hours, to enable 
him to go ashore and take a dinner and a sound sleep, of 
which he was in great need and which he had not had for more 
than a week, the Arkansas left her moorings in front of Vicks- 
burg, and proceeded up the river beyond the range of the bat- 
teries with the intention of destroying the enemy's mortar 
boats. Her appearance created the greatest excitement in the 
enemy's fleet, and though the mortar boats were under the 
protection of the Eads iron-clads, each of them superior in 
arms and armament to the Arkansas, the boats were taken in 
tow and run up the river at a speed far surpassing that of the 
Confederate ram. As the Ar^kansas had but a limited supply 
of coal, and there was 1,000 miles of open river ahead, the 
pursuit was abandoned, and she returned to the city. On the 
next day Commander Brown resumed his command, and in at- 
tempting to ascend the river to drive off the Federal mortar 
fleet, the starboard engine became disabled, and it was with 
difficulty he could return to his moorings in front of the 
city. 

On the 21st of July, Flag-officers Farragut, Davis, and W. D. 
Porter held a council of war on board the Benton, at which 
Commander Porter volunteered the service of the Essex to 
make an effort to destroy the Arkansas, and the following 
programme was agreed on : 

" That on the morning of the 22d, precisely at four o'clock, the whole 
available fleet under command of Plag-ofiBcer Davis was to get under way, 
and when within range to bombard the upper batteries at Vicksburg; the 
lower fleet under Flag officer Farragut was to do the same, and attack 
the lower batteries; the Essex was to push on, strike the rebel ram, de- 
liver her fire, and then fall behind the lower fleet." 

In accordance with this plan Commodore Porter got under 
way, passed the Benton, and proceeded down the river. 

the man sitting opposite to him, was heard to deck, the officer remarked to the doctor that 

say: ' I go you two better!' in a battle there was plenty to do, as the 

" Both of our surgeons being sick, Capt. Bro\vn wounded came down in a steady stream. The 

telegraphed out into the interior of Mississippi ' medico' looked a little incredulous; but a few 

for medical volunteers. In a day or two a long, minutes afterwards, when he perceived the 

slim doctor came in from Clinton; and as he road through which an eleveu-inch shell had 

was well recommended, Capt. Brown gave him come, his face lengthened perceptibly; and 

an acting appointment as surgeon, and directed after awhile, when the big shell began to fall 

him to report to Lieut. Stevens for duty. It was around the vessel, he became rather nervous, 

early in the morning when he arrived; the ene- He would stand on the companion-ladder and 

my had not commenced their daily pastime of watch the smoke rise from the mortar-vessels, 

shelling us; the ship's decks had been cleanly and would wait until he heard the whizzing of 

washed down, the awnings spread, and every- the shell through the air, when he would make 

thing was neat and orderly. The doctor took a dive for his state-room. As soon as the shell 

breakfast in the ward-rooin, and seemed de- fell he would go up and watch out for another, 

lighted with the vessel generally. Before the Occasionally when a shell would explode close 

regular call to morning inspection the otlicer of to us, or fall with a heavy splash alongside, he 

the powder division started around below to would be heard to groan: 'Oh! Louisa and the 

show the new medical officer his station during babes !' " — Reminiscences of the C. S. Navy, by 

-action, and the arrangement for disposing of the C. W. Read, Southern Historical Society Papers. 

wounded, etc., etc. In going along the berth- Vol. I. No. 5. May 1876. 



328 THE CONFEDERATE STATES NAVY. 

A more opportune moment to destroy the Arkansas couM 
not have been chosen, as many of her officers and all but 
twenty-eight of her crew were ashore in the hospitals, and 
she laid helpless at anchor with a disabled engine. 

At daylight on the y2d of July, the iron-clad fleet above 
Vicksburg dropped down and commenced firing rapidly at 
the Confederate upper batteries. Farragut's fleet engaged 
the lower batteries, and the mortar-vessels opened upon the 
city and forts. The cannonading was tremendous, and fairly 
shook the earth. In about half an hour after the firing had 
begun, the large and formidable iron-clad ram, the Essex, 
emerged from the smoke above and made directly for the 
Arkansas. Commander Brown received the attack at anchor, 
with a crew sufficient to work two guns, but with the aid of 
his officers he was able to man all the guns which could be 
brought to bear. When the muzzles of the guns of both ves- 
sels were nearly touching each other, the broadside of the 
Arkansas was exchanged for the bow guns of the Essex. As 
the latter struck the Arkansas one of her ten-inch solid shots- 
struck the armor of the Ar^kansas a foot forward of the lar- 
board forward port, cutting off the ends of the railroad iron 
and driving the pieces forward diagonally across from for- 
ward to aft, split upon the breech of the starboard after gun, 
killing eight men and wounding six, half of the crew. The 
Essex swung alongside of the Arkansas, when the latter gave 
her a port broadside with guns depressed, which apparently 
disabled the Essex, for she ceased firing and drifted down the 
river. ^ 

Commander Porter, in his official report, says that as he 
passed the Benton : 

"Flag-ofQcer Davis hailed me and 'wished me success.' I now 
pushed on, according to my understanding of the programme, and pre- 
cisely at half- past four A. M. the enemy's upper batteries opened upon 
me, but I heard no response at this time from our fleets. I arrived at the 
ram, delivered my fire and struck her; the blow glanced, and I went high 
on the river bank with the bows of the ship, where I lay ten minutes un- 
der three batteries of heavy guns. I backed off and loaded up. The 
enemy had drawn up three regiments of sharp-shooters and several batte- 
ries of field pieces, ranging from six-jjoiinders to twenty-four pounders. I 
found it impossible under these circumstances to board the rebel boat, 
though such was my original intention. After I delivered my fire at but 
five feet from the ram we distinctly heard the gi'oans of her wounded and 
saw her crew jumping overboard. At this time 1 began to look for aid 
from the fleets, but without result. I ordered the pilots to get the £Js- 
sex's head up stream, with the intention of holding on until the lower 
fleet came up, and then make another attack on the ram. At this time 
I was under the guns of three batteries, one of which was not over one 
hundred feet off. A heavy ten-inch shot from the nearest battery struck 
my forward casemate about five feet from the deck, but fortunately did 
not penetrate. A rifle seven and a half -inch shot from the same battery 

1 In the engagement the two vessels were so eued and severely hurt by the powder which 
close to each other that several of the officers flashed through the ports of the Arkansas f roiu 
and crew of the Arkansas had their faces black- the guns of the Essex. 



THE CONFEDERATE STATES NAVY. 329 

struck the casemate about nine feet from the deck. It penetrated the 
iron, but did not get through, though so severe was the blow that it 
started a four-inch plank two inches and eighteen feet long on the in- 
side. A conical shell struck the casemate on the port side as we were 
rounding to, penetrated the three-quarter-inch iron and came half way 
through the Avooden side. It exploded through, killing one man and 
slightly wounding three. A small piece grazed my head, and another 
piece tore the legs of the First Master's pantaloons. 

" I had now been tinder fire for upwards of an hour, and thirty minutes 
of the time from eighty-feet to one hundred yardsof some of the enemy's 
heaviest batteries. I still looked for the arrival of the lower fleet, but saw 
nothing of it. I held on for a short time longer, but the enemy began to 
fire with such rapidity and we were so close that the flashes of his guns 
through my gun-holes drove my men from the guns. At last, through the 
smoke, I saw the lower fleet nearly three miles off, and still at anchor. See- 
ing no hope of rehef or assistance, I now concluded to run the gauntlet of 
the enemy'slower forts and seek an anchorage below the fleet. I therefore 
reluctantly gave the order to 'put her head down stream;' but I was de- 
termined to be in no hurry. They had now plenty of time to prepare, and 
so rapid was their fire that for half an hour the hull of this ship was com- 
pletely enveloped in the heavy jets of water thrown over her by the 
enemy's shot, shell and rifle balls. The department may have some idea of 
the amount and number of shot, shell, plugs and rifle missiles thrown at 
this vessel when they are now informed we were two hours and a-half under 
fire of seventy heavy guns in battery, twenty field-pieces and three heavy 
guns on board the ram. During that time this vessel was heavily struck 
forty-two times, and only peneti^ated twice." 

Soon after the Essex had encountered the Arkansas, the 
ram Queen of the West, under the command of Lieut. -Col. Al- 
fred E. Ellet, commander of the steam-ram fleet, attempted to 
run her down. The ram passed the batteries under a terrific 
fire, and ran into the Arkansas, which made both vessels trem- 
ble from stem to stern. The Arkansas seemed to shrink and 
yield before the tremendous blow, and for a moment it was 
thought her side would give way ; but she re-acted and the 
ram flew back from her, and, in moving toward her again, 
ran into the river bank. The Queen of the West reversed her 
engines and ran on again so forcibly as to strain her own 
works badly. By this time the Queen had been struck twenty 
or twenty-five times. Her smoke-stack was perforated with 
balls; one of her steam-pipes had been shot away ; in various 
places large holes had been put through her sides and bow. 
As she was seriously injured in her hull, and leaking, 
and liable to be captured by the Confederates, Col. Ellet 
determined if possible to effect his escape. As he passed 
the Arkansas, the ram gave him a parting broadside which 
nearly ended the career of the Queen. The Queen moved up 
the river, and the Confederate batteries increased their fire. 
Heavy shot and shell fell before, behind, and around her, and 
every few seconds one would go tearing through her deck or 
cabin. As she passed one of the upper batteries, a thirty-four 
pound shot struck her in the rear, went through every one of 
her larboard state-rooms, in which no person happened to be 
at the time, into the captain's office, penetrating the iron safe. 



330 THE CONFEDERATE STATES NAVY. 

and passing out, shattered the wooden carriage of one of the 
mounted brass pieces on the boiler deck, dismounting the gun, 
and hitting it, left a deep indentation in the metal. 

The Queen ran by the batteries through a terrible fire and 
made her appearance above the bend in the river riddled with 
shot. A correspondent of the New York Tribune said: 

" The Queen presents a most dismantled and forlorn appearance, and 
is as nearly shot to pieces, for any vessel that will float, as can well be im- 
agined. The many who have visited her since her terrible experience are 
with difficulty persuaded that not one of her crew was killed or danger- 
ously wounded. She has the semblance of a complete wreck, and it will 
be necessary to send her North at once for repairs, though some think her 
injury too great for remedy— that she is not worth the mending, 

" Shells exploded in her cabin, shivering her furniture, crockery, and 
state-rooms to pieces. The wardrobe of the crew was converted into rags, 
and hardly a whole garment or a pair of boots or shoes can be found on 
the boat. She is dented and damaged, and blackened and splintered, and 
singed and shattered, as if she had passed through a score of the fiercest 
battles, and presents as good an example of the amount of injury that 
may be done to a boat without absolutely destroying her as it would be 
convenient to present, or easy to discover in twelve months' service on 
the flotilla," 

Lieut. Gift, in his account of the engagement of the Ar- 
kansas with the Essex and the Queen of the West, says : 

"Our crew was fearfully used up on the 15th. Daily we sent more 
men to the hospital, suffering with malarious diseases, until we had not 
in a week more than thirty seamen, ordinary seamen and landsmen, and 
I think but four or five firemen. Many of the younger officers had also 
succumbed; those of us who were left were used up also. We slept be- 
low, with our clothes on, in an atmosphere so heated by the steam of the 
engines as to keep one in a constant perspiration. No more men were to be 
had. It was disheartening enough to see a ship which but a week before 
was the pride of the country now almost deserted. On the morning of the 
22d of July, a week after our arrival, as we awakened early in the morn- 
ing by the drum calling us to quarters, great commotion was observed in 
the fleet above. Everything seemed under Avay again, and it was evident 
that we were soon to have another brush. On our decks were not men 
enough to man two guns, and not firemen enough to keep steam up if we 
were forced into the stream ! Rather a doleful outlook ! We were moored 
to the bank, head up the river, as a matter of course. The fires under the 
boilers were hastened, and every possible preparation made for resistance. 
In a few minutes we observed the iron-clad steamer Essex (' Bill Porter' 
commanding) steaming around the point and steering for us. The upper 
battery opened, but she did not reply. Grimball unloosed his Columbiad, 
but she did not stop. I followed, hitting her fair, but still she persevered 
in sullen silence. Her plan was to run into and shove us aground, when 
her consort, the Queen of the West, was to follow and butt a hole in us; 
and thus the dreaded ram was to be made way with. On she came like a 
mad bull, nothing daunted or overawed. As soon as Caj^t. Brown got a 
fair view of her, followed at a distance by the Queen, he divined her in- 
tent, and seeing that she was as square across the bow as a flat boat or 
scow, and we were as sharp as a wedge, he determined at once to foil her 
tactics. Slacking off the hawser which held our head to the bank, he 
went ahead on the starboard screw, and thus our sharp prow was turned 
directly to her to hit against. This disconcerted the enemy and destroyed 
his plan. A collision would surely cut him down and leave us uninjured. 
All this time we had not been idle spectators. The two Columbiads had 



THE CONFEDERATE STATES NAVY. 331 

l)een ringing on his front and piercing him every shot ; to which he did 
not reply until lie found that the shoving game was out of the question; 
then, and when not more than fifty yards distant, he triced up his three 
bow port shutters and poured out his fire. A nine-inch shot struck our 
armor a few inches forward of the unlucky forward port, and crawling 
along the side entered. Seven men were killed outright and six wounded. 
Splinters flew in all directions. In an instant the enemy was alongside, 
and his momentum was so great that he ran aground a short distance 
astern of us. As he passed we poured out our port broadside, and as 
soon as the stern rifles could be cleared of the splinters and broken 
stanchions and wood-work, which had been driven the whole length of the 
gun box, we went ahead on our port screw and turned our stern guns on 
him, every man — we had but seventeen left and officer went to them. As 
he passed he did not fire; nor did he whilst we were riddling him close 
aboard. His only effoi't was to get away from us. He backed hard on 
his engines and finally got off ; but getting a shot in his machinery just 
as he got afloat, he was compelled to float down stream and join the lower 
fleet, which he accomplished without damage from batteries on the hills. 
He fired only the three shots mentioned. But otir troubles were not over. 
We had scarcely shook this fellow off before we were called to the other 
end of the ship — we ran from one gun to another to get ready for a sec- 
ond attack. The Queen was now close to us, evidently determined to ram 
us. The guns had been fired and were now empty and inboard. Some- 
how we got them loaded and run out, and by the time she commenced to 
round to, I am not sure, but I think we struck her with the Columbiads 
as she came down, but at all events the broadside was ready. Capt. 
Brown adopted the plan of turning his head to her also, and thus received 
her blow glancing. She came into us going at an enormous speed, prob- 
ably fifteen miles an hour, and I felt pretty sure that our hour had come. 
I had hoped to blow her up with the thirty-two pounder as she passed, 
but the gun being an old one, with an enlarged vent, the primer drew out 
without igniting the charge. One of the men — we had no regular gun's 
crews then, every man was expected to do ten men's duty — replaced it 
and struck it with a compressor lever; but too late, his boilers were 
passed, and the shot went through his cylinder timbers without disabling 
him. His blow, though glancing, was a heavy one. His prow, or beak, 
made a hole through our side and caused the ship to careen, and roll 
heavily ; but we all knew in an instant that no serious damage had been 
done, and we redoubled our efforts to cripple him so that he could not 
again attempt the experiment. As did the Essex, so he ran into the bank 
astern of us, and got the contents of the stern battery; but being more 
nimble than she, was sooner off into deep water. Returning up stream 
he got our broadside guns again, and we saw that he had no disposition 
to engage us further. As he passed the line of fire of the bow guns he 
got it again, and I distinctly recollect the handsomest shot I ever made 
was the last at her. He was nearly a mile aAvay, and I bowled at him 
with the gun lying level. It ricochetted four or five times before it drop- 
ped into his stern. But it dropped there. As I have before said, the 
Essex was drifting down stream unmanageable, and now would have 
been our time to have ended her in sight of both squadrons, but we had 
but seventeen men and they well-nigh exhausted. Beating off these two 
vessels, under the circumstances, was the best achievement of the Ar- 
kansas. That we were under the batteries of Vicksburg did not amount 
to anything. I do not believe that either vessel was injured by an army 
gun that day. We were left to our fate, and if we had been lost it would 
have been no unusual or unexpected thing. The Essex used in one 
of her guns that day projectiles that were probably never used before, 
to wit : Marbles that boys used for playing. We picked up a hundred 
unbroken ones on our forecastle. There were 'white-allies,' 'chinas,' 
and some glass marbles. I wish the naval reader to understand that 
the Essex did not return the fire as she lay alongside us, did not attempt 



332 THE CONFEDERATE STATES NAVY. 

to board, althouprh he had a picked crew for that purpose, and fired but 
three guns in the fight, and thereafter kept her ports closed. Brown, 
no longer able to play the lion, assumed the role of the fox with con- 
summate skill." 

Notwithstanding the terrific engagements the Arkansas 
had passed through, in her combats with the two Federal 
fleets on the Mississippi River, she was comparatively unin- 
jured, and on the following day, after her contest with the 
Essex and Queen of the West, she was seen steaming up and 
down the river in front of the batteries at Vicksburg in con- 
tempt of all the efforts that had been made to destroy her. 

The Federals held Baton Rouge, the capital of Louisiana, 
forty miles below the mouth of Red River, with a land force 
of about 5,000 men, in connection with two powerful fleets. It 
was a matter of great necessity for the Confederates that the 
navigation of Red River should be opened as high as Vicks- 
burg. Supplies, much needed, existed there, hard to be ob- 
tained from any other quarter, and strong military reasons 
demanded that the Confederates should hold the Mississippi 
at two points, to facilitate communication and co-operation 
between the military district of Mississippi and the trans- 
Mississippi department. The capture of Baton Rouge, and 
the forces of the Federals at that point, would open the Mis- 
sissippi, secure the navigation of Red River, then in a state 
of blockade, and also render easier the recapture of New Or- 
leans. To this end Major Gen. Earl Van Dorn gave orders to 
Gen. Breckenridge to move upon Baton Rouge, To ensure 
success he also ordered the Arkansas to co-operate with the 
land forces by a simultaneous attack from the river. In his 
official report, he says: "All damages sustained by the Arkan- 
sas from the fleets of the enemy had been repaired, and when 
she left the wharf at Vicksburg for Baton Rouge, she was 
deemed to be as formidable, in attack or defence, as when she 
defied a fleet of forty vessels-of-war, many of them iron-clads." 

With such effective means, Gen. Van Dorn deemed the 
taking of Baton Rouge and the destruction or capture of the 
enemy on the land and water the reasonable result of the ex- 
pedition. By epidemic disease, the land force under Major Gen. 
Breckenridge was reduced to less than twenty-five hundred 
effective men. The Arkansas, after passing Bayou Sara, within 
a short distance of Baton Rouge, in ample time for joint action 
at the appointed hour of attack, suddenly became unmanage- 
able, from a failure in her machinery and engine, which all 
the efforts of her engineers could not repair. The gallant 
Breckenridge, advised by telegram every hour of her progress 
toward Baton Rouge, and counting on her co-operation, at- 
tacked the enemy with his whole effective force, drove the 
Federals from all their positions, and forced them to seek pro- 
tection under the cover of their gunboats. 



THE CONFEDERATE STATES NAVY. 333 

In his official report of operations at Vicksburg and Baton 
Rouge, dated September 9th, 1863, Major Gen, Earl Van Dorn 
says : ** I think it due to the truth of history to correct the 
error, industriously spread by the official reports of the enemy, 
touching the destruction of the Arkansas. She was no trophy 
won by the Essex, nor did she receive injury at Baton Rouge 
from the hands of any of her adversaries. Lieut. Stevens, 
her gallant commander, ' finding her unmanageable, moored 
her to the shore. On the cautious approach of the enemy, 
who kept at a respectful distance, he landed his crew, cut her 
from her moorings, fired her with his own hands, and turned 
her adrift down the river. With every gun shotted, our flag 
floating from her bow, and not a man on board, the Arkansas 
bore down upon the enemy, and gave him battle. Her guns 
were discharged as the flames reached them, and when her 
last shot was fired, the explosion of her magazine ended the 
brief but glorious career of the Arkansas. ' It was beautiful,' 
said Lieut. Stevens, while the tears stood in his eyes, ' to see 
her, when abandoned by commander and crew, and dedicated 
to sacrifice, fighting the battle on her own hook.' I trust that 
the official report of Commander Lynch will do justice to the 
courage, constancy and resolution of the officers and men, 
who were the last crew of the Ar^kansas.'^ 

From a statement of Lieut. Read, of the Arkansas, it ap- 
pears the ram steamed leisurely down the river from Vicks- 
burg to within fifteen miles of Baton Rouge, when her star- 
board engine broke down. Repairs were immediately begun, 
and at eight o'clock were partially completed, though she was 
not in a condition to encounter many of the Federal vessels 
on account of the injury received. On rounding the point 
near Baton Rouge, the starboard engine again broke down, 

I Imiiortant repairs were yet necessary to the ter for his decision to Capt. Wm. F. Lynch, the 
engines of the ^rA;ansas, and to replacing and re- senior officer of the C. S. navy in the West, 
fastening her shattered armor. While these who was at Jackson Miss Ignorant or regard- 
were under way. Commander Brown obtained less of the condition of the Arkansas, Capt. 
a furlough from the Navy Department until the Lynch ordered Lieut. Stevens to disobey the 
repairs were made and the Arkansas was ready instructions of Commander Brown and comply 
for action. He ijroceeded to Grenada, Miss., with the request of Gen. Van Dorn. In this 
about six hours ride by rail from Vicksburg, way the Arkansas was placed under the com- 
where his family had taken refuge. Immediately mand of Lieut. Stevens, with orders to run 
upon his arrival he was taken severely ill, and 300 miles against time. When her engines 
while unable, as he thought, to get out of bed, broke down within sight of Baton Rouge, 
he received intelligence from Commander Ste- Lieut. Stevens, who was as humane as he 
vens informing him that he had received in- was true and brave, finding that he could not 
structions from Gen. Earl Van Dorn to cooper- bring a single gun to be:ir upon the approach- 
ate with Gen. Breckenridge in the attack on ing enemy, sent all his officers and crew 
Baton Rouge. Commander Brown sent positive ashore over the bow, and remained alone to 
orders to Lieut Stevens not to move his vessel set his ship on fire. This he did so effectually 
until he could join it, as the Arkansas was not that he had to jump over the stern into the 
ready for action. Commander Brown caused river, and save himself by swimming, and 
himself to be taken to the depot, and being un- the Arkansas, whose decks had never been 
able to sit up, was put in the mail car and laid pressed by the foot of an enemy, with colors 
on the mail bags until he arrived at Jackson, flying was blown into the air. After the de- 
Miss., 130 miles distant. At the latter place struction of the Arkansas, Commander Brown 
Commander Brown heard that the ArkansashnA joined the camp of Gen. Breckenridge at Baton 
left Vicksburg four hours before, and was then Rouge, and passed a night in his tent, who, 
on her way to Baton Rouge. It appears that seeing he was still an invalid, that great and 
Gen. Van Doru was peremi)tory in his orders good man insisted on his taking his narrow 
for the co-operation of the Arkansas, and Lieut. camp mattress, while he slept on the ground be- 
Stevens being undecided, had referred the mat- side him. 



334 THE CONFEDERATE STATES NAVY. 

and the ram drifted ashore in sight of the city on the Arkansas 
side. Repairs were immediately begun, and the sliip got 
afloat at five o'clock the same evening. The engineer reported 
that the engines were unreliable. It was determined to make 
a trial trip up the river to ascertain the strength of the en- 
gines, and the Arkansas proceeded some five hundred yards 
when the engines again broke more seriously than ever. The 
crew were engaged all night in repairs. On the following 
morning at eight o'clock the lookouts reported the Federal 
fleet coming up the river. The ram was moored head down 
stream and cleared for action, and in this condition her offi- 
cers and crew determined to fight her to the last. At this mo- 
ment the engineer reported the engines ready for service, and 
that they would last half a day. The lines were cut, and the 
Arkansas started for the Essex with the intention of running 
her down. The ram proceeded about three hundred yards in 
the direction of the Essex wlien the starboard engine again 
suddenly stopped. The Arkansas was then steered for the 
river bank, her stern down, the Essex pouring a hot fire into 
her. In this condition the ram opened fire with her stern gun. 
The Essex continued to advance, and when within four hun- 
dred yards, the crew of the Arkansas were ordered ashore, 
and the vessel cut adrift and set on fire. After all hands were 
ashore the Essex fired upon the disabled vessel most furiously. 
In an hour after her abandonment, as she was drifting down 
upon the Essex, the fire communicated to her magazine, and 
all that remained of the noble Arkansas was blown up. 

Lieut. Gift in continuation of his narrative of the '" story 
of the Arkansas " says :' 

"Capt. Brown was sick in Grenada, and teleg^raphed Stevens not to 
go down, as the machinery was not rehable. Application was made by 
Gen. Van Dorn to Commodore Lynch, wlao gave the order to proceed 
down the river as soon as possible. The vessel was hm-riedly coaled and 
provisioned, and men and officers hastened to join her. Capt. Brown left 
his bed to regain his ship, but arrived too late. He subsequently followed 
dowu by rail and assumed command of the crew shortly after the destruc- 
tion of the vessel. The reader must not construe any remark here to re- 
flect on Stevens. Such is not my intention. He was a conscientious 
Christian gentleman, a zealous and efficient officer. In the performance 
of his duty he was thorough, consistent and patriotic. His courage was 
of the truest and highest type; in the face of the enemy he knew nothing 
but his duty, and always did it. Under this officer we left Vicksbui g 
thirty hours before Gen. Breckinridge had arranged to make his attacks. 
The short time allowed to arrive at the rendezvous made it imperative 
that the vessel should be driven up to her best speed. This resulted in the 
frequent disarrangements of the machinery and consequent stoppages to 
key up and make repairs. Every delay required more speed thereafter in 
order to meet our appointment. Another matter operated against us. 
We had been compelled to leave behind, in the hospital, our chief engi- 
neer, George W. City, who was worn out and broken down by excessive 
watching and anxiety. His care and nursing had kept the machinery in 

1 Southern HiBtorical Society Papers for January and February, March, April and May, 1884. 
Vol. Xn. Nos. 1 and 2, 3, 4, 5. 



THE CONFEDERATE STATES NAVY. 335 

order up to the time of leaving. We soon began to feel his loss. The en- 
gineer in charge, a volunteer from the army, had recently joined us, and 
though a young man ^ of pluck and gallantry, and possessed of great 
will and determination to make the engines work, yet he was unequal 
to the task. He had never had anything to do with a screw vessel or 
short-stroke engines, and, being zealous for the good repute of his de- 
partment, drove the machinery beyond its powers of endurance. 

"The reader may wonder why the machinery of a vessel of so much 
importance should have been entrusted to a strange and inexperienced 
person, and ask for an explanation. Were there not other engineers 
than Mr. City in the navy, and, if so, where were they? There were 
dozens of engineers of long experience and high standing at that time 
in the navy, most of whom were idle at Richmond and other stations. 
At or near the mouth of Red River, the engines had grown so contrary 
and required to be hammered so much that Stevens deemed it his duty 
to call a council of war to determine whether it was proper to proceed 
or return. The engineer was summoned, and gave it as his opinion that 
the machinery would hold out, and upon that statement we determined 
to go ahead. A few miles below Port Hudson, he demanded a stop- 
page to key up and make all things secure before going into action. 
We landed at the right bank of the river, and I was dispatched with 
Bacot to a house near by to get information. After a deal of trouble we 
gained admittance, and learned that the naval force of the enemy at 
Baton Rouge consisted of our particular enemy the Essex, and one or two 
small sea-going wooden gunboats. This was very satisfactory. We 
learned, also, that Breckenridge was to attack at daylight; that his move- 
ments had been known for several days on that side of the river; yet it 
will be borne in mind that the important secret could not be entrusted to 
high officers of the navy until a few hours before they were to co-operate 
in the movement. At daylight we heard our gallant troops commence the 
engagement. The rattle of the volleys of musketry, mixed with the deep 
notes of artillery, informed us that we were behind, and soon came the un- 
mistakable boom of heavy navy guns, which plainly told us that we were 
wanted; that our ironsides should be receiving those missiles which were 
now mowing down our infantry. In feverish haste our lines were cast off 
and hauled aboard, and once more the good ship was driving toward the 
enemy. Like a war-horse she seemed to scent the battle from afar, and 
in point of speed outdid anything we had ever before witnessed. There 
was a fatal error. Had she been nursed then by our young and over- zeal- 
ous engineer she would have again made her mark in the day's fight. We 
were in sight of Baton Rouge. The battle had ceased; our troops had 
driven the enemy to the edge of the water, captured his camps and his po- 
sitions, and had in turn retii-ed before the heavy broadsides of the Essex, 
which lay moored abreast of the arsenal. Our oflBcers and crews went to 
quarters in high spirits, for once there was a chance to make the army 
and country appreciate us. Baton Rouge is situated on a "reach "or 
long, straight stretch of river, which extends three or four miles above 
the town. We were nearly to the turn and about to enter the " reach;" 
the crew had been mustered at quarters, divisions repoi'ted, and all the 
minute preparations made for battle which have before been detailed, 
when Stevens came on deck with Brady, the pilot, to take a final look 
and determine upon what plan to adopt in his attack on the Essex. Jt 
was my watch, and we three stood together. Brady proposed that we ram 
the Essex, and sink her where she lay, then back out and put ourselves 
below the transports and wooden gunboats as soon as possible to cut off 
their retreat. Stevens assented to the proposal and had just remarked 
that we had better go to our stations, for we were in a hundred yards of 
the turn, when the starboard engine stopped suddenly, and, before the 
man at the wheel could meet her with the helm, the ship ran hard and 

1 I have forgotten Lis name. 



3;36 THE CONFEDERATE STATES NAVY. 

fast aground, jamming herself on to some old cypress stumps that were 
submerged. We were in full view from the position Gren. Breckenridge 
had taken up to await our attack. All day long he remained in line of 
battle prepared to move forward again, but in vain. On investigation it 
was found that the engine was so badly out of order that several hours 
must be consumed before we could again expect to move. There lay the 
enemy in plain view, and we as helpless as a sheer hulk. Hundreds of 
people had assembled to witness the fight. In fact, many ladies in car- 
riages had come to see our triumph. They waved us on with smiles and 
prayers, but we couldn't go. But Stevens was not the man to give up. A 
quantity of railroad iron, which had been laid on deck loose, was thrown 
overboard, and in a few hours we were afloat. The engineers had pulled 
the engine to pieces and with files and chiselswereasbusyasbees, though 
they had been up constantly then for the greater parts of the two preced- 
ing nights. At dark it was reported to the commanding officer that the 
vessel could be moved. In the meantime some coal had been secured (our 
supply was getting short) and it was determined to run up stream a few 
hundred yards, and take it in during the night, and be ready for hot work 
in the morning. Therefore we started to move; but had not gone a hun- 
dred yards before the same engine broke down again; theerank pin (called 
a " wrist" by Western engineers) of the rock-shaft broke in two. Fortu- 
nately one of the engineers was a blacksmith, so the forge was set up and 
another pin foi'ged. But this with our improvised facilities used up the 
whole night. Meantime the enemy became aware of our crippled condi- 
tion, and at daylight moved up to the attack. The Essex led, and came 
up very slowly, at a rate not to exceed two miles an hour. She had open- 
ed on us before the last touch had been given to the pin, but it was fin- 
ished and the parts thrown together. As the ship again started ahead 
Stevens remarked that we were brought to bay by a superior force, and 
that he should fight it out as long as we would swim. The battle for the 
supremacy of the river was upon us, and we must meet the grave respon- 
sibility as men and patriots. His plan was to go up the river a few hun- 
dred yards and then turn on and dispatch the Essex, then give his atten 
tion to the numerous force of wooden vessels which had been assem- 
bled since the morning before. The pleasant sensation of again being 
afloat and in possession of the power of locomotion, was hardly experi- 
enced before our last and final disaster came. The port engine this 
time gave way, broke down and would not move. The engineer was 
now in despair, he could do nothing, and so reported. The Essex vf-eis, 
coming up astern and firing upon us. We had run ashore and were a 
hopeless, immovable mass. Read was returning the fire, but the two 
ships were scarcely near enough for the shots to tell. We were not struck 
by the Essex, nor do I think we struck her. An army force was reported 
by a mounted ' home guard,' to be coming up the river to cut off our re- 
treat. Stevens did not call a council of war, but himself assumed the re- 
sponsibility of burning the ship. I recollect the look of anguish he gave 
me, and the scalding tears which were running down his cheeks when he 
announced his determination. Read kept firing at the Essex until Stevens 
had set fire to the ward-room and cabin, then all jumped on shore, and in 
a few moments the flames burst up the hatches. Loaded shells had been 
placetl at all the guns, which commenced exploding as soon as the fire 
reached the gun-deck. This was the last of the Arkansas.'^ 

The war has been over for more than twenty years, but the 
errors in the bulletins of the fight are uncorrected even in the 
histories written long after the excitement of the conflict has 
passed away. Farragut's reports, as highly colored as a news- 
paper correspondence, recur in Porter's history without even 
a note of explanation to make plain the real facts, and W. D. 
Porter's report that the Essex blew up the Arkansas finds a 



THE CONFEDERATE STATES NAVY. 337 

place in the records of the war to continue the delusion. Ad- 
miral Porter does indeed cast doubt on both reports, saying: 
"The Arkansas was soon set on fire and totally destroyed — 
whether from the shells of the Essex or by the Confederates 
to escape capture, is not known. The Confederates claim that 
one of her engines was disabled, and that she was destroyed 
by them; but be that as it may, her destruction was due to the 
presence of the £'ssex and her two consorts." And Admiral 
Farragut' says: " Although Bill Porter did not destroy her, 
he was the cause, and thought his shells did the work ! for 
they would hardly have destroyed her unless he made the 
attack. I insist that Porter is entitled to the credit of it." 

The destruction of the Arkansas resulted from her dis- 
abled condition, and from the impossibility of repairing her 
engines anywhere on the Mississippi River. Admiral Porter 
regards the statements of the Confederate officers destroying 
the Arkansas as a " very unlikely story,'' and that "it is not 
credible that a vessel, which had run the gauntlet of the two 
fleets under Farragut and Davis, at Vicksburg, inflicting great 
injury in return, would avoid a conflict with the Essex (a ves- 
sel of weaker hull and very much less speed), unless she had 
been first so crippled by the Essex's guns that her commander 
saw no hope of success." That is a conclusion which the facts 
do not warrant; and as illogical as to say that " while Admiral 
Farragut ' did not attach much importance to Confederate 
rams,' he had seen enough of the performances of the Arkan- 
sas to know that if properly managed she was the most for- 
midable vessel on the Mississippi River, and that there would 
be no security against her while she floated." It is not true 
that " the events that took place on board the ram, except 
through vague reports, have never come to light." Lieut. 
Stevens' report, supplemented by the statements of Lieuten- 
ants Gift and Read, and the prisoners mentioned by Flag- 
officer Farragut in his report to the Secretary of the Navy, 
dated August 10, 1862,^ fully shows all that took place on the 
ram, and that she was no trophy to the Essex's shells — for they 
broke harmless on her armored sides, and inflicted no injury 
on her hull, her armament, or her machinery. The inherent de- 
fects of a badly constructed engine, built under circumstances 

1 Life and Letters, p. 289. ing been taken sick at Vicksburg,) with the in- 

tention of making a combined attack with Gen. 

2 Flag-olHcer Farragut in his report to Secre- Breckenridge upon Baton Rouge: but her port 
tary Welles, on August 10th, 1862, says: engine broke down. They repaired it in the 

"Sir: Since forwarding the reports of Lieuts. course of the day, and went out to meet the 

Fairfax, Ransom, and Roe, we have picked up a Essex the next morning, when they saw her 

number of prisoners from the ram Arkansas, all coming up; but the starboard engine gave way, 

of whom I have catechised very closely. They and they ran her ashore, she being perfectly uii- 

agree very well respecting her exit from the manageable. 

Yazoo, and her passing the fleets; they also agree " They say that when the gunboats were seen 

as to the number ol killed and wounded on each coming up, and the Essex commenced firing, the 

of these occasions, making in all eighteen killed captain set the ram on fire and told the crew to 

aud a large number of wounded. At Vicksburg run ashore. They also state that the gunboats 

they plated the deck with iron, and fortified Webb and Music were sent for to tow her up the 

her with cotton inside. She then came down in river, but they did not arrive, and neither of 

command of Lieut. H. K. Stevens, (Brown hav- them bad been seen. This is the statement." 
22 



338 THE CONFEDERATE STATES NAVY. 

that could not be improved, disabled the Ai'kansas in the 
very presence of her enemy, and rendered her destruction nec- 
essary to prevent her becoming the trophy of battle. The let- 
ter of S. L. Phelps to Admiral Foote, ' shows that "the Arkan- 
sas fairly caught the vessels napping, and, coming upon them 
so unexpectedly, was able to drive her furious, and, as it ac- 
tually proved, destructive way through the fleet. The first at- 
tempt of Farragut to destroy her was unsuccessful, doubtless 
owing to the darkness; and the second attempt by Davis was 
not followed up by a general attack of the lower fleet owing, 
it would seem, to a misunderstanding." This second attempt 
Mr. Phelps pronounced "a fizzle;"' and the epithet applies with 
equal force to the attempt to claim for the Essex the honor of 
destroying the Arkansas. '^ 

The junction of the fleets of Admiral Farragut and Flag- 
officer Davis, above Vicksburg, had been attained without 
material loss, but not without some feelings of disappoint- 
ment on the part of Farragut. In a letter of June 2d, 1862, he 
expresses his feelings at what the Navy Department had re- 
quired of him. "The government appear to think we can do 
anything. They expect me to navigate the Mississippi, nine 
hundred miles, in the face of batteries, iron-clad rams, etc., 
and yet, with all the iron-clad vessels they have North, they 
could not get to Norfolk or Richmond. The iron-clad s, with 
the exception of the Monitor, were all knocked to pieces. 
Yet I am expected to take New Orleans, and go up and release 
Foote from his perilous situation at Fort Pillow, when he is 
backed by the army and has iron-clad boats built for the river 
service, while our ships are to be periled by getting aground 
and remaining there till next year; or. what is more likely, 
be burned to prevent them falling into the enemy's hands. A 
beautiful prospect for the 'hero' of New Orleans."^ Every 
vessel on the Mississippi, floating the Confederate flag below 
Vicksburg, had been swept out of existence, and all that re- 
mained above that city were scattered in rivers and bayous. 
Of the fleet formerly under Hollins, the Polk and the Livingston 
found a hiding-place up the Yazoo River, where they were 
burned by Commander Pinkney, and the Van Dorn, of the 
Montgomery flotilla, shared the same fate.^ 

1 Life of Admiral Foote, p. 351. ^ Life of Farragut, p. 269. 

- Lieut. Commander George M. Ransom, of ' A Yazoo City correspondent of the Jackson 
the U. S. gunboat Kineo, in his report to Flag- Mississippian, July 12th, 1862, writes : 
officer Farragut, on August 6th, 1862, says: "I "Two of the enemy's gunboats, or rather hay- 
believe that she [the ArJcansas] had suddenly plated rams, made a reconnoitering trip up the 
become helpless by some failure of her en- Yazoo Riveras high as Liverpool yesterday, and 
gines; and seeing our apjiroach, so formidable returned immediately on seeing the fire i:)ro- 
to her in her crippled condition, doubtless duced by the burning of the gunboats Livin^- 
they set her on fire and abandoned her. About ston, Polk and Van Dorn — the two former having 
one o'clock her magazine exploded, and the been burnt by order of Commodore Pinkney, 
ram Arkansas was extinct." chief in command — the Van Dorn catching fire 

Flag-officer Farragut, in reporting this fact to from the other luiriiing vessels, thus destroying 

Secretary Welles, on August 7th, said: " It is one these three valuable boats. 

of the happiest m.oments of my life that I am " Capt. Isaac N. Brown had procured 400 bales 

enabled to inform the dei^artment of the de- of cotton and had it placed on the Livini/.Hon 

struction of the ram Arkansas." and f'o/k, with a view of making tire-ships of 



THE CONFEDERATE STATES NAVY. 339 

In March, 1863, Acting Rear Admiral David D. Porter 
sent an expedition up the Yazoo Pass, under the command 
of Lieut. Commander Watson Smith. Soon after entering 
the Tallahatchie, Lieut. Smith was taken sick, and Lieut. 
Commander James P. Foster took command. The expedition 
was composed of the iron-clads DeKalb and Chillicothe, and 
the steamers Rattler and Lioness, with a large land force 
under Gen. Quimby. It proceeded as far as Fort Pemberton 
on the Tallahatchie River, which the gunboats engaged for 
several days, but were finally repulsed by Commander Isaac 
N. Brown, C. S. navy, and a small force of Confederates who 
were defending it. Lieut. Commander Foster, in his official 
report to Rear Admiral Porter, on April 13th, 1863, said: 

" The first attack made on Port Pemberton was on the 11th of March, 
on a reconnoisance, about 11 A. M., when five or six shots were exchanged, 
doing little or no damage. On the afternoon of the same day tlie Chilli- 
cothe again went down and opened fire on the fort. During the action 
the Chillicothe had four men killed and fifteen wounded ; after having a 
whole gun's crew disabled the Chillicothe withdrew. 

" On the loth the Chillicothe and Baron DeKalb got under way at 
11:30 A. M., and commenced the attack on Fort Pemberton, at 780 yards. 
The Chillicothe remained in action one hour and thirty -eight minutes. 
During this action she received forty-four shots ; and after expending nearly 
all of her ammunition of five-inch and ten-inch shells, retired by order of 
the commanding officer. On the retiring of the Chillicothe the fort ceased 
firing, although the DeKalb remained, and kept firing slowly during the 
remainder of the day. 

"On the 18th we retired, believing the fort too strong for the forces 
there engaged, and being short of ammunition. 

" The day after leaving Fort Pemberton the Chillicothe, DeKalb, 
light -drafts, etc., arrived before the fort again ; and at the suggestion 
of Gen. Quimby the Chillicothe took her old position before the fort, firing 
three shots for the purpose of drawing the enemy's fire; failing in this, she 
withdrew. We, along with those on shore, were under the impression that 
the enemy blew up a torpedo just forward the Chillicothe'' s bow. 

" We remained twelve days waiting for the army to do something; and 
when General Quimby was ordered to withdraw his forces, we brought 
up the rear." 

On the 15th of March, the enemy landed an eight-inch gun 
from the gunboat Baron DeKalb, with a supply of ammuni- 
tion, and placed it in battery on shore, with a crew to work it. 

them, connecting them by a chain, and with ions from the boats, assuring Pinekney that all 

steam up to run head on and de.stroy any as- care should be taken of them ; but he would not 

cending boat. This design would have been allow anything to be carried ashore, preferring 

carried out by Capt. Brown and his officers but that all should be destroyed, 
for the untimely and unnecessary sacriflce by " Capts. Brown and Carter just arrived at the 

Commodore Pinkney. Not only were these scene of this wanton destruction as the boats 

valuable vessels thus needlessly destroyed, but were fired - too late to save them by their coun- 

also the clothing of the crew, jirovisions, small aels if they had been heeded, for both these 

boats, small arms, chains and anchor from gentlemen condemned the act in unmeasured 

which the Arkansas expected to supply herself. terms. 

" All these vessels were moored to the shore " It is not known what became of the commo- 

and protected by batteries, only at the time dore after his 'brilliant ' performance, as Capt. 

needing men to man the guns to drive back the Brown sought to have an interview with him, 

enemy's vessels; but the gallant commodore's but could not do so. Nor is it known how much 

whole thoughts seemed bent upon the destruc- the gallant chief saved of his personal effects, 

tion rather than the lorotection of the boats, and for he certainly saved nothing for his country — 

not a man was sent to the guns ashore. but he did heroically manage to have taken 

" Before the boats were fired a squad of miUtia- ashore, without injury, a pair of pet chickens 

men offered their services to remove the jirovis- and a poodle dog." 



340 THE CONFEDERATE STATES NAVV. 

On the 19th, they took the gun on board from the shore bat- 
tery, and retired with severe loss in both killed and wounded. 
The DeKalh was considerably cut up, losing ten gun -deck 
beams, having the wheel-house and steerage badly knocked to 
pieces, and various other damages to the wooden parts of the 
vessel. The Rattler was considerably damaged, and lost sev- 
eral in killed and wounded. 

The Federals reported that they caused the Confeder- 
ates to sink the steamers Star of the West, Magnolia, and 
Natchez. 

On the 15th of May. 1863, Rear Admiral Porter came up 
the Yazoo, with a formidable fleet of gunboats, to co-operate 
with Gens. Grant and Sherman, in their siege of Vicksburg. 
On the 18th. he put his fleet in communication with the Fede- 
ral land force near Snyder's Bluff, and sent them provisions 
from below. In the meantime, the Confederates were evacu- 
ating Haines' Bluff, which Lieut. Commander Walker, of the 
DeKalb. found abandoned when he reached that point. The 
works at Haines' Bluff were designed by C. S. navy officers, 
and were very formidable. The fortifications and the rifle-pits 
extended about a mile and a quarter. 

Having blown up the magazines, and destroyed the works 
generally. Acting Rear Admiral Porter started Commander 
Walker up the Yazoo River, with sufficient force to destroy 
all the Confederate property above the obstructions. In the 
meanwhile. Gen. Grant was closely investing Vicksburg, 
and had already in his possession the most commanding 
points. 

As the Federal gunboats approached Yazoo City, the Con- 
federate navy-yard, and all pertaining to it, was burned by 
Commander Isaac N. Brown, C. S. N., to prevent its falling 
into the enemy's possession. The Federal vessels arrived at 
Yazoo City, at 1 p. m. on the 21st of May, and were met by a 
committee of citizens, who informed Commander Walker that 
the place had been evacuated by the military and naval autho- 
rities, and asked protection. Lieut. Commander Walker, of 
the U. S. gunboat Barou DeKalh, in his report says: 

"The vessels burned were the 3foMle, a screw vessel, ready for her 
planking, the Republic, which was being fitted out for a ram, and a vessel 
on the stocks — a monster— 310 feet long and 70 feet beam. 

"The navy -yard contained five saw and planing-mills, an extensive 
machine shop, carpenter and blacksmith shops, and all the necessary fix- 
tures for a large building and repairing yard, which with a very large 
quantity of lumber were burned. I also burned a large saw-mill above 
the town. 

" Most of the public stores had been removed; such as I found in town 
were taken on board the vessels or destroyed." 

After the return of the expedition under Lieut. Commander 
Walker to Yazoo City, Acting Rear Admiral Porter sent him 
up again, with instructions to capture transports, so as to 
break up all transportation on the river. In his report, dated 



THE CONFEDERATE STATES NAVY. 341 

June 1st, 1863, Lieut. Commander Walker from the "Mouth 
of the Yazoo," said: 

" I left this place on the morning of the 34th of May, with the DeKalh, 
Forest Rose, Linden, Siynal and Petrel. I pushed up the Yazoo as 
speedily as possible for the purpose of capturing or destroying the ene- 
my's transports in that river. The Signal knocked down her smoke- 
stacks and returned the same night. Leaving the BeKalb, with orders 
to come on as fast as possible, I pushed on with the Forest Rose, Lin- 
den and Petrel, to within fifteen miles of Fort Pemberton, when I found 
the steamers John Walsh, R. J. Lockland, Golden Age and Scotland, sunk 
on a bar, completely blockading it up. 

" Failing in my efforts to make a passage through the blockade, I 
fired them, destroying all but such parts of the hulls as were under water. 
These steamers were fine boats, in good order, and if I had had the means 
could have been raised and saved. I remained at that point during the 
night, and next morning at daylight was attacked by a force of the enemy, 
but after a sharp fire of a few minutes they beat a hasty retreat. Our only 
loss was two men belonging to the Petrel, wounded. Returning down the 
Yazoo, I burned a large saw-mill twenty-five miles above Yazoo City. At 
Yazoo City I landed and brought away a large quantity of bar, round, 
and flat ii'on from the navy-yard. Arriving at the mouth of Big Sun- 
flower, I proceeded up that river about 180 miles, until stopped by shoal 
water. At Indian Shoot I sent Volunteer Lieut. Brown, of the Forest 
Rose, with boats through to Rolling Fork. He found a quantity of corn 
belonging to the rebels, which he burned. At the mouth of Bayou 
Quirer, hearing of steamers, I sent Lieut. Brown, with the boats of the 
Forest Rose and Linden, up after them. After ascending ten miles he 
burned the I>ew Drop and Emma Bett. The Linden burnt the Argo in 
a small bayou about seventy-five miles up Sunflower. 

"I also found the Cotton Plant sunk in Lake George, with nothing 
out of water but the tops of her smoke-stacks. 

" At Grawin's Landing, on the Sunflower, I found and brought away 
a cutter which was lost on the Deer Creek expedition. Returning, I ar- 
rived here last evening." 

In July a naval and military expedition was sent to Yazoo 
City to capture the Confederates who had re-occupied that 
place. The army and navy made a combined attack on the 
works which the Confederates abandoned. While the Federal 
gunboat Baron DeKalb was moving slowly along she ran 
foul of a torpedo planted in the river by Commander Isaac N. 
Brown, C. S. N., which exploded and sunk her. Acting Rear 
Admiral Porter says: " Many of the crew were bruised by the 
concussion, which was severe, but no lives were lost. The 
officers and men lost everything. She went down in fifteen 
minutes." 

At the retreat from Fort Pillow, the Maurepas, under Lieut. 
Commander Fry, and Pontchartrain, under Lieut. Commander 
John Dunnington, of Hollins' fleet, were sent up White River. 

The short service of the Maurepas is best told by the re- 
port of her commanding officer, Lieut. Fry: 

"C. S. Gunboat 'Maurepas,' \ 

"Des Arc, Ark., June 6th, 1862. S 
"General: I arrived at this place on the 2M ult., with a crew of 
less than ten men, exclusive of my firemen and coal passers. It was abso- 
lutely necessary, if 1 proposed doing anything besides frightening the 



342 THE CONFEDERATE STATES NAVY. 

enemy, that I should have the co-operation of a land force, which, desijite 
all my efforts, I was unable to obtain. One or two companies of cavalry 
would have sufficed if I could ^et no more; bvit the first colonel I could 
hear from concluded I was under his command, and ordered me to stay 
where I was until further orders. This order, of course, I disregarded; as, 
accordinof to my judsment, no man under the rank of a Brigadier-General 
can possibly form a correct judgment of the contingencies govex-ning the 
movements of a gunboat. 

" Having armed a few citizens, I proceeded with them to act as sharp- 
shooters up the river to Jacksonport. At Grand Glaze some 200 of the 
enemy's cavalry preceded us ten minutes. The turns of the White River 
resemble a bow-knot, and cavalry, and even infantry, by cutting across 
points could keep ahead of us; and in ambuscade, could have killed every 
man on board of us. We, however, never saw the enemy till we got near 
Jacksonport, which place had been evacuated in part in anticipation of 
our arrival with a large land force. The enemy (Ninth Illinois Cavalry) 
retreated in time across Black River. I fired about ten shots into the 
woods in the direction of their flight. ******* 

" The gentlemen who volunteered their services to me rendered eflB- 
cient assistance in rollmg out and burning the cotton. My crew destroyed 
the sugar. The river had fallen so that we rubbed hard in getting up. 
and was falling so rapidly that I had not a moment to spare. I barely 
saved the boat as it was, and had to leave unburned about 900 bales. 
These were housed, and our party had determined to burn the house con- 
taining them, but on the representation of a person who came to me and 
said that it would burn the town, I prevented it. I learned subsequently 
that it might have been destroyed without risk to the city. 

"The citizens, in their enthusiasm, got some of my men di*unk, and 
my citizens in some instances left off work to plunder. One got the Prov- 
ost-Marshal's trunk, containing his commission, uniform, and some pa- 
pers. I have the original book containing the oath of allegiance exacted 
from the citizens as the price of their being at liberty and exempt from 
plunder! ! ) 

"A man named Peoples rides a fine horse, goes heavily armed, and 
pilots Federal scouts on foraging expeditions. At his nod one is spared 
and another sacrificed. His house was close to the Federal camp. I 
stopped at his place, burnt the house, corn-crib, etc., considering it im- 
portant as a retaliatory measure. I have taken prisoners several per- 
sons who have voluntarily taken the oath of allegiance, arrested sus- 
picious persons, and caused the arrest of a traitor spy named Lewis 
Smith, who has served in our army, and was greatly trusted. I have 
the Federal vouchers for his pay in my possession. The visit of my 
boat will not be without its fruit. ******** 
"Respectfully, your obedient servant, 

"Joseph Frt.''^ 

A Federal expedition was fitted out at Memphis, consist- 
ing of the Mound City, St. Louis, Lexington, Conestoga, and 
a number of transports, and was dispatched up White River 
to the relief of Gen. Curtis. Resistance to such an expedition 
by the Maurepas would have been futile, so her commander 
sunk her and two wooden boats across the channel at St. 
Charles, Ark., and placing the guns of the Maurepas in battery 
on the heights, brought the Federal expedition to a halt, and 
compelled an action, in which one of the shot from Fry's guns 
penetrated the steam-chest of the Mound City, and the escap- 
ing steam soon compelled her crew to take to the water. In 

1 Life of Capt. Joseph Fry, p. 163. 



THE CONFEDERATE STATES NAVY. 



343 



contemporaneous accounts of this engagement, a very im- 
probable story gained considerable circulation that Lieut. 
Commander Fry had ordered his men to fire on the struggling 
men in the water. The improbability that a man of Fry's 
character could give such an order, is confirmed by its im- 
possibility, on account of Fry being at least a quarter of a mile 
further down the river when the gun was fired which exploded 
the steam-chest of the Mound City. At the point below, Lieut. 
F. M. Roby had command of one Parrott gun, and Lieut. Com- 
mander Fry was with him. ' 

Lieut. Fry's account of the affair'^ is that " it had been re- 
ported to him that the Federals were sending srnall boats 
loaded with armed men from the gunboats below, with a view 
of cutting off his retreat from the rear. Under these circum- 
stances, Lieut. Roby, with five or six riflemen, was stationed to 
open fire on these boats, in order to interfere with their design 
of cutting off his retreat. It was that justifiable and proper 
firing that was misrepresented as a shooting of drowning and 
struggling men while in the water. His report from on board 
the U. S. naval hospital ship Red Bover, to which he was car- 
ried when captured and wounded, was : "I sunk the Maiire- 
pas to close the channel on White River, to prevent the Fed- 
eral gunboats (four in number) from ascending. I then landed 



1 Tlie following is the official report of Flag- 
officer Davis : 

United States Flag Ship "Benton," ) 
Memphis. June 19, 1862. ( 

SiE: The Conestnga, Lieut. Coiumandiug G. W. 
Blodgett, arrived here to-day from White 
River. She briiig.s information of the capture 
of two batteries at St. Charles, eighty miles 
from the moutli, tlie first of which mounted 
four Parrott guns and the second three forty- 
two-pouuder rifled guns. Three guns, it is 
understood, wei-e taken from the gunboat 
Mariposa, i e — Maurepas, which, after being 
dismantled, was sunk. There is now but one 
t;nnboat remaining in White River, the Pont- 
cliarlrain, mounting three or live guns, and hav- 
in>,' her macliinery protected by iron and cotton. 

The enemy has attempted to block ui) the 
river by driving i^iles and lay sinking boats, but no 
serious obstructions have yet been discovered. 

The Conestoga will return to White River to- 
night with reinforcements, accompanied by an 
additional transport, laden with commissary 
stoi-es. 

The victory of St. Charles, which has prob- 
ably given us the command of White River, 
and secured our communication with Gen. Cur- 
tis, will be unalloyed with regret but for the 
fatal accident to the steam drum and heater of 
the Mound Ci7!/,mentionedin my telegrajDhic dis- 
patch. Of the crew, consisting of one hundred 
jind seventy-five officers and men, eighty-two 
have already died, forty-three were killed in the 
water or drowned, and twenty-five are severely 
wounded, and are now on board the hospital 
boat. Among the latter is Capt. Kilty. They 
promise to 'do well. Three officers and twenty- 
two men escaped uninjured. 

.\fter the exjilosion took place, the wounded 
men were shot by the enemy while in tbe water, 
and the boats of the Conestoga, Lexington and 
St. Louis, which went to the assistance of the 



scalded and drowning men of tbe Mound City, 
were fired into, both with great guns and mus- 
kets, and were disabled, and one of them forced 
on shore to prevent sinking. 

The forts were commanded by Lieut. Joseph 
Fry late of the U. S. N., who is now a prisoner 
and wounded. 

The department and the country will con- 
trast these barbarities of a savage enemy with 
the humane efforts made by our own people to 
rescue the wounded and disabled, under simi- 
lar circumstances, in the engagement of the 6th 
inst Several poor fellows, who expired shortlj' 
after the engagement, expressed their willing- 
ness to die when they were told that the victory 
was ours. 

I have the honor to be, very respectfully, your 
obedient servant, 

C. H. Davis, 
Flag-officer Commanding Western Flotilla. 
To Hon. Gideon Welles, 

Secretary of the Navy. 

- A correspondent of the Baltimore Gazette con- 
tributed the following brief account of Capt. 
Joseph Fry, of the C. S. N., who afterwards 
commanded the Virginius : 

' He was born in Florida, and served many 
years in the U. S. navy; from the latter he re- 
signed to join the Confederacy, in which he held 
the rank of lieutenant. As such he served on 
the Mississippi, first underthe command and on 
the flagship of Commodore Hollins at New Or- 
leans. After the fall of that city he had com- 
mand of a small gunboat which the Federal 
fleet drove into one of the smaller Western 
rivers— the White, I think— and finding it im- 
possible to save her. he sunk his boat, landed 
his battery on a bluff, and opened a fire that 
disabled one of his pursuers, and drove the re- 
mainder oft". The fleet, however, returned, and 
throwing a body of some 5U0 marines in his 



344 



THE CONFEDERATE STATES NAVY. 



my crew, and assisted by Capt. Dunnington, with two guns* 
crew from the Pontcharti^ain, and some forty or fifty riflemen, 
fought the gunboats, until a large land force in our rear com- 
pelled me to retire up the bank of the river, I lost six or eight 
of our men, and was the only officer captured or wounded that 
I know of." 

The report of Lieut. John W. Dunnington, C. S. N., of 
the engagement at St, Charles, Arkansas, was as follows: 

"Confederate States Gunboat ' Pontchartrain,' \ 
"Little Rock, Ark., June 21st, 1863, ) 

" General: As the senior officer in command of the naval forces, in 
the absence of Capt. Fry, C. S. N., I beg leave to submit tlie following 
report of the engagement between our forces and the enemy's gunboats 
at* St. Charles, on the morning of the 17th instant: 

" I reached St. Charles on Monday evening, 16th instant, about 6 
p. M., with the men I carried with me to work the two rifled thirty-two- 
pounder cannon, which I had previously placed there in battery. I found 
our forces there under arms. The smoke of the enemy's gunboats was 
plainly seen from the bluff, and the pickets who had come in reported 
two gunboats, one tug, and two transports below% advancing. Owing to 
the unexpected approach of the enemy, Capt. Fry had not time to land 
his guns, but immediately placed his vessel across the river above my 
battery of rifled guns, and intended to resist their progress. Finding the 
enemy did not advance, after dark it was determined to sink the gunboat 
Maurepas, the transports EUza G. and Mary Patterson, in a line across 
the river. The sinking of the transports was entrusted to Capt. Leary. 



rear, while some four or five steamers opened 
on his front, made it hot for his two guns and 
sixty or seventy men. Fighting all around to 
the bitter end, Fry never did surrender, and the 
first knowledge he had of the battle's finish was 
when restored to consciousness in a Federal 
hospital, when he found himself severely 
wounded in the shoulder, and learned that his 
little band had been nearly all killed or wound- 
ed before the bluflf was taken. After he was 
exchanged and was assigned to duty, his wound 
breaking out afresh, compelled him reluctantly 
to yield regular service, and, still suffering with 
his shoulder and a semi-paralyzed arm, he un- 
dertook the lighter duty of commanding a Con- 
federate steamer, the Eugenie, in the blockade 
running. In this steamer, one of the few sail- 
ing regularly under the Confederate flag, Capt. 
Fry proved himself a skillful, daring com- 
mander, and was uniformly successful. On one 
occasion the Eugenie, loaded with gunpowder, 
grounded outside of Fort Fisher under the 
guns of the blockading squadron, and when, in 
view of the heavy cannonade which was 
oisened upon her, he was commanded from the 
fort, from Wilmington, and finally from Rich- 
mond, to abandon his boat and save his crew 
from what was considered the inevitable explo- 
sion. Fry positively refused to do so; stood by 
his ship, lightened her, got a good tide, carried 
her safely in — a measure of cool gallantry not 
easily surpassed, as he was utterly defenceless, 
carrying no armament. He simjily stood the 
chance of being blown up without the excite- 
ment of battle to sustain his nerve, while, on the 
other hand, the adjacent coast made escape easy. 
" From this service Fry was withdrawn to 
superintend the construction of torpedoes, and 
for that purpose went to Scotland, where the 
closing of the ports rendered his efforts fruit- 
less. After the war I heard of him in New 



Orleans, working on some patents for sav- 
ing ships and curing timber, and very poor. Of 
his connection with the Cubans I know noth- 
ing, andean only suppose his poverty and natu- 
ral love of adventure combined to bring about 
his murder. Personally, he was a tall, well- 
made, handsome man, with the most mesmeric 
eyes I have ever seen, having great power of 
control, both over himself and others. His mind 
was remarkably good and well cultivated. He 
was a deep reader and thinker, fond of specula- 
ting on abstruse subjects, and apt to be led by 
his genius to extreme views. In disposition 
he was sweet, but firm tempered; a true friend 
and a strong enemy, not given, perhaps, to a 
large circle, but very sociable and conversible 
with his intimates, and, withal, as modest as. 
brave. 

"As an old naval oflScer having personal ex- 
perience of the laws of blockade, he both knew 
the legal limits of his liability if captured, and 
trusted the flag he bore from protection from all 
other penalties. Had the Virginius been a Cu- 
ban privateer, as alleged, as such she would 
have carried a battery, and Capt. Fry would 
never have surrendered without resistance. 
Had he borne a Cuban commission, three or 
four shots over his steamer, within reach al- 
most of Jamaica's coast, would never have 
brought him to. The truth must be he com- 
manded an American steamer, and believed 
that the flag under which he bad so long served, 
which had conquered him, could and would in- 
sure him at least civilized treatment." 

Capt. Fry and fifty-three of his comrades 
were cruelly murdered by the Cuban authorities 
on November 7th, 1873, and ninety-three more 
were under sentence of immediate execution, 
but were saved by the intercession of Sir 
Lambton Lorraine of the British man-of-war 
JViobe. 




COMMANDER JOSEPH FRY, C. S. N. 



THE CONFEDERATE STATES NAVY. 345 

Capt. Fry, with his own crew, sank the Maurepas, remaining on deck 
till the gun-deck was submerged. The blockading of the river was neces- 
sarily so hastily done that no ballast or weight could be placed in the 
transports. About daybreak the last vessel was sunk, and the river 
blockaded temporarily. Supposing the enemy would make the attack at 
early daylight, one rifled Parrott gun and ammunition, in command of 
Midshipman [F. M.] Roby, was moved some 400 yards below the rifled 
battery and placed in position. The sailors who manned the different 
batteries were ordered to sleep within a few feet of their guns. Shortly after 
daylight two rifled Parrott eight-pounder guns, that had been sent to 
the rear for want of ammunition, were brought up and placed in position 
near the guns commanded by Midshipman Roby. These three guns 
were manned by the crew from the Maurepas, and Captain Fry in person 
superintended the fighting of them. One twelve-pounder howitzer from 
the Maurepas, manned also by the crew, was sent down the river to assist 
Capt. Williams in checking the enemy's advance by land. 

" At 7 A. M. on the morning of the 17th, the pickets reported the en- 
emy getting up steam. At 8:30 they had advanced up the river to our 
lines, and two gunboats commenced throwing shell, grape and canister 
among our troops on the right bank of the river. They advanced very 
slowly, attempting to find our heavy guns. When they arrived abreast 
of Capt. Fry's rifled guns, they opened on his battery very rapidly for 
three-quarters of an hour, endeavoring to silence his guns. Failing to do 
so, they slowly moved up the river until they came within point-blank 
range of one of the rifled thirty-two-pounders. The leading gunboat 
stopped to fight that gun; but, finding the gun still farther up was firing 
at her, she moved up the river to get its position, and, in doing so, placed 
herself between the two guns and in point-blank range. The other gun- 
boat, in obedience to signal, 1 suppose, came abreast of the lower battery, 
and opened a brisk fire upon us. About this stage of the action, 10 A. M., 
Capt. Fry sent me word the enemy were landing a large force below. All 
the available men that could be found wei'e immediately sent to Capt. 
Williams' assistance. At 10:30, a shot from the rifled thirty-two pounder 
farthest up the river penetrated the leading gunboat, and either passed 
through the boilers, steam-chest, or pipe, filling the entire vessel with 
steam, and causing all that were not killed or scalded with steam to jump 
into the river. The vessel was completely deserted, and drifted across the 
stream into the bank, near Capt. Fry's battery. He immediately hailed, 
and directed their flag hauled down. They failing to do so, although the 
order was given by some of their own officers in hearing of our own peo- 
ple, our own men were directed to shoot those in the water attempting to 
escape. The two rifled guns were imniediately directed to fire upon the 
lower gunboat, which was still engaging us. She was struck several times, 
and soon ceased firing, slowly dropping down the river, I think, materi- 
ally damaged, as she made no effort to assist the boat we had blown up, 
or save their friends in the river. Near 11:30, Capts. Fry and Williams 
came to my battery and told me the enemy had completely surrounded 
us; the battery of small rifled guns had been spiked, and our people were 
in retreat. I trained one of the rifled guns to take a last shot at the en- 
emy, and, as we fired, their infantry appeared over the brow of the hill, 
about fifty yards distant, and opened on us with musketry. Capt. Fry then 
proposed to make a stand with the sailors, and attempted to hold the 
guns, but they were only armed with single-barreled pistols, which they 
had fired at the enemy in the water. Nothing was now left but to save 
all the men we could, and, as the enemy had us under a cross-fire the men 
were ordered to retreat, the officers bringing up the rear, until scattered 
in the woods. I had confined in single irons, at my battery, six prisoners, 
captured by Capt. Fry at Little Red River. Deeming it inexpedient to 
bring them away, and as Capt. Fry told me he had no positive proof 
against them, I left them for the enemy. The gallantry of Capts. Fry and 
Williams was so conspicuous as to cause general notice and remark. To 



346 THE CONFEDERATE STATES NAVY. 

my own officers and several of Capt Fry's who served with me, I am par- 
ticularly indebted. Mr. William Smith (acting: master , Mr. William 
Barclay (engineer), Midshipman Roby, who commanded one of the guns, 
Mr. W. L. Campbell, and Dr. Addison, of the Maurepas, acted with great 
gallantry, and displayed a coolness and courage unsurpassed by any one 
in the engagement. To Col. Belknap, one of the citizens of St. Charles, 
we are all indebted for the untiring energy and zeal with which he assist- 
ed before and during the action. He was always where he was needed, 
encouraging the men and assisting the officers. 1 am unable to furnish a 
list of killed and wounded, but do not think the numbers exceed three up 
to the time of the retreat. For the operations of the infantry, I respect- 
fully refer you to Capt. Williams. I herewith inclose a rough sketch of 
St. Charles and the surrounding country, includmg the position of our 
batteries and that of the enemy's gunboats. 
" I am, sir, with great respect, 

"J. W. DUNNINGTON, 

''■Commanding Gunboat '■ Pontchartrain.'' 
'^MaJ. General Hindman, 

'''Commandi7ig Trans-Mississippi BistricV 

Capt. A. M. Williams, C. S. Engineers, made the following 
report of the same engagement: 

"Headquarters Traxs-Mississippi District, } 
Little Rock, Ark., June 21st, 1863. f 
" Sir : I have to report that on the evening of the 16th information 
was brought me that the enemy's gunboats were advancing on Saint 
Charles, which was soon substantiated by advance of our pickets, posted 
down the river. We immediately made preparations to receive them, the 
artillerymen keeping their positions at the guns during the night, and 
my command being thrown out to prevent a surprise. We also, to pre- 
vent the enemy's gunboats passing our position, under orders from Major 
Gen. Hindman, scuttled the steamboats Eliza G. and Mary Patterson. 
Capt. Fry, of the C. S. navy, who was in command at Saint Charles, 
scuttled the gunboat Maiirepas., thus forming an obstruction across the 
river that could not be moved until our batteries were silenced. The 
enemy, however, made no demonstrations during the night. On the 
morning of the 17th, about 8:30 o'clock, two gunboats, two transports and 
one tug appeared in sight and prepared to engage vis. The men under 
my command, consisting of detachments from Capts. Jones', Hearin's, 
Smith's and Johnson's companies. Col. Pleasants' regiment, numbering 
about thirty-five men, were, by order of Capt. Fry, deployed as sharp- 
shooters, and posted along the river below the battery. At 9 A. M we en- 
gaged the enemy's pickets and drove them in. The firing disclosed our 
position to the gunboats, from which the enemy commenced a furious 
fire of grape and shell, before which my men fell back to a more secure 
position. At this time the enemy opened fire upon our light battery of 
four guns, manned by the crew of the Maurepas, to which they replied 
gallantly. At 10 A. M., the heavy battery under command of Capt. Dun- 
nington, C. S. N., opened fire on them, and soon blew up one of their 
boats and silenced tlie other. When the explosion took place, the boat's 
crew jumped into the water and into boats, to escape the scalding steam 
that was pouring out of every hole and crevice. I immediately ordered 
all the sharp-shooters that remained on the field, about twenty in number, 
to the river bank to shoot them. Numbers of them were killed in the 
water. At this time, about 11 o'clock, I discovered the enemy landing 
below, and immediately ordered men to take possession of Col. Belknap's 
house, for the purjiose of holding them in check. When we reached the 
top of the hill near the house, the enemy poured into us a furious fire of 
musketry at a short distance. I at once made a reconnoissanee of their 
position in person, and ascertained that we were almost surrounded by a 



THE CONFEDERATE STATES NAVY. 347 

force of several hundred men. I informed Capt. Fry of our situation and 
was ordered by him to fall back to the battery, which I did with tlie few 
men who remained with me. When we reached the battery the enemy 
were on our front and right flank, and poured into us a galling cross-fire of 
musketry. Capt. Fry gave the orders to retreat, and immediately the 
men scattered and ran the gauntlet of a heavy cross-fire for nearly half a 
mile, the olflcers bringing up the rear. I cannot make an accurate report 
of our loss, not knowing who have made their escape. It is, however, 
very slight. The enemy's loss must have been very heavy. They admit 
;i loss of 140 killed, drowned and scalded. All our stores and artillery fell 
into the hands of the enemy. I respectfully call your attention to the 
coolness and intrepid bearing exhibited by Capt. Fry, our commander, 
who, from disease, could not make his escape, and was, I understand, 
severely wounded and taken prisoner. Capt. Dunnington in this en- 
gagement has proved to the world that the Federal gunboats are not in- 
vulnerable. You are respectfully referred to his report for more minute in- 
formation. I would also call your attention to the gallantry of a portion 
of my command, some twenty in number, whose names I cannot give, and 
particularly to the intrepid manner in which Privates [J. H.] Bruce and 
[G. W.] Everett, of Capt. Hearin's company, behaved themselves. I take 
great pleasure in acknowledging the services of Cols. Belknap and Finch, 
and Messrs. Herman and Margins. The thanks of the country are due 
them for assistance rendered in encouraging and cheering the men, and 
bringing them up. * * * 

"I am, very respectfully, your obedient servant, 

"A. M.Williams, Captain of Engineers. 
" Colonel [R. C.J Newton, Assistant Adjutant QeneraV 

Several days after this battle, the enemy having been re- 
inforced by an additional gunboat and six transports, and 
with a land force of about 4,000 men, made a demonstration 
against DevalFs Bluff. Intrenchments w^ere thrown up and 
three heavy guns from the Ponchartrain, manned by a por- 
tion of her crew, were put in position. Obstructions were 
also put in the channel to detain the enemy's vessels under 
fire. A regiment and battalion of Arkansas infantry just 
organized and armed, partly with shot-guns, sporting rifles, 
and partly with pikes and lances, were sent to the bluff, 
together with three batteries of artillery, and with the Texas 
regiment already there, were formed into a brigade, under 
Brig. Gen. Allison Nelson. 

Evidently alarmed by the resistance met at St. Charles, 
Col. G. N. Fitch, the Federal commander, moved very slowly 
up stream, fired upon from both banks by Major Gen. T. C. 
Hindman's cavalry, dismounted, and by citizens. At Claren- 
don, twenty-five miles below Devall's Bluff, Col, Fitch landed 
a regiment of infantry and moved it forward on the west side 
to reconnoitre, escorted by the tug Tiger. After advancing 
five miles it was compelled to retire with a loss of fifty-five in 
killed and wounded. 

On the 4th of January, 1863, Gen, McClernand determined 
to make an attack on Fort Hindman, or Arkansas Post (as the 
Federals called it), on the Arkansas River, and requested the 
co-operation of the navy. Acting Rear Admiral Porter detailed 
three iron-clads, the Louisville, Baron De Kalb and Cincinnati, 



348 



THE CONFEDERATE STATES NAVY. 



with all the light draft gunboats in his Mississippi squadron. 
Among the latter were the Rattler, Black Hawk, Romeo, 
Juliet, Marmora, Signal, Forest Rose, Glide and the ram 
Monarch, Col. Charles EUet. The Federal naval forces were 
under the command of Acting Rear Admiral David D. Porter 
in person, and the troops were commanded by Gens. McCler- 
nand and Sherman. 

Fort Hindman, or Arkansas Post, as the Federals called 
it, was a regular bastioned work, one hundred yards exterior 
side, with a deep ditch some fifteen feet wide, and a parapet 
eighteen feet high. It mounted eleven guns of various sizes. 
The accompanying diagram gives an accurate plan of the work. 




PLAN OF FORT HINDMAN, OR ARKANSAS POST, 



The fort was commanded by John W. Dunnington, colonel 
commanding third brigade, and first lieutenant C. S. navy. In 
the defence of the place he displayed the most conspicuous 
gallantry, and before he surrendered, all his heavy guns were 
broken by the Federal shot, and were lying about in fragments 
on the ground. A large number of his killed and wounded 
were lying in the ditches, and many of his brave garrison who 
also belonged to the C. S. navy were sick in the hospital. After 
the capture of Fort Hindman, and the officers and crew of the 
C. S. gunboat Poncliartrain, the gunboat was sent to Little 
Rock, where she was afterwards destroyed to prevent her from 
falling into the hands of the enemy. 

On the 9th of January, the Federal gunboats ascended 
the Arkansas River, as higii as Fort Hindman, when the 



THE CONFEDERATE STATES NAVY. 349 

army landed within about four miles of the fort. The Confed- 
erates had thrown up heavy earthworks and extensive rifle- 
pits all along the levee, and the fort itself was built close to 
the river; the fort not being more than twenty yards from the 
bank. While the Federal army was making a detour to sur- 
round the fort, the iron-clads and gunboats moved up to the 
attack. At 5:30 p. m. the Louisville, Baron DeKalh and Cin- 
cinnati advanced to within 400 yards of the fort, which imme- 
diately opened upon them, making some good shots, and in- 
flicting considerable damage. Owing to the terrific fire and 
superior guns of the enemy, in a short time the fort ceased 
firing, nearly all the guns being disabled. At dark the Fede- 
ral vessels dropped down the river and tied up to the bank. 
Just before dark the light-draft iron-clad Rattler passed 
the fort and enfiladed it in the rear. In passing the fort, the 
cabin works of the Rattler were knocked to pieces and she 
was raked from stem to stern in the hull. The Rattler got 
past the fort, but becoming entangled in the obstructions 
placed in the river to impede the progress of the Federal gun- 
boats, had to return. 

During the night Lieut. Dunnington and his brave gar- 
rison worked with great zeal to repair damages, preparatory 
to the struggle which they anticipated would take place on 
the following day, when the land forces of the enemy would 
be in position to assault the fort. All the night of the 9th the 
heavy strokes of the hammers of the Confederates could be 
heard through the Federal fleet on the iron covering of their 
casemates; at daylight, the tired garrison, having remained 
up all night to repair their nearly demolished fort, were pa- 
tiently waiting for the Federal gunboats to renew the attack. 
These were ordered to take position again not further than 
fifty yards from the fort, and begin to fire as soon as possible. 
The battle began, and soon became hot. In a short time all 
the guns in the works were dismounted and silenced. The 
Black Warrior having taken a regiment of infantry on board, 
was run to the bank alongside the fort to board it. At the 
same time a messenger was sent to Gen. Sherman informing 
him of the condition of the fort, and that if he would send a 
storming party from the land side, the navy would assault it 
from the water. At this time the fort was a complete ruin 
and surrounded on all sides by an overwhelming force. Lieut. 
Dunnington and his brave set of navy officers and men, how- 
ever, had no thought of surrendering. Admiral Porter says: 
''While waiting for Sherman's troops the Black Hawk laid 
alongside the fort, her high upper works on a level with the 
embrasures, while three boat guns on wheels, on the upper 
deck, completely commanded the inside of the works, which 
presented a dreadful scene of killed and wounded. A large 
number of artillery horses had been killed in the fort, and the 
shells and shrapnel had made sad havoc with the dead and 



350 THE CONFEDERATE STATES NAVY. 

dying men, mixed up with the killed and wounded animals. 
It was a scene ever to be remembered. In the meantime, 
while waiting for Sherman's assaulting party, all firing had 
ceased on both sides and the victorious sailors were quietly 
looking on at the dreadful havoc that had been made inside 
the works, not anticipating that the enemy would make any 
more resistance. Their colors had been shot away and had 
not been hoisted again." 

As the assaulting column of the soldiers of the enemy got 
within twenty yards of Lieut. Dunnington and his garrison, 
who were "concealed behind or underneath the buildings that 
had been knocked down," they rose together and " poured in a 
withering volley from about four hundred and fifty muskets, 
and nearly every bullet told." The enemy staggered at this 
unexpected volley and retreated. At that moment white flags 
were hoisted by several men contrary to orders and the Con- 
federates laid down their arms and surrendered. Lieut. Com. 
Dunnington sent for Admiral Porter and surrendered to him 
in person. Gen. Churchill. Confederate commander of all the 
forces around the fort, surrendered to Gen. McClernand. 

Rear Admiral H. Walke, U. S, N., in his '• Naval Scenes and 
Reminiscences of the Civil War in the United States/' says: 

" As a prisoner of "war, a few days after the battle, on his way up to 
Cairo [Lieut. J. W. Dunnington, C. S. N.,] said that he had no thought of 
surrendering when he tirst heard that tlie white flag was raised on all their 
flag-statfs by order of their commander-in-chief. He ordered it down from 
his flag-staff, and hoisted the Confederate flag again and continued the 
fight for some time after, even when he Avas told that their army had sur- 
rendered, and declared that he would not strike his colors. On being in- 
formed that all their works in the rear had surrendered to our army, and 
that the consequences would be terrible to their troops if he persisted 
in firing any longer, he surrendered to Admiral Porter." 

The defence of Fort Hindman was one of the most gallant 
events of the war. It was enfiladed from all sides by gun- 
boats and rifled field-pieces, which not only destroyed the 
houses and light work inside the fort, but also destroyed all 
the guns and casemates. Admiral Porter says: "No fort 
ever received a worse battering, and I know of no instance 
on record where every gun in a fort was dismounted or de- 
stroyed." The list of killed and wounded in the Confederate 
navy garrison was very large; the list of officers captured 
was as follows : 

"JohnW. Dunnington, colonel commanding third brigade, and first 
lieutenant C. S. navy, commanding naval forces; Joseph Preble, acting- 
master C. S. navy, Frank Ranger, acting master C. IS. navy; F. M. Roby, 
tirst lieutenant and brigade ordnance officer and midshipman C. S. navy; 
N. M. Read, assistant surgeon C. S. navy: W. S. Campbell, major and 
quartermaster third brigade and captain's clerk C. S. navy; Howell 
<^uigley, second assistant engineer (J. S. navy; Samuel Suttioan, third 
assistant engineer C !S. navy; Joseph Nutter, master's mate C. S. navy; 
W. A. Lang, captain's steward C. 8. navy; George Elliott, boatswain s 
mate; John McDonald, boatswain's mate; \V. C. Fisher, master-at-arms; 



THE CONFEDERATE STATES NAVY. 351 

Charles Lettig, quartermaster; John B. Hassett, quartermaster; Michael 
Kemmett, quartermaster; John Shejjhard, quartermaster; P. J. Fitz- 
patrick, purser's steward; James Hussey, surgeon's steward; Richard 
Scott, gunner's mate; Charles Loewenberg, shijo's cook: T. J. Jackson, 
wardroom cook; Charles Crowley, seaman; Charles WilUams, seaman; 
Patrick KeUy, ordinary seaman; Pliney Cox, ordinary seaman; John Lee, 
ordinary seaman; Henry Peters, landsman; Edward Walsh, first-class 
fireman; George Dehman, first-class fireman; John Fuller, coalheaver; 
Aleck Martin, first-class boy; John Brown, first-class boy; Christopher 
Kain, second-class boy; Michael Knackley, second-class boy; Samuel H. 
Bink, captain, acting general; A. M. WiUiams, captain of engineers. 

The enemy also lost heavily in killed and wounded. Lieut. 
Com. John G. Walker, of the U. S. gunboat Baron DeKalh, 
in his official report to Acting Rear Admiral Porter on Janu- 
ary 12th says, that in the attack on the evening of the 10th 
his vessel was struck several times : 

" In the attack on the 11th, one of the ten-inch guns was struck in 
the muzzle, and both gun and carriage destroyed; one thirty-two-pounder 
carriage struck and destroyed; one of the iron plates on forward casemate 
badly broken by shot; the wood-work about two of the ports badly torn 
by shot, and one lower deck beam cut off by a plunging shot through the 
deck. The other injuries, although considerable, can be repaired on 
board in a few days. I lost two men killed and fifteen wounded; two 
probably mortally, and several seriously. 

" Before going into action, I covered the bow sides and pilothouse 
with slush, which, I think, was of much assistance in turning the shot, 
as the vessel was repeatedly struck by eight and nine-inch shot, at very 
short range, and the iron was in no case penetrated. The loss Avas from 
shot and shell entei'ing the ports." 

The DeKalh, Louisville, and Cincinnati each had several 
men killed and wounded. 

Early in January, 1863, Rear Admiral Porter gave orders 
that the Federal ram Queen of the West, Capt. E. W. Suther- 
land, should pass the Confederate batteries at Vicksburg. 
destroy the steamboat City of Vicksburg, lying opposite the 
city, and then run past the lower Confederate batteries. The 
Queen of the West was one of the celebrated Union ram fleet 
organized and equipped at Pittsburgh, Pa., by Col. Charles 
EUet. The fleet was at first established under the cognizance 
of the Federal Secretary of War, and was under the control of 
that department until about the beginning of 1863, when it 
was transferred to the ISTav}^ Department and placed under the 
control of Rear Admiral D. D. Porter. The fleet played an 
important part in the operations of the United States forces 
on the Mississippi River from and after the fall of Island No. 10. 

The Queen of the West was a freight-boat, formerly in tlie 
St. Louis, Cincinnati and New Orleans trade, and before slie 
was converted into a ram was considered a model of strength 
and speed. When Col. Ellet, the originator of the ram fleet, w^ho 
died in consequence of wounds received in the naval conflict 
at Memphis, was organizing this branch of the Union service, 



352 



THE CONFEDERATE STATES NAVY 



the Queen of the West was one of the first boats selected. 
She was strengthened as to her hull by heavy oak timbers, 
and as to machinery by a bulwark of solid wood- work twenty- 
four inches thick, extending from stem to stern, and so inclos- 
ing the boilers and engines that they were considered safe 
from shot and shell from guns of no heavier calibre than six 
or twelve pounders. When she ran the batteries at Vicksburg 
she was further strengthened by two rows of cotton bales, ex- 
tending entirely around her, from the guards to the upper 
deck. Her pilot-house was also similarly protected. To guard 
against the effect of plunging-shot, there was a layer of cotton 
bales upon the gun-deck. Her armament consisted of a bow 
gun, a large thirty-two-pounder rifled Parrott upon her main- 
deck, one twenty-pounder rifled Parrott, and three twelve- 




' QUEEN OF THE WEST," CAPTURED BY THE CONFEDERATES, FEBRUARY 4tH, 1863. 



pounder brass howitzers upon her gun-deck. Besides her offi- 
cers and crew, she usually carried a detail of sharp-shooters. 

The Queen of the West was first brought into prominence 
in the naval engagement above Memphis on June 8th. 1862, 
in which she took a very active part. When the Confederate 
ram Arkansas made her first appearance in the Yazoo River, 
previous to her run into the Mississippi, one of her opponents 
was the ram Queen of the West. In the attempt to capture 
the Arkansas before Vicksburg on the 32d of July, 1862, the 
Queen of the West took a very important part. During the 
attack upon Vicksburg, in December following, she took an 
active part in the affair with the Confederate battery at Haines 
Bluff, near the mouth of the Yazoo. 

In compliance with the instructions of Rear- Admiral Porter, 
on the morning of February 2d, 1863, the Queen of the West 
having made all arrangements deemed necessary to insure her 
safety, under the command of Col. Charles R. Ellet started 



THE CONFEDERATE STATES NAVY. 353 

to pass the Confederate batteries at Vicksburg, and sink the 
Confederate steamer lying before that city. Owing to the 
delay caused by re-arranging her steering apparatus, she did 
not reach the city until after sunrise, when the batteries opened 
a heavy fire upon her all along the shore. In passing the 
steamer Vicksburg, the Queen of the West attempted to destroy 
her by ramming, but ran obliquely into her, which only staved 
in a few of her deck planks near the guards and forced her 
hi^h into the mud. Several incendiary projectiles were at the 
same time fired into the Vickshivrg which set her on fire, but 
was soon extinguished. At this moment one of the Confed- 
erate shells set the cotton on fire near the starboard wheel of the 
Queen of the West, while the discharge of her own gun ignited 
that portion which was on the bow. The flames spread rapidly, 
and the dense smoke rolling into the engine room nearly suf- 
focated the engineers. Col. Ellet, knowing that if he attempted 
to run again into the steamer Vicksburg, his ram would cer- 
tainly be burned, ordered her to be headed down stream. 
Every man was then put to extinguishing the flames, which 
after much exertion they accomplished by throwing the burn- 
ing cotton overboard. 

The Queen of^ the West passed the batteries without suffer- 
ing any material injury, although she was struck twelve times, 
and had one casemated gun dismounted and destroyed. Hav- 
ing reached the mouth of the proposed canal below Vicksburg. 
the Queen came to anchor, and Col. Ellet officially informed 
Admiral Porter of his passage of the batteries. The remainder 
of her crew having come on board she started on her advent- 
urous cruise down the Mississippi River. Passing Warrenton, 
under a heavy fire from the batteries at that point, she proceeded 
to the mouth of Big Black River and Natchez, without creating 
any excitement whatever. About fifteen miles below the 
mouth of Red River the Queen captured the steamboat A. W. 
Baker which had discharged her cargo at Port Hudson, and 
was bound up Red River for another. Several Confederate 
officers were seized on board of the steamer. While engaged in 
plundering the steamboat another was announced coming 
down the river. Leaving a guard on the A. W. Baker, Col. 
Ellet captured the steamboat Moro loaded with military stores 
for the Confederate forces at Port Hudson. Proceeding up the 
Red River he captured the steamboat Berivick Bay, also 
loaded with military supplies. The coal of the Queen of the 
West running short, some of the captured stores were trans- 
ferred to the ram and she steamed down the Red River and up 
the Mississippi with her prizes. Finding that the progress of 
the prizes was so slow, and knowing that he could not wait 
to bring them up, Col. Ellet concluded to burn them. Thus 
the Berivick Bay, the Moro and the Baker were destroyed. 

The ram returned in safety to near the lower end of the 
canal, where she was supplied with coal, which had run the 



354 THE CONFEDERATE STATES NAVY. 

batteries in a barge. Tlie De Soto, a small steam ferry-boat, 
having been captured by Gen. Blair's brigade, was turned over 
to Col. Ellet as tender to the Queen of the West. She was sur- 
rounded with a bulwark of cotton bales and armed with a 
thirty-two pounder rifle upon her bow. The two steamers 
having received 20,000 bushels of coal, on February 10th, were 
lashed together and moved down the river on another expedi- 
tion. On the same evening, the Queen of the West, with her 
tender, the De Soto, ran past the Confederate batteries at War- 
renton without receiving a shot. She passed Natchez the fol- 
lowing day, and anchored for the night at the mouth of Old 
River, forty-five miles below. On Thursday, the 12th, she 
cruised in the Atchafalaya, capturing and destroying a train 
of army wagons, seventy barrels of beef, and an artillery 
wagon containing baggage. Upon her return she was fired 
into from the right bank of the Atchafalaya by the citizens. 
On Friday morning the Queen again entered the Atchafalaya, 
and in retaliation burned every house, barn, sugar-mill, and 
negro quarters between the mouth of the river and Semraes- 
port. At the latter place she captured a Confederate mail, 
and first learned of the occupation of Berwick Bay and lower 
Atchafalaya by Admiral Farragut, On Friday afternoon the 
boats entered Red River, and anchored for the night at the 
mouth of Black River. At ten on Saturday morning, the Queen 
of the West captured the Confederate steamer Erxi No. 5, 
laden with stores for the army at Little Rock. Col. Ellet had 
heard that a Confederate battery was in position eighty miles 
from the mouth of Red River, at Gordon's Landing, and as 
he approached it all his prisoners declared that he could easily 
capture it. Finley Anderson, a correspondent of the New 
York Herald, was on board of the Queen of the West, with 
Mr. Bodman of the Chicago Tribune, and Josepli McCullagh, 
'• Mack" of the Cincinnati Commercial. Mr. Anderson says : 

" Col. Ellet had pressed into his service the pilot of the captured Era, 
and placing him in the pilot house, forced him to assist at the wheel. 
She moved slowly up the river at 'slow bell,' but with a full head of 
steam in her boilers, and instead of taking the bend of the river outside 
the eddy, ran inside, and in an instant was hard aground and immovable 
^« the hills. 1 It was at this very instant that the three rifled thirty-two 

1 A correspondent of the Memphis Appeal gave suspicious looking craft had made her appear- 

the following account of the capture of the auee in the mouth of Red River, consequently 

Quern of the VKesi, through the exploit of her gal- she tied up for furtlier developments. Other 

hint Confederate pilot, who was taken from the boats, as many as four, came down and were 

Confederate steamer Era, and ordered to the likewise stopped; they remained awhile and 

wheel of the Queen of the West under the bayo- then returned up the river, 

nets of a guard of Federal soldiers: " Saturday morning, the 14th, at daylight, the 

" On the morning of the l'2th instant, the Era Era steamed up and plowed her way down to 

No. 5, with Mr. George Wood as her pilot, her destination, supposing she could reach the 

steamed out from her mooring at Alexandria. mouth of Black River with safety, as nothing 

loaded for Black River, which empties into the had then been heard of the Queen of the West 

Red River, some forty miles above her mouth. coming up. Gliding down her watery path, she 

On reaching Gordon's Landing, some seventy- was bounding onward with full steam, when 

five miles below Alexandria, where we have a some ten miles above the mouth of Black River, 

military post, consisting of casemated guns her turning point, she was met at a bend in the 

and Parrott pieces, the Era was stopped river, fired into, one shot hitting her pilot house, 

and told that the night before (Wednesday) a and was captured by the Queen of the West, w'hich. 



THE CONFEDERATE STATES NAVY. 355 

pounders in Fort Taylor opened fire. Each shot told with fearful accuracy. 
Solid shot crashed thi-oufrh her cabins as if they were made of paper. 
Shell exploded between her chimneys, upon her decks, over her pilot 
house— all about her, and she fixed and immovable. Every exertion was 
made to back her off, but all was of no avail. In her present position 
none of the Queen's guns were effective. The rebels had the range per- 
fectly, and if firing at a target in broad daylight could not have done 
better execution. Presently word came from the engine room that the 
lever was shot away, then that the escape pipe was broken, and almost 
immediately after the terrible roar and tumult of rushing steam showed 
that her steam chest was penetrated. 

"At this time no one thought of saving the boat. It needed all their 
exertions to save themselves. It was at first thought the boiler had ex- 
ploded, but though the vessel shook and reeled as if from an earthquake 
shock, it was soon discovered the boilers were unhurt. Soon the rushing 
steam entered every part of the vessel, the main-deck, the hold, the cabin 
and pilot house My informant was in the pilot house, and with difficulty 
prevented suffocating by filling his mouth with a woollen rag lying hard by. 
With some difficulty he escaped to the cabin, and from thence to the hurri- 
cane roof, where many of the crew and the three journalists were gathered. 

"All this time the crash of the shell and roar of the guns were fear- 
fully distinct, the shot hissing and screaming in dangerous proximity to 
their heads. Some leaped overboard and were drowned. Others tumbled 
cotton bales into the river and attempted to float with the current. Mr. 
Anderson was last seen standing, undecided whether to risk escape on a 
cotton bale or risk capture by remaining. Bodman swung himself from 
the hurricane roof, and reached the De Soto in a skiff. McCullagh sought 
a cotton bale, and debated whether he should trust his precious body 
upon it. While thus engaged the bale floated beyond his reach, and im- 
mediately thereafter a shell alighted upon it, and exploding, blew it into 
a thousand fragments. ' Mac ' seized another bale, and reached the De 
iSoto in safety. Col. Ellet escaped in like manner. 

" The enemy hearing no reply to his guns, and discovering from the 
rush of steam that some accident had occurred, slackened his fire and 

■was steaming upward on foi'bidden waters. The two holes through her chimney stacks, and one 
crew and passengers of the Era were taken happy shot through her main body, which was 
prisoners, and all were guarded on board the providentially guided to thecutting of her steam- 
Era, by a band of Abolition soldiers, save Mr. pipe, but no other damage was done her. Thus 
George Wood, the pilot, who was ordered aboard grounded and crippled, it was then contem- 
the Queen of the West, and, with heavy threats, plated to blow up her magazine, and thus de- 
directed to her pilot wheel to assist her pilot in stroy her by fire, but the surgeon protested 
directing her onward to the capture of our fort. against it, as fortunately her captain lay on 
On they glided, but not distrustful, aud much board mortally wounded by a rifle shot received 
elated at their success, till they came in reach of near Semmesjjort, and it was impossible to move 
our battery at five p. m , when she commenced him, so Col. Ellet consented to let her lay, for 
firing, still advancing. Our batteries challenged the sake of humanity to her dying commander, 
her by opening most furiously from their hid- She was well barricaded with cotton bales. On 
den recesses. Still she advanced, till, as I was seeing all hope of success gone, the command- 
told by one of our lieutenants, who was there, ing ofi&cer. Col. Ellet, made his escape, with 
she came within a quarter of a mile of our bat- nearly all his crew, by getting on cotton bales 
tery and on the opposite shore in full range for and floating down the river. She raised the 
our guns, when the gallant Wood, who directed white signal, as the storm abated, as it was seen 
her wheel, had her rounded, ran her aground, by the light of a burning warehouse, but it was 
breaking her rudder and thus crippling her and not answered till next morning. Thirteen of 
turning her broadside to give our guns a fair the crew remained in silence till daylight, then 
chauce. This gallant man. in the confusion, her white banner was still afloat, and then, and 
made good his escape, as it was a life and death not till then, our Southern sons of thunder 
case with him. Thus crippled and disabled by crossed the river and formally took possession 
the hand that drove her on to her destiny, she of this proud and haughty triumph, as she lay a 
lay like a wounded falcon, at the mercy of her victim of a single hand, the gallant Wood, 
adversaries. "The results of the capture are one thirty-. 
"The night was dark and stormy, the heavens two-pound rifle Parrott gun, one twenty-four- 
overhung with clouds, which now and then pound rifle Parrott gun. three twelve-pound Pnr- 
pealed forth their muttering thunder, and terfield brass pieces, and one thirteen-pound 
drenched the earth with rain Thus in the rain- brass piece— damaged, a fine supply of ordnance 
storm this crippled Queen lay beaten by the tem- stores, a good deal of quinine, three fine cases of 
pest. Our batteries made some four or five surgical instruments, and provisions in abund- 
ehots in her guard around the upjier deck, and ance " 



356 THE CONFEDERATE STATES NAVY. 

sent boats to reconnoitre. Three yawls, loaded with men, approached 
the vessel, to whom the crew remaining on board signified their surren- 
der. Thus the Queen of the West, with all her guns and ammunition, fell 
a prize into the hands of our enemies. 

"The De Soto was less than a mile below where the accident to the 
Queen of the West occurred, and came up as near the point as prudence 
justified. She picked up the floaters, and sent her yawl for the survivors, 
but before it reached the Queen of the West all who remained on board 
were in the enemy's hands and prisoners, herself narrowly escaping 
capture. The river banks began to be lined with soldiers, who demanded, 
in voices plainly discernible by those on board, the surrender of men 
swimming for their lives. Fearing a re-enactment of the White River 
tragedy. Col. Ellet thought proper to order the De Soto to move down the 
river. She was turned, and slowly floated down with the current, picking 
up poor unfortunates as she ran. The steamer had not proceeded more 
than three miles before she ran aground in a sharp turn of the river, and 
unshipped her rudder. For fifteen miles and for three hours she was un- 
manageable, and moved with the current, sometimes head on and at other 
times stern on. At eleven o'clock she reached the £Jra, and found the 
men and prisoners undisturbed. The coal barge had sunk, and Col. Ellet 
was forced to leave it. 

" Just as they reached the JEJra the pilot caused the second rudder to 
be unshipped. She was now totally unmanageable, and there was no al- 
ternative left but to destroy her. A man was sent on board, who knocked 
out her water pipes and then laid a train to a keg of powder placed 
under the boilers, and setting a slow match on fire the Si a had barely 
time to move a hundred rods or so before the Be Soto exploded with 
a tremendous report. Her magnificent thirty -two pounder Parrott, the 
chief object of Col. EUet's care, lies forty feet below the surface of the 
river. 

" It was nearly twelve o'clock Saturday night before the Bra was 
well under way again. Col. Ellet knew that the gunboat Webb was at 
Alexandria, sixty miles above Gordon's Landing, and he was certain she 
would attempt to pursue him. All hands were set to work to throw over- 
board the corn with which she was laden, and in the fog, thunder, light- 
ning and rain she worried her way out of the Red River into the Mississippi. 
They cursed the fog then; they blessed it afterwards. 

"Sunday morning the £Jra had reached the mouth of Old River. All 
day long, with no fuel but the corn with which she was laden, and a few 
cords of water-soaked cypress, which she found on the bank of the Mis- 
sissippi, and with which she found it impossible to make steam enough to 
give her headway, the fleeing steamer attempted to get up the river. 
Forty miles in twenty-four hours is poor sailing under the most unfavor- 
able circumstances ; yet the £Jra made scarcely that. At Union Point she 
was run aground. This delayed her three hours. How this delay affected 
the fugitives may easily be imagined- They knew that the Webb was at 
Alexandria, sixty miles above Gordon's Landing, and they felt assured she 
would start in pursuit when she heard of their repulse at Fort Taylor. 
At the best, even if she laid over for the fog — a thing hardly likely under 
the circumstances — she could be but a short distance behind. Those on 
board, anticipating their capture, were discussing the probabilities of 
escape by skiffs and yawls to Port Hudson. 

The carpenter had managed to construct a spar from the forest near 
where the Bra was aground, and after three hours' hard work the steamer 
was afloat again. Colonel Ellet's first duty afterwards was to place the 
pilot under arrest. 

" They had just passed Ellis' Cliffs, when, through the fog, the look- 
out discovered the black chimney of some passing steamer. At that dis- 
tance, and because the hull of the steamer was still enveloped in dense 
vapor, it was impossible to make her out. That she burned coal, as was 
evident from the black smoke pouring from her chimneys, was enough to 



THE CONFEDERATE STATES NAVY. 357 

satisfy the crew of her character. ' It was the Federal steamer Indianola.' 
No more fear of the Webb. 

" The ^7 a was laid alongside the Tndianola and coaled. The crew 
had eaten nothing for thirty-six hours, and were nearly famished. The 
Indianola fed them. They were coatless and bootless, some of them, and 
the Indianola clothed them. They had lost their arms and ammunition 
in the Queen, and these were supplied by the Indianola.'''' 

Scarcely was the Ei^a well settled in her new position beside 
the Indianola when the Confederate ram Webb hove in sight, 
having been dispatched by Gen. E-ichard Taylor to overtake 
the escaped crew of the Queen. The Bidianola cleared for 
action and fired two shots, when the Webb with her consorts 
returned up the Red River. The Era, having been protected 
with cotton bales, seized on the plantation belonging to the 
heirs of Dr. Jenkins, above Red River, proceeded up the 
Mississippi, and finally anchored in good condition below 
Vicksburg. 

On Monday following her capture, the Queen of the West 
was towed up to the forts on Red River, and finally to Alexan- 
dria, a distance of sixty miles, where by working night and day 
she was soon repaired, and on February 19th, 1863, placed 
in the Confederate service under the command of Capt. James 
McCloskey. 

After meeting the steamer Era No. 5, with those who 
escaped from the Queen of the West, the Indianola proceeded 
to the mouth of Red River in pursuit of the Confederate 
ram Webb. Ascending the river some twenty or thirty miles, 
Capt. Brown, the commander of the Indianola, ascertained 
that the Queen of the West had been removed from the 
bar where she was captured, and was repaired and ready for 
action. The Indianola then hastened down the river to the 
Mississippi, and reached Grand Gulf, where she was over- 
taken by the Confederate fleet under the command of Major 
J. L. Brent. 
/ Major Gen. Richard Taylor, commanding the Confederate 

forces in the Western District of Louisiana, with headquarters 
at Alexandria, on February 19th, 1863, ordered Major J. L. 
Brent to take supreme command of an expedition which was 
then fitting out on Red River for the capture of the U. S. iron- 
clad Indianola. Major Brent's fleet consisted of the gunboats 
Queen of the West, Capt. James McCloskey; the Webb, Capt. 
Charles Pierce; the steamer Dr. Batey, and the tender Grand 
Era. The steamer Grand Duke was also placed at his dis- 
posal if he deemed it advisable to use her. Major W. M. 
Levy, commanding post at Fort De Russey, was at the 
same time ordered to lend Major Brent all the assistance in 
his power for fitting out the expedition in the shortest possible 
time. 

The movements of the expedition under the command 
of Major Brent are fully narrated in his official report to 



358 THE CONFEDERATE STATES NAVY. 

Major E. Surget, Gen. Taylor's A. A. General, which is as 
follows : 

"Major General R. Taylor's Gunboat Expedition, 1 

"C. S. Webb, Thirty Miles Below Vicksburg, ! 

"Off Prize Iron-clad Indianola, [ 

" February 25th, 1863. J 

"Maj. E. Surget, A. A. General: 

'■'Major—My last dispatch to you, exclusive of the telegram sent you 
last night, was from Natchez. The Federal iron-clad Indianola had 
forty-eight hours start of us at Acklin's Landing; at Natchez she was less 
than twenty-five hours in advance. We left Natchez on the evening of 
the 33d inst., and I found that we could easily overhaul her on the morn- 
ing of the 24th, but I determined not to do so, in order that I might bring 
the enemy to an engagement only at night, considering for many reasons 
that this time was most advantageous to us. 

" We reached Grand Gulf before sunset, and there learned that the 
enemy was only about four hours in advance of us. As we were i*un- 
ning more than two miles to his one, the time required to overtake him 
could be easily calculated, and 1 determined to overtake and bring him to 
action early in the night. 

"We came up with the Indianola about 9:40 last night, just above 
New Carthage, near the foot of Palmyra Island, and I immediately sig- 
nalled the Wehb to prepare for action. 

"Our order of approach was as follows: The Queen of the West about 
500 yards in advance of the Webb, and the Batey, Lieut. Col. Brand com- 
manding (whom I wrote you joined us with a force and steamer fitted out 
at Port Hudson), over two miles in the rear, and lashed to my tender the 
Grand Era. 

"The moon was partially obscured by a veil of clouds, and gave and 
permitted jvist sufficient light for us to see where to strike with our rams, 
nnd just sufficient obscurity to render uncertain the aim of the formid- 
able artillery of the enemy. 

"We first discovered him when about 1,000 yards distant, hugging 
the western bank of the Mississippi, with his head quartering across and 
down the river. 

" Not an indication of life appeared as we dashed on towards him, his 
lights obscured, and his machinery apparently without motion. 

" We had also covered our lights, and only the fires of the Era could 
be seen, two miles back, where she was towing the Batey. 

"The distance between him and the Queen had diminished to about 
500 yards, when, for the first time, we could clearly distinguish the long 
black line of the two coal barges which protected his sides from forward 
of his bow to nearly abreast his wheels. 

"The impatient desire of our men to open fire could be scarcely re- 
strained, but I would not allow it, as the vast importance of traversing 
the distance to be passed over without drawing the fire of his powerful 
guns was too apparent. At last, when within about 100 yards, I author- 
ized Capt. McCloskey to open fire, which he accoi'dingly did with his two 
Parrott guns and one Cross twelve-pounder ; but at the second round the 
twenty-pounder Parrott was disabled by blowing out its vent-piece. 

"Our intention was to dash our bow near the enemy's wheel-house, 
just in rear of the coal barge, but when about fifty yards distant he 
backed and interposed the barge between us and him. Our bow went 
crushing clear through the barge heavily loaded with coal, and was not 
arrested until struck with a violent shock, and scattered some of his 
timbers amidship, deeply indenting the iron plating of his hull. 

" So tremendous had been the momentum of our attack, made under 
full pressure of steam, that for soiue minutes we could not disengage our- 
selves, but remained with our bows against the sides of the Indianola, 
held fast by the pressure of the coal and barge through which we had 



THE CONFEDERATE STATES NAVY. 359 

crushed. In this position, our sharp-shooters kept up fire, sweeping the 
deck of the enemy, who feebly answered. 

"After a brief interval, one end of the coal barge sunk, and the other 
drifted down the current; and the Queen, finding herself free, immediately 
rounded up stream to add to her next charge the additional power obtain- 
able from the descending current of the river. Just then the Wehh came 
dashing by us, and plunged into the Indianola with great force, just in 
rear or on the turn of her bow. 

"Some of the iron plating was loosened, but this blow of the Wehb 
produced no serious external injury, though prisoners since report that it 
disabled the left-hand engine. 

"As tYieWehh approached on this her first charge, the two eleven-inch 
Dahlgren guns, in the forward casemate of the enemy, opened on her at 
seventy -five yards distant, but fortunately she was untouched. 

" The vigor of the WehVs onset forced the enemy around, and carry- 
ing her forward laid her across and in actual contact with these monitor 
guns, if run out in battery. Dashing safely around from this perilous 
position, the Wehh swung across the bow and on to the starboard side of 
the enemy, getting between him and his remaining coal barge, breaking 
its fastenings and setting it adrift. 

"The result of our first onset was to str\Tp ilae Indianola oi the two 
coal barges which protected her sides, and to injure her to some extent 
in her wheel, which was apparent from the subsequent want of rapidity 
and precision in her movements. 

"As soon as the Wehh swept away clear of the enemy, the Queen 
swung around, and again dashed upon him, who, this time with partial 
success, endeavored to break the force of the onset by presenting his bow 
to our blow. But his movements were too torpid, and not entirely suc- 
cessful, which tends to confirm the belief that his machinery was injured 
by the first blow. 

" The Queen struck a little forward of midships, but, as she was turning, 
the force of the blow glanced along his side and passed his wheel-house. 

"Just as the Queen swung clear of his stern, heopened upon us with 
two nine inch guns in his after u-on casemate at so near a range that the 
flames of the guns almost touched us — their heat being felt. 

" One shot struck the Queen on her starboard shoulder, and knocked 
away ten or twelve bales of cotton, causing us to list over, and then a 
shell entered under our front port-hole, on the port side, struck the chase 
of a brass twelve-pounder gun and exploded, killing two men, wounding 
four, and disabling two pieces. 

" This time the Queen swung around rapidly up stream, and in a very 
brief interval, dashed on the enemy for the third time, striking a little 
to the rear of his starboard wheel-house, crashing through and shatter- 
ing his framework, and loosening some of his iron plates. By this time 
the Wehh had run up stream, making a wide circuit, had turned and, for 
her second onset, came charging on with a full head of steam just as the 
Queen had rounded out after her third blow, and striking the enemy very 
nearly in the same place where the Queen had just before hit him. 

"Through and through his timbers, crushing and dashing aside his 
iron plates, the sharp bow of the Wehh penetrated as if it were going to 
pass entirely through the ship. As the Wehh backed clear, the Indianola, 
with all the si^eed she could raise, declined further fight, and ran down 
the river towards the western bank, with the intention, as afterwards 
appeared, of getting a line out on shore, in order that the officers and 
crew might land and abandon their steamer. In fact, a line was got out 
on shore, but not fastened, and three of the crew effected their escape, but 
were captured to-day by the cavalry of Major Harrison. 

" After the Queen had struck the enemy for the third time, she was 
for some time almost unmanageable — she had listed so much over on the 
port side that one of her wheels was raised nearly out of the water, and 
presented every appearance of sinking. 



360 THE CONFEDERATE STATES NAVY. 

" Capt. McCloskey righted her a Httle by throwing over cotton from 
his upper deck. 

" He was able to bring her around very slowly, but still this gallant 
commander succeeded wearing her with difficulty, and headed her for her 
fourth charge. 

" Whilst the Webb had her bow knocked off to within fourteen inches 
of the water line, her splended machinery was unhurt, and she quickly 
and gallantly bore up for her third charge, when bearing down and ap- 
proaching the enemy, Capt. Pierce reports that he was hailed from the 
enemy's deck, announcing his surrender, and begging to be towed ashore 
as he was sinking. Capt. Pierce further represents that he then placed a 
Une on board and commenced towing the Jndianola, when the line 
parted. 

"As the Queen of the West was running off from her last charge, 
making a circuit to obtain room and space to add increased momentum 
to her onset, we encountered the steamer Batey, Lieut. Col. Brand com- 
manding, who had cast from the tender Grand Era, and was hovering 
around to enter the fight when an opportunity offered. 

"The Batey is a frail steamboat, with but little power, and incapable 
of being used as a ram. She was crowded with two hundred and fifty 
gallant volunteers from the forces at Port Hudson, who had embarked in 
the Batey with the resolution to fight the enemy by boarding him. We 
called out to them that the opportunity for boarding had arrived, as it 
was apparent the enemy was disabled and much demoralized. 

"Lieut. Col. Brand with his command gallantly bore away, ap- 
proached the enemy after the line from the Webb had parted, and gave, 
as I am informed by him, the command, 'prepare to board,' when he was 
greeted by a voice from the hidianola, announcing her surrender, and 
that she was in a sinking condition. 

" Lieut. Col. Brand then boarded her upper deck, and received the 
sword of the Federal commander, Lieut. Brown. This result must have 
been very gratifying to Col. Brand, as it was obtained without the loss or 
injury of a single man of his command. Upon my reaching the deck of 
the Indianola, Lieut. Col. Brand most handsomely acknowledged that 
the capture was entirely due to the Queen of the West and to the Webb, 
and he has so officially reported. I have no doubt, if it had been neces- 
sary, that Col. Brand and his gallant command would have again demon- 
strated that nothing can resist the desperation of troops who regard not 
their own lives, but victory. 

" Upon taking possession, I immediately appointed Lieut. Thomas H. 
Hardy prize-master. We found our prize a most formidable gunboat, 
mounting two eleven-inch guns aft, all protected by thick iron casemates 
utterly impenetrable to our artillery, even at the very shortest range. 
The motive power consisted of side-wheels and two propellers. She was 
filled with a valuable cargo, embracing supplies, stores, etc. The officers 
and crew, amounting to over one hundred, fell into our hands as prison- 
ers. Nothing shows more clearly how well she was protected than the 
fact that our artillery, though frequently fired at the range of tNventy 
and thirty yards, utterly failed to injure her. Lieut. Handy, of the Webb, 
fired an eighty -pound shell from his rifled and banded thirty-two-pound 
gun so close to the forward casemate of the enemy that it actually envel- 
oped his i^ort-holes in flames, and yet no injury was sustained by the case- 
mate. 

" Our sharp-shooters deliberately and coolly fired at every onset. 

"Notwithstanding all these circumstances, the enemy lost but one 
man killed and none wounded. The Wisftft had one man "wounded, and 
the Queen two killed and four wounded. 

"The fire of the enemy was terrific, and delivered at short range 
mostly. His huge shot and shell were directed a little wide of the mark, 
except the two shot that struck the Queen, and one shot that passed 
through the bulwarks of the Webb. This was remarkable, as he frequently 



THE CONFEDERATE STATES NAVY. 361 

fired at such close range that the flames of his enormous guns almost en- 
veloped our bows. 

" The escape from destruction of the feeble crafts, that were five times 
precipitated upon the iron sides of this powerful war-steamer, mounting 
an armament of 9 and 11-inch guns, was providential. 

"On taking possession, we found our prize rapidly making water 
which we could not arrest. Seeing that she would sink, I did not wish 
that this should take place on the western side of the river, where the 
Federal forces could easily have retaken her, and therefore made fast to 
her with two of my steamers, and towed her over the river to the eastern 
side, where she sunk in the water up to her gun-deck, just as we reached 
the shallow water, thus losing us the enormous value of her capture, as 
well as the valuable stores that were in her hold. 

"I am much indebted for the success of this expedition to the skill 
and gallantry of my officers and men. Capt. James McCloskey, com- 
manding the Queen, combined with the courage of the soldier the skill 
and aptitude that characterizes the sailor of our western waters. Lieut. 
Thomas H. Handy, of the Crescent Artillery, commanded the troops on 
the Webb. He exhibited skill and courage in handling his command, and 
in person assisted in manning the thirty-two-pound rifled gun. Lieut. 
Rice, of the Twenty -first Tennessee, was on the Webb with a detachment 
from his regiment, and bore himself well and gallantly. Lieut. Prather, also 
on the Webb, served his two field-pieces entirely unprotected with praise- 
worthy courage, and was well seconded by Mr. Charles Schuler, acting as 
chief of one of the guns. 

"Capt. Charles Pierce, a civilian, commanded and controlled the 
movements of the Webb. It was he who selected the weak spots of the 
enemy, and with a steady hand and eye dashed the Webb against the 
Pndiatiola. 

" Not only did the officers act well, but I have nothing but commenda- 
tions for theprivate soldiers. 

"Capt. Caines'and Lieut. Rice's company, of the Twenty-first Ten- 
nessee, and the detachment of Lieut. Doolan, adjutant of Major Burnett's 
battalion of Texans, and a detachment from the Third Maryland Artil- 
lery, were in the expedition, and acted with courage and discipline when 
under fire. 

" Capt. J. W. Mangum, Assistant Adjutant Gen. of Brigadier Gen. 
Moore, accompanied the expedition as a volunteer and acted as my adju- 
tant. He comported himself gallantly under fire; and throughout the 
expedition rendered me valuable services. 

" I herewith submit the report of Capt. McCloskey, commanding the 
Queen. He mentions favorably Capt. Caines and Lieut. Miller, of the 
Twenty-first Tennessee; Lieut. Doolan, adjutant of Major Burnett's bat- 
talion ; Sergt. E. H. Langley, of the Third Maryland Artillery, acting 
as lieutenant in charge of the two Parrott guns; and the volunteers, 
Capt. J. H. White, slightly wounded, acting with efficiency as ordnance 
officer; Capt. Tank and Lieuts. Fisk and Stanmeyer, both wounded; and 
Lieut. R. R. Hyams, who, as quartermaster and commissary, exhibited 
much energy. As I was on board the Queen during the action, the conduct 
of the officers and men was under my own eye, and I cheerfully endorse 
the commendation of Capt. McCloskey. He also speaks highly of the in- 
trepid promptness and skill of his pilots and engineers, and of the conduct 
of Assistant Surgeon Blanchard, who manifested much care and coolness, 
coming on the gun-deck in the midst of the action and personally super- 
vising the removal of the wounded. 

"Sergt. Magruder, of the signal corps, also deserves mention for 
having rendered very important services in the discharge of the responsi- 
ble duties devolved upon him. 

" Capt. Pierce, of the Webb, verbally reports to me that his pilots and 
engineers behaved themselves with coolness and bravery, and discharged 
their duties with promptness and energy. 



363 



THE CONFEDERATE STATES NAVY 



" I have no doubt that this is correct, from the skillful manner in 
which his boat was handled. 

"This report is dated from the Webb, as I have dispatched the Queen, 
Capt. McCloskey, to AVarrenton, and, if possible, to Vicksburg. 
" I am, major, yours respectfully, 

•'J. L. Brent, Major Commanding.''^ 

The Indianola lost in the engagement two killed and five 
wounded out of a crew numbering in all about 120 men. The 
Indianola was one of the most formidable iron-clads on the 
Mississippi River. She was 17-4 feet long, fifty feet beam, ten 
feet from the top of her deck to the bottom of her keel. Her 
sides of oak were thirty-two inches thick, covered with three- 
inch iron plates. Her decks were also covered with iron. Her 
casemates stood at an angle of twenty-six and one-half degrees 
and were covered with three-inch iron on heavy oak backing. 
Her coal bunkers were seven feet thick alongside of her boilers. 




U. S. IKON-CLAD "INDIANOLA," CAPTURED BY THE CONFEDERATES, MAY 24TH, 1863. 

The entire machinery being in the hold. She had seven en- 
gines, two for working the side-wheels, one on each quarter 
stern, two for her two propellers, between the wheels, two for 
her capstans, and one for supplying water and working the 
bilge and five pumps. She had also hose for throwing scald- 
ing water from the boilers that would reach from stem to 
stern. She had also five large fire-flued boilers. The pilot- 
house was also thoroughly iron-clad, and instant communica- 
tion could be had with the gunners and engineers, enabling 
the pilot to place the vessel in just such position as might be 
required for effective action. Her forward casemates had two 
eleven-inch Dahlgren guns, and her after casemate two nine- 
inch guns. Her forward casemate was pierced for two guns 
in front, one on each side, and two aft, so that she could fire 
two guns forward, one on each side, and four angling side- 
ways and astern. She was one of a number of gunboats built 
by Joseph Brown, on the Ohio River, in 1863, and cost about 
$100,000. 

When captured, the Indianola was in a sinking condition. 
She was run on a sand-bar on the Mississippi side of the river, 
and the Queen of the West was dispatched to Vicksburg to 



THE CONFEDERATE STATES NAVY. 363 

bring down mechanics to repair and raise her. Before the / 
/ Confederates succeeded in raising her, she was blown up to / 

/[prevent her recapture by the Federals. • / 

In April, Capt. Fuller, in command of the Queen of the 
West, determined to make an attack on the Federal gunboats 
then lying in the Teche. A company of infantry had been 
placed on board, and a regiment on the steamer Minna Simma, 
which accompanied her. The Federal fleet, composed of the 
gunboats Estrella, Calhoun and Arizona, under the command 
of Commodore Cook, encountered the Queen of the West at 
Grand Lake. At a quarter past five a, m., on April 14th, 18G3, 
the fight commenced, the Estrella firing the first gun, the 
Arizona and Calhoun following. The Queen did not reply 
until she was within three-quarters of a mile, when she fired 
rapidly from one to another of the gunboats. The intention 
of the Union vessels was to surround the Queen of the West, 
open a tremendous cross fire upon her, and, if necessary, run 
her down. When within a half a mile of the Ar^izona, the 
Queen turned slowly to the left and steamed for her, with the 
evident intention of running her iron prow into her. At the 
same time the Calhoun started for the Queeyi of the West, for 
the same purpose, when the latter, as if uncertain what to do, 
stopped her engines and appeared to stand at bay, while the 
Federal shell and shot were flying around her from every 
quarter. Suddenly at this time a cloud of white smoke was 
seen to rise, as if from the deck of the ram. followed a mo- 
ment after by a dense, black smoke and then a sheet of flame. 
It appears that one of the shells struck and burst in a box 
of ammunition, instantly setting her upper decks and rigging 
in a blaze. 

As soon as the Federal fleet saw their powerful enemy on 
fire, her guns silent, and her crew running here and there in 
wild confusion — some throwing overboard cotton bales with 
which she was barricaded, while others jumped into the river 
— all feelings of enmity vanished. Commodore Cook immedi- 
ately blew the signal-whistle to cease firing, and assist in res- 
cuing the crew ; and as the Estrella, Calhomi and Arizona 
steamed up to the doomed vessel to save and succor those on 
board of the Queen of the West, boats were lowered, drowning 
men rescued, and all on board of the burning ram were trans- 
ferred to the decks of the gunboats. In the confusion, the 
Minna Simma steamed off as rapidly as possible. Ninety- 
five persons were taken out of the water and from on board 
the Queen of the West ; but notwithstanding these humane 
exertions to rescue those on board, it is believed forty of 
them were drowned. As soon as the crew and officers and 
soldiers were rescued the ram was abandoned. She drifted 
about for some time, the flames each moment raging more 
fiercely until they reached her magazine, when she exploded 
with a noise which was heard for miles around. 



364 THE CONFEDERATE STATES NAVY. 

The ram Webb, which aided very materially in capturing 
the Indinnola, was originally called the William H. Webb. 
Before the war she was used in New York as a tow boat, and 
as an ice breaker in winter, for which purpose she was spe- 
cially constructed, being of great strength and fitted with 
powerful engines. She was purchased by some of the New 
Orleans merchants for the purpose of towing the heavily 
laden ships to and from the city. She was a low-pressure 
side-wheel steamer, about two hundred feet long, and noted 
for her power and speed. When the war broke out she was 
still in New Orleans, and was seized by the Confederate au- 
thorities and converted into a ram and gunboat, by placing 
heavy solid timbers in her bow, running about thirty feet aft 
and bolting them firmly and strongly together. 

In the latter part of May, 1861, the Webb seized three ves- 
sels laden with oil and made prizes of them, but after the 
establishment of the Federal blockade her privateering oper- 
ations ceased. Upon the evacuation of New Orleans by the 
Confederates, the Webb was sent up the Red River to Shreve- 
port. La. Very little was heard of her again until she at- 
tacked, with her consort, the ram Queen of the West, the iron- 
clad Indianola, in the Mississippi, and, after a desperate strug- 
gle, in which she rammed her several times, compelled her to 
surrender. On the passage of the Vicksburg batteries by the 
Federal fleet, the Webb retreated to the Red River, which she 
ascended far above Alexandria, where she remained until 
after the failure of the Banks' expedition up that river, when 
it is said Lieut. Commander Charles W. Read, of the C. S. 
navy, conceived the idea of converting her into a Confederate 
cruiser, to prey upon the commerce of the United States, and 
submitted the project to Secretary Mallory. The Webb, at 
this time, was lying at Shreveport, La. , and the mouth of Red 
River below was strongly blockaded by a Federal fleet. Be- 
sides this blockade, the Mississippi was being constantly 
patroled by Federal gunboats and other armed craft. New 
Orleans was literally full of Federal troops, while Federal 
war vessels lined her levee and occupied and guarded the 
channel both above and below the city, and further down, 
Forts Jackson and Philip presented formidable obstacles to 
the success of such an enterprise as the brave and intrepid 
Read proposed to undertake. It is said that it was the design 
of Read, if he should reach the mouth of the Mississippi in 
safety, to surprise and capture the ship Pampero, guardship 
at the mouth of the river, and tlien go to Havana, sell the 
cargo, and sink and destroy whatever he could capture en route 
and then run the blockade into Galveston. 

The plan was approved, it is said, by Secretary Mallory, 
and Commander Read made immediate preparations to carry 
his enterprise into effect. With Lieut. W. H. Wall as his ex- 
ecutive officer. Master Samuel P. Blanc, Midshipman Scott, 



THE CONFEDERATE STATES NAVY. 365 

Surgeon W. J. Addison and other navy officers, Commander 
Read left Richmond for the scene of his daring undertaking 
with sealed orders. Arriving at Shreveport, Commander Read 
reported to Lieut, Commander Robert R. Carter, commander 
of the naval defences at that point, and in compliance with 
orders from the Secretary of the Navy was placed in command 
of the Webb. Every assistance was rendered Commander 
Read to get his vessel ready for her hazardous expedition. A 
rough bulwark was built around her forecastle to protect her 
as much as possible from the sea, and several hundred bales of 
cotton were piled up around her machinery, to protect it from 
the guns of the enemy while running the blockade. For fuel, 
pine knots were substituted for coal. A month's rations and 
water were placed on board, and the vessel received a good 
white-washing to prevent her from being seen at night. Her 
armament consisted of one thirty-two pound rifled gun, 
mounted on the forecastle, and two twelve pound iron cannon 
on the quarter-deck. Engineers and pilots were secured, and 
the craft was manned by volunteers from Gen. E. Kirby Smith's 
command. 

Information of the intended expedition of the Webb 
reached Admiral Lee of the Federal navy, and he dispatched a 
fleet of iron-clads and gunboats to the mouth of the Red River 
to prevent her escape. Among them were the monitor Man- 
hattan and the iron-clads Lafayette and Choctaw. 

Everything being prepared, the Webb left Shreveport, 
La., on the Red River, twenty-five miles below Alexandria, 
on Monday, April 16th, 1865. She stopped at Cotes' Landing, 
and took on board 250 cords of wood. Arriving at the mouth 
of Red River on the night of April 23d, 1865, with all lights 
screened, and her safety-valve tied down, she was allowed 
to drift with the current by the Federal gunboats. Scarcely 
had she run the gauntlet when a musket was fired at her 
from the Manhattan, quickly followed by a discharge of 
canister from a howitzer on her deck. The moment the Webb 
was discovered, the engines were started at full speed, and she 
rushed down the river at the rate of twenty miles an hour, 
leaving far astern the Lafayette and a gunboat which had 
started in pursuit. Her speed was slackened when the gun- 
boats were out of sight, and she steamed along easily, so as to 
pass the forts below New Orleans in the night. Ten miles 
above the city. Commander Read sent a boat ashore and cut 
tlie telegraph wires to the city, but unfortunately for him not 
before a dispatch had been sent from Donaldsonville to New 
Orleans that she had passed the Federal fleet, giving the Fed- 
eral authorities in the latter city three hours' notice in advance 
of her approach. On nearing New Orleans the Union ensign 
was hoisted at half-mast — on account of President Lincoln's 
death — and her crew, dressed in Federal army overcoats, 
sat around on the cotton, on deck, and on the guards, coolly 



366 THE CONFEDERATE STATES NAVY. 

smoking and picking their teeth, as if they were only inno- 
cent soldiers. The fleet lying at New Orleans were prepared 
for the approach of a ram, but looking for something of the 
Merrimac style of iron-clads, and not for the innocent-appear- 
ing army transport, laden with cotton, and thronged with sol- 
diers, that steamed leisurely down the river. The ram had 
nearly passed the Federal fleet when the pilot of the Lacka- 
wanna, an old steamboat man, at once recognized her as the 
Webb, and so informed Capt. Emmons. Several shots were 
fired at her by the Lackawanna and Ossipee, which laid above 
Algiers, and could use their guns without endangering the 
town. In an instant, the American flag was hauled down and 
the Confederate colors run up. The Webb was hit several 
times, but she dashed forward at the rate of twenty -five miles 
an hour and ran by the Portsmouth, Quaker City, Florida, 
Ossipee, and other vessels, whose batteries were manned, but 
which could not be fired in consequence of the danger of kill- 
ing innocent people who thronged the streets and levee of Al- 
giers, watching for the ram. The excitement in New Orleans 
was intense. The news soon spread, and in a few moments it 
was reported that President Davis and Gen. E. Kirby Smith 
were passengers, and that John Wilkes Booth was at the 
lielm; that gold and silver in untold quantities were on board, 
together with all the valuable and official documents of the 
Confederacy. The Webb passed the city on the afternoon 
of April 24th, under a full head of steam, with astonished 
crowds on the levee to witness the extraordinary sight. 
Her pilot was ordered to " keep the channel and run through 
anything that attempts to cross your track." Her torpedo 
was triced up in front and every man was at his station. 
Plugs were provided for plugging shot-holes that might be 
made near the water-line, and, altogether, a ship never rode 
the waters more gracefully and defiantly than this little vessel 
as she dashed along through the muddy Mississippi, scattering 
the white spray far out in her front and on her sides. As she 
passed the French man-of-war she dipped her flag. When the 
Webb approached the Federal ordnance ship Fearnought, 
Commander Read ordered the torpedo lowered and the vessel 
run into. In the eagerness and haste of lowering the tor- 
pedo the spar gave way, and the current carried it under the 
starboard wheel. Seeing the danger, Commander Read very 
coolly cried out, '"Stop the engine and cut away the guy- 
ropes." Prompt obedience of this order sent the torpedo to the 
bottom of the river, and saved the Webb perhaps from being 
blown up by its own torpedo. Commander Read after- 
wards expressed great satisfaction that he was unable to 
blow up the Fearnought, as the vessel had over three 
hundred barrels of powder on board, which would have 
blown herself, as well as the Webb, out of the water. 
The Hollyhock, the Florida, the Quaker City, and the Ossipee 



THE CONFEDERATE STATES NAVY. 367 

were dispatched by the Federal commander in pursuit of the 
Webb, the Hollyhock far ahead. When the Webb liad pro- 
ceeded about twenty-three miles away from the city, and had 
slowed her engines to allow the Hollyhock to come up, the 
masts of the sloop-of-war Richmond were seen over a point 
of the river bank. Thinking tliat she had been placed there 
to trap him, Commander Read ordered the pilot to put the 
Webb at her, to blow her up with a torpedo, and then to 
hurry on. On the pilot informing him that a flat laid be- 
tween them, and that the Webb must go around the curve 
in the channel and pass under the Richmond's broadside, he 
said he had tested her guns befe*e, and would not try them 
again. He then ordered the Webb to be run ashore, and 
every man to look out for himself. This was at once done 
on the left bank of the river. The vessel was fired and 
Commander Read, and his officers and men, took to the 
swamp. When the Florida and Hollyhock arrived later, the 
Webb was in a mass of flames, and too far burned to save. 
Finding that they were surrounded by cavalry sent down 
from the city to effect their capture, the officers and crew 
returned to the wreck, where a gunboat was lying alongside, 
commanded by a naval officer, and desiring to fall into the 
hands of the U. S. navy rather than the army, the officer was 
called on shore, and received the officers and crew of the 
Webb, as prisoners of war. They were at once conveyed to 
New Orleans and placed on board the Lackaivanna, and finally 
transferred to the Florida, which conveyed them to New York. 
They arrived in the latter city on May 6th, and on May 10th 
were consigned to Fort Warren, in Boston harbor. They re- 
mained in Fort Warren until the surrender of Gen. E. Kirby 
Smith, when they were allowed to return to their homes. 



CHAPTER XV. 
NORTH CAROLINA WATERS. 



THE most cursory examination of the map of the South- 
ern States will show to the reader that the sounds of 
North Carolina were no less important to the defence 
of that State than Hampton Roads was to that of Vir- 
ginia, and that if the blockade of the Southern coast was to 
be effective indeed, then these sounds, as coaling stations 
and harbor of refuge, were of prime importance to the United 
States. The long, low sandy islets that separated the waters 
of the ocean from those of the sounds, were indented with 
inlets, which often changing positions, and always treacher- 
ous, were yet, at one or two points always navigable for 
vessels that could ride with safety in the shoal waters of 
the sounds. 

From Cape Charles to Cape Lookout that island chain ex- 
tended but inclosed no inland water of importance until Albe- 
marle Sound was reached; there Roanoke Island separated 
that sound from the larger and deeper water of Pamlico 
Sound, upon the eastern border of which Cape Hatteras jutted 
farthest out into the ocean, and Hatteras Inlet and Ocracoke 
Inlet offered the only safe and reliable entrances from the 
ocean. Oregon Inlet, near Roanoke Island, had been at all 
times unsafe for any but the smallest of crafts. The com- 
mand of the broad waters of these sounds, with their navi- 
gable rivers extending far into the interior, would control 
more than one-third of the State and threaten the main line 
of railroad between Richmond and the sea-coast portion of the 
Confederate States. Roanoke Island, between Albemarle and 
Pamlico Sounds, was the commanding position in those waters. 
These sounds were connected with the waters of Hampton 
Roads by the Albemarle and Chesapeake Canal, capable of 
passing vessels of light draft from Norfolk to Elizabeth City. 
From Albemarle Sound, the Pasquotank River afforded navi- 
gation to Elizabeth city; the Perquimans River to Hertford; the 
Chowan River to Winton; the Roanoke River to Plymouth. 

(;;68) 



THE CONFEDERATE STATES NAVY. 369 

Ii'rom Albemarle Sound, the Pamlico River extended to 
Washington, from whence the Tar River was navigable to 
Tarboro; the Neuse River opened wide and deep communi- 
cation with Newberne, and further up to Kingston and 
Beaufort, and Morehead City, below Cape Lookout, were 
accessible also from Pamlico Sound. A large portion of the 
population of this large and fertile area was, if not actu- 
ally hostile to the Confederate cause, so indifferent to its suc- 
cess, as to avail themselves of the first and every opportunity 
to evade the duty of defence and to secure the protection of 
the enemy for their persons and property. 

The State of North Carolina, immediately after passing 
the Ordinance of Secession, began the work of defending the 
possession of these sounds. The steamer Winslow, a small 
side-wheel steamboat, was fitted out by the Governor of the 
State, and on the outside of Hatteras" began to annoy and 
destroy the commerce of the United States. Under Thomas 
M. Crossan, formerly of the U. S. navy, the Winsloiv cap- 
tured and brought into the sounds, for condemnation, many 
prizes, among them the brig Hannah Butley, with molasses; 
the bark Lemvood, with G,000 bags of coffee; the schooner 
Lydia French, the brig Gilvery, with 315 tierces of molasses; 
three unknown brigs, the schooner Gordon, with fruit ; 
the schooner FrisciUa, with 600 bushels of salt; a brig and 
three schooners ; the brig Itasca, with 500 hogsheads of 
molasses; the schooner He)wy Nut, with mahogany and log- 
wood, and the schooner Sea Witch, with fruit. The outcry 
that went up from commercial circles at the North may_ have 
had no little to do in influencing the naval authorities to 
block the outlet from which the little Winslow inflicted such 
damages. 

After the State united herself to the Confederate States, 
her navy, consisting of the Winslow, the Ellis, the Raleigh, 
and the Beaufort, all ordinary steamboats, armed with one 
gun each, were turned over to the Confederate States. 

The defence of the entrances to these sounds was under- 
taken by the erection of batteries at Hatteras and Ocracoke 
Inlet and at Beaufort; on the interior waters, Newborn e, 
Roanoke Island, and the mouth of the Neuse River, were de- 
fended under the State by small batteries, which were not 
completed when the State adopted the Constitution of the Con- 
federate States. 

Major R. C. Gatlin' was appointed Commander of the 
"Southern Department Coast Defences," with headquarters 
at Wilmington, N. C. ; promoted to Brigadier General in August, 
1861, he was assigned to the command of the Department of 
North Carolina and the coast defences of the State. 

1 Gen. Gatlin was a major in the U. S. army, released on parole, and resigning his commis- 

Fifth infantry, when the State seceded. He sion accepted service under North Carolina, 

Lad been captured at Fort Smith by the forces and was transferred by her Ordinance to the 

of the State of Arkansas, April 23d, 1861, and Confederate States Army. 
24 



370 THE CONFEDERATE STATES NAVY. 

The importance of seizing and retaining possession of 
the North Carolina Sounds was as apparent and urgent upon 
the United States as their defence was to the Confederate 
States. These safe and commodious anchorages not only 
afforded protection against the storms which so often pre- 
vail along the Atlantic coast, but they were depots from 
which the very central line of inland communication of the 
Confederates might be broken, and, moreover, they were the 
"back door" to Norfolk, by which the navy-yard might be 
regained. 

To the Navy Department of the United States is due the 
credit for seeing the importance of these sounds, and taking 
early steps to regain their possession and control. The prep- 
aration and concentration of a naval expedition was com- 
menced in the summer of 18G1, and so far completed by the 
25th of August that the infantry detail, numbering 860 men 
under Gen. B, F. Butler, was taken aboard, and on the 26th 
of August the expedition sailed. The expedition consisted of 
the steam frigate Minnesota, Capt. G. I. Van Brunt, the flag- 
ship of Commodore Stringham ; the steam frigate Wabash^ 
Capt. Samuel Mercer ; the Monticello, Commander John P. 
Gillis ; the Patvnee, Commander S. C. Rowan ; and the reve- 
nue-cutter HaiTiet Lane, Capt. John Fanner. The steamer 
Adelaide, Commander Henry S. Stellwagen, with 500 infantry 
from the Twentieth New York regiment, Col. Weber ; and 
the Peabody, Lieut. R. R, Lowry, with 230 infantry of the 
Ninth New York regiment; 100 men of the Union coast- 
guard, Capt. Nixon ; and sixty men of the Second U. S. 
artillery, Lieut. Learned. As the means of landing through 
the surf, the transports towed two schooners with very 
large iron surf-boats. On the same afternoon the expedi- 
tion anchored off Hatteras Inlet, and preparations were im- 
mediately made for landing the troops, as well as to attack 
the batteries from the war vessels. The frigate Susquehaniia 
joined the expedition off Hatteras and took part in the bom- 
bardment. 

The entrance to Hatteras Inlet is endangered by a bar 
which covers the whole front of the inlet, and is further im- 
peded by a "bulkhead" on the sound side only, while the 
water is very seldom of greater depth than seven and a half 
feet. Of the forts defending the inlet, Fort Hatteras, the 
larger, mounting twenty-five guns, was separated from Fort 
Clark by a shallow bay about half a mile wide. The surf, 
though heavy and dangerous along the beach, was not 
such as to prevent the landing of troops, and a detachment 
was put on shore during the bombardment, at a point far 
beyond the reach of the guns of the fort and without re- 
sistance from the Confederates, whose garrison w^as unequal 
to defence, and only large enough to give importance to its 
capture. 



THE CONFEDERATE STATES NAVY. 



371 



Flag-officer Capt. Samuel Barron/ C. S. N., to whom had 
been assigned the duty of commanding the defences, did not 
arrive at Hatteras until the 28th of August, one day after the 
bombardment had been going on. Col. Martin's little force, 
the Seventh North Carolina Volunteers, exhausted and worn 
down with constant fighting, had been driven from Fort Clark 
to Fort Hatteras, when Major Andrews, commanding all the 
forces on land, awaited another regiment from Newberne. 
The land forces of the enemy took possession of Fort Clark 
and defended it with naval howitzers brought with them. At 
the urgent request of Major Andrews, Flag-officer Barron 
assumed command. He found Col. Martin utterly prostrated 
by the severe action and the duties of the day. 

There were but two guns mounted on the side next to Fort 
Clark, both thirty-two pounders, and one gun on the corner 
next the bar, an eight-inch shell gun. During the night Major 
Andrews tore away a traverse on the back face of the work 
and brought another gun to bear in the same direction. The 
companies of the command, under Capts. Cobden, Lamb and 
Sutton, having been in action all the previous day, displaying 
great courage and devotion, were perfectly exhausted. He 



1 Admiral Samuel Barron was bom in Virginia, 
and entered the U. S. navy as midshipman, on 
January 1, 1812. He was attached to the Brandy- 
wine when she conveyed Gen. Lafayette to 
France, in 1825; was promoted to be lieuten- 
ant March 3, 1827. commander July 15, 1847, 
and captain in 1855. At the beginning of the 
war he was ajipointed chief of the Bureau of De- 
tail in the U. S Navy Department. He entered 
the C. S. navy on the 10th of June 1861, with 
the rank of commander, and put in charge of 
the naval defences of North Carolina and Vir- 
ginia, with the rank of flag-officer. He did not 
arrive at Fort Hatteras until after the fall and 
evacuation of Fort Clark. He was requested by 
Col. Martin, in command of the North Caro- 
lina troops, to take command of the land officers, 
and conduct the defence of Fort Hatteras, as it 
was armed with navy guns and the officers and 
men were not accustomed to the management 
of them. Commodore Barron then assumed 
the genei-al direction of the defences. He was en- 
gaged all night in preparing to defend Fort Hat- 
teras, by transferring the officers and men from 
the other forts to do it. During the fight the 
nextday (the 29th of August) Commodore Barron 
did not have a single gun that could reach the 
enemy's ships, while their batteries were throw- 
ing shells into the fort every few seconds. 

The following were the articles of cajjitulation 
agreed upon at the surrender of the forts, at the 
inlet of Hatteras, N. C.,— the first agreed upon 
after the war began : 

"Off Hatteras Inlet, 1 
" U. S. Flag-ship ' Minnesota,' Aug. 29, 1861. | 
"Articles of capitulation between Flag-officers 
Stringham, commanding the • Atlantic Blockad- 
ing Squadron,' and Benjamin F. Butler, U. S. 
army, commanding on behalf of the United States 
Government, and Samuel Barron, commanding 
the naval force for the defence of North Carolina 
and Virginia, and Col. Martin, commanding the 
forces, and Major Andrews, commanding the 
same forces, at Fort Hatteras. 



" It is stipulated and agreed between the con- 
tracting parties that the forces under the com- 
mand of the said Barron, Martin and Andrews, 
and all munitions of war, arms, men, and prop- 
erty under the command of said Barron, Martin, 
and Andrews, be unconditonally surrendered to 
the Government of the United States in terms 
of full capitulation. 

"And it is stipulated and agreed by the 
contracting parties on the part of the United 
States Government that the officers and men 
shall receive the treatment due to prisoners 
of war. 

" In witness whereof, we, the said Stringham 
and Butler, on behalf of the United States, and 
the said Barron, Martin and Andrews repre- 
senting the forces at Hatteras Inlet, hereunto 
interchangeably set our hands this twenty- 
ninth day of August, A. D. 1861, and of the in- 
dependence of the United States the eighty-fifth 

y^^^'- " S H. Stringham, 

" Flag-officer Atlantic Blockading Squadron. 

"Benj. F. Butler, 
" Major-General U. S. Army, commanding. 
"S. Barkon. 
'•Flag-officer Confederate States Navy, command- 
ing Naval Defences South and North Caro- 
lina. 

"Wm. F. Martin, 
" Colonel 1th Regiment Infantry North Carolina, 
Volunteers. 

"W. S. G. Andrews, 
" Major, commanding Forts Hatteras and Clark." 
After the surrender Commodore Barron was 
sent to Fort Warren, Boston Harbor, until ex- 
changed in 1862. During the remainder of the 
war he was in England and France engaged in 
carrying out the plans of his government, in 
getting war vessels afloat. He secured for the 
Confederacy the cruisers Stonewall and Georgia. 
After the close of the war he returned to Vir- 
ginia and now (1887) resides, a great iuvaUd, at 
Loretto, Essex County .Virginia. 



373 



THE CONFEDERATE STATES NAVY. 



placed the batteries in charge of fresh troops, as follows : 
Nos. 2 and 3 of the channel battery under the command of 
Capt. Thomas Sparrow, assisted by his Lieuts., Shaw and 
Thomas; Nos. 4 and 5 of the same battery were under com- 
mand of Lieut. Col. George W. Johnston, assisted by First 
Lieut. Mose and Second Lieut. George W. Daniels; No. 6, fac- 
ing the bar. and No. 7, facing Fort Clark, were placed in 
charge of Major Henry A. Gillion, assisted by Lieuts. John- 
ston and Grimes; No. 8, a gun mounted on naval carriage, 
was commanded by Lieut. AVilliam H. Murdaugh, of the 
C. S. N., assisted by Lieut. Wm. Sharp' and Midshipman J. M. 
Stafford. Capt. Thomas H. Sharp had command of No. 1, 
but owing to the wrenches not fitting the eccentric axles, was 
unable to bring it into action. He staid by his gun during 
most of the engagement, but could not fire. Thus, the Con- 
federates had but three guns they could bring to bear (if the 
enemy took up his position of the previous day), viz. : Nos. 6, 
7 and 8. 

At 7:40 A. M. of the 20th the enemy opened fire from the 
steam-frigate Minnesota (forty-three guns), Wabash (forty- 
three guns), Susciuehanna (fifteen guns), frigate CumbeHand 



1 William Shai-p entered the navy of the United 
States Seijtember 9th, 18il, and lesigned as a 
lieutenant at the Norfolk navy-yard, where he 
was stationed, on the day Virginia seceded. He 
entered the service of the Confederate States 
navy on June 10th, 1861, and was first placed 
on duty in the Navy Department at Kich- 
moud, by and with Commodore Samuel Barron. 
Later ho was stationed at a fort on the Naval 
Hospital Grounds, Norfolk, commanded by Capt. 
Chas. F. Mclnfosh. where he was for some weeks 
engaged in drilling several regiments in heavy 
artillery. Later, Commodore Barron was ordered 
to NorthOarolina in charge of the Water Defences 
of that State, and he was sent as his aide with 
headquarters at Ne wberne. On the morning after 
the arrival of the U. S. squadron under Com- 
mander S. H. Stingham with Gen. B. F. Butler on 
board, otfHatteras Inlet, he attended Commodore 
Barron to the vicinity of that locality, witnessed 
the first day's fight, and at 9 p.m. of the same day, 
at the request of Col. W. F. Martin, commanding 
Fort Hatteras, Commodore Barron relieved him, 
and the navy officers entered it at once. 

Early next day the Federal fleet returned from 
their anchorage, and commenced the attack on 
Fort Hatteras, as Fort Clark (to the northward) 
had surrendered on the previous day, and rained 
Minie balls over their heads throughout the 
morning. The guns of Fort Hatteras were harm- 
less to the fleet, while nearly every shot from 
them told against the Confederates. During the 
action Lieut. Sharj) was wounded in the face and 
fell, remaining insensible for some time. He 
was taken up, supposedly dead, by Col. Charles 
Heywood, U. S. Marine Corps, who entered the 
fort witli Gen. B. F. Butler when he landed, and 
received the surrender. Lieut. Sharp was sent 
off to the flag-ship Minnesota, which went to 
New York immediately, and was landed as a 
prisoner at Fort Columbus, Governor's Island, 
commanded by Col. Loomis, U. S A. After a 
stay of some months, he was sent to Fort Warren, 
Boston Harbor, in November, 1861, commanded 
by Gen. Justin Dimmick, U. S. A. 



After some weeks, in charge of Lieut. W. F. 
Spicer, U. S. N., and a marine guard, he was 
taken to Boston, jilaced on the Old Colony R. E. 
and taken to the U. S. receiving ship Nm-lh 
Carolina, Brooklyn navy -yard. On the same day 
he was sent to the gunboat Connecticut, Cai)t. 
Maxwell Woodhull, which steamed for Hamp- 
ton Roads, he being sent as a prisoner to the 
U. S. frigate Congress, Capt. Wm. Smith. On 
November 2 >, 1861, he was exchanged for Lieut. 
John L. Worden, U. S. N., and was landed in 
Norfolk. In a few days afterwards, he was 
ordered to the C. S. steamer Patrick Henry at 
Richmond, and had charge of her forward di- 
vision in the Hampton Roads battles of Jlarch 
8th and 9th, 1862. Some weeks later he was as- 
signed to the command of the Confederate gun- 
boat Beaufort, relieving Lieut. W. H. Parker, 
and was one of four sent to Hampton Roads 
with the intention to attempt boarding the 
3Ionitor. The Monitor did not come out and 
nothing was accomplished. Soon after that he 
towed the schooner Kaigan's Point at night past 
the blockading squadron off Newport News, 
and to Drewry's Bluff, loaded with iron for the 
Tredegar Iron Works at Richmond. 

After a while he was stationed at Charlotte, 
N. C, thence accompanying Commodore Bar- 
ron to Murfreesboro, Tenn., where their expect- 
ations of getting to Nashville to block up the 
Cumberland were frustrated by tlie Federal army 
being in possession. Returning to Richmond 
he was one of a board of examiners to examine 
Midshipmen, which sat in Mobile, Savannah, 
Cliarleston and Richmond 

Then he was sent to re command the gunboat 
Beaufort, remaining till the winter of 1863, 
when he was sent to Winston, N. C, to relieve 
Commander James W. Cook in supervising the 
construction of the iron-clad steamer Neuse. Ho 
remained on this duty till the spring of 1864, 
when he was sent to Charleston, S. C, in charge 
of the Naval Ordnance Department, and con- 
tiuiied there until Sherman's advance through 
Georgia. This was his last service. 



THE CONFEDERATE STATES NAVY. 373 

(twenty-four guns), steamer Pawnee (ten guns), and Harriet 
Lane (five guns), and a rifled battery of three guns erected in 
the sand-hills three miles east of Fort Clark. 

Bringing seventy-three guns of the most approved kind 
and heaviest metal to bear on the forts, the shells thrown being 
nine-inch, ten-inch, and eleven-inch Dahlgren. Paixhan, and 
Columbiad ; while, from the position taken, the guns of the 
forts were unable to reach them with the greatest elevation. 
The men of the channel battery were ordered to leave their 
guns and protect themselves as well as possible, the council 
of the commanding officers having decided that it was to be 
an action of endurance until reinforcements came up. After 
a few shots had been fired, and it was ascertained that the 
guns could not reach them, the Confederate firing ceased, 
and only answered the fire of the enemy occasionally, to show 
that the forts had not surrendered. The shower of shell in 
half an hour became literally tremendous, falling into and 
immediately around the works not less, on an average, than 
ten each minute, and, the sea being smooth, the firing was re- 
markably accurate. 

One officer counted twenty-eight shells, and several others 
counted twenty, as falling in a minute. At a quarter to 
eleven o'clock a council of the officers was held, and it was 
determined to surrender. A white flag was raised, and the 
firing ceased at eleven o'clock. Thus for three hours and 
twenty minutes Fort Hatteras resisted a storm of shells per- 
haps more terrible than ever fell upon any other work. At 
the time the council determined to surrender, two of the fort's 
guns were dismounted, four men were reported killed, and 
between twenty -five and thirty badly wounded. ' One shell 

1 Among the severely -woundecl was Lieut. of the enemy until resistance ceased ou the part 
William H. MTirdau^h, who had his left arm of the Confed(3rates. From Charlotte, Lieut, 
shattered bv a shell and was slightly wounded Murdaugh was ordered to the command of the 
in the knee" by a fragment of a she'll. Lieut. steamer Bemtforl. on James River, and after- 
Mui'daugh, after the acceptance of his resigna- wards was sent abroad to purchase ordnance 
tion in the old navy, reached Richmond in supplies. Commander Bullocb, in his admira- 
Jime, 1861. The duty to which he was first ble work on "The Secret Service of the Confed- 
assigned was that of making surveys in James erate States in Europe," says: " Among the offl- 
River, in connection with the establishment of cers sent to Europe for service in the iron-clad 
batteries and the obstruction of channels. vessels it was hoped might be got to sea was 
Lieut. Commander Robert R. Carter, of Virginia, Lieut. WiUiam H. Murdaugh. Besides having 
was associated with him in this work. After the special experience and general professional 
this duty was faithfully discharged, Lieut. knowledge which fitted him for ordnance work, 
Murdaugh went mth Commander Barron to he possessed admirable tact and judgment, and 
the defences of North Carolina, where he was also the reticence and faculty of self-control 
assigned to the command of a vessel, but be- which are essential for the satisfactory perform- 
fore he could take charge, the affair at Fort ance of duties requiring secrecy. The special 
Hatteras came off in which he was severely ordnance stores were nearly all overlooked and 
wounded. While unfit for active service from certified by him. The whole of the work was 
his wound, he was on ordnance duty at the performed creditably, and the goods passed out 
Norfolk navy-yard. He was with Capt. French of the manufacturer's hands, and went through 
Forrest in tiie tug Harmomi in Hampton Roads the shipping-ports, without attracting notice or 
during the two days' fight " When it was deter- causing any embarrassing scrutiny. The execu- 
mined to evacuate Norfolk, he was sent off to tion of the foregoing special orders brought 
select a place for an ordnance depot to which Lieut. Murdaugh into constant and confidential 
the stores and tools from the Ordnance Depart- communication with me, aud I was most desir- 
ment of the navy-vard could be removed. He ous to appoint him to another and still more 
selected Charlotte, N. C , as the place and rented important service, but the war came to an ab- 
machine shops and store houses for the purpose. rupt end just before the maturity of the enter- 
Charlotte was an important workshop all dur- prise in which he was to have had a leading 
ing the war, and was never pressed by the foot part. " 



374 THE CONFEDERATE STATES NAVY. 

had fallen into the room adjoining the magazine, and the 
magazine was reported on fire. 

Articles of capitulation of unconditional surrender were 
demanded and the whole command became prisoners of war. ' 

An officer of the C. S. steamer Ellis, who witnessed the 
bombardment and surrender of Fort Hattera.s, in a letter to the 
Washington (N. C.) Dispatch, gave the following account of 
the affair: 

" Proceeding up the Sound, Ave came up with the little despatch boat 
M. C. Downing, just from Hatteras, bringing up the intelligence that the 
patriotic little band of 100 men who were at Fort Clark, a little above 
Fort Hatteras, after making a desperate resistance, firing their last shot, 
had evacuated the fort, having previously rendered the guns useless by 
spiking and dismounting them, and that the vandal horde of the North, 
led on by a traitorous Methodist minister, had landed and taken posses- 
sion of the fort, and now the ' Stars and Stripes ' were floating over the 
time-honored soil of the Old North State; that Fort Hatteras was still 
gallantly fighting, but was in need of men and munitions of war. The 
men we could easily supply, but the ammunition we had not. The little 
steamer then passed ahead after ammunition, and we with beating and 
anxious hearts eagerly waited the time when we should cheer our noble 
companions by our presence. Just at this time we saw the steamer Wins- 
low approaching with a plenty of amnuuiition, and the following officers 
on board: Capt. Samuel Barron, Lieuts. Sharp and Murdaugh, and Sur- 
geon Greenhow. She came to anchor about two and a-half or three miles 
from tiie fort. This was indeed cheering, and our expectations knew no 
bounds. All this time a seVere and constant cannonade was being kept 
up, the fleet firing continual broadsides of shell, while we replied at inter- 
vals with shot, our shell having been expended. The shot and shell drop- 
ped thick and fast upon the fort and island, but so far no one was hurt, 
except two men killed and Lieut. Knight wounded, while i-etreating from 
Fort Clark. In the face of the dreadful storm of iron, our captain, with 
that firmness and tranquility which ever characterizes the true officer and 
gentleman, ran the C. S. steamer Ellis near the fort, which now of course 
became the prominent mark for the Yankees, as we were not only a gun- 
boat, but our decks were crowded with men. Protected by our Heavenly 
Father, though the balls whistled close and fast by us, we remained un- 
hurt. One thing I can vouch for is, that there is not a man upon this lit- 
tle steamer but who has grown familiar with that peculiar whizzing 
sound which always accompanies a liall in its flight through the air. 
Several rifle cannon balls passed in close ])roximity to us, and though per- 
haps it was the first time that some of them had ever heard a cannon fired, 

1 Major W. S. G. Andrews, in his official report never saw a man possessed of more cool coiirage 
to the Adjutant Gen. of North Carolina, says : than animated Capt. Barron in that hour of 
"I desire especially to speak of the conduct of peril ; and he says also, that the resolution to 
the officers and men at the naval gun, who fired surrender the fort was the result of calm and 
frequently to try the range. Lieut. Murdaugh serious deliberation, actuated by decided feel- 
■was badly wounded, Lieut Sharj) was knocked ings of honor and patriotism. The gallant lieu- 
down by a shot which passed through the para- tenant, who also behaved most nobly in the en- 
pet near his head and brought tbe blood from gagement, will, when he recovers from the 
liis ear and cheek in considerable quantity, kill- efl'ects of his wound, bear me out in the state- 
ing a man at his side, at the same time knocking ment of facts, which I think ought in justice to 
down and covering Col. .1. A. Bradford with sod be made. I know, what every one who witnessed 
and earth; and Midshipman Stafford cheered the engagement must feel, and that is, that Capt. 
on the men, behaving in a most gallant manner. Barron is as brave as he is honorable, and that 
After the fall of Lieut. Murdaugh his men bore in his ((induct at Hatteras he was actuated by a 
him to the commodore's boat and he escaped. strict sense of duty alone." 

An officer of the steamer Wimlow said: " Lieut. Another officer, writing from Hatteras, says : 

Murdaugh, the friend and brother officer of " Capt. Barron, though forced to yield by over- 

Capt. Barron, who was brought on board of the whelming batteries, he, and those who fought 

Window diiring the engagement, with a severe with him in that conflict of fire, are worthy of 

wound in the left arm, informed me that he their country's ai)proliation and honor." 



THE CONFEDERATE STATES NAVY. 375 

yet the crew and officers stood it with most perfect nonchalance, exhibit- 
ing throughout the whole action perfect confidence in their officers, and a 
reliance upon the Almighty hand. After safely landing the troops, we 
again returned to the Winslow, and taking a plentiful supply of ammuni- 
tion, we went alongside the schooners and took all the troops on board, 
and safely landed everything at the fort. Our escape was truly miracu- 
lous. Nobly has the Bllis performed her duty in this terrible encounter, 
and it is dae to her that her services should be acknowledged. Too much 
praise cannot be given to her commander and crew. 

"The enemy, after an incessant fire of about six hours, having 
sounded all about, and planted buoys ready for the dreadful work of to- 
morrow, retired for the night, and no doubt employed themselves for the 
coming struggle. Nearly all night we were employed in making the fort 
impregnable, as we then thought. Much of the disaster which OGCurred 
on Thursdaji may be attributed to the fact that toe did not possess our- 
selves of Fort Clark by the bayonet that night; but wiser and older heads 
than mine thought otherwise. Certain it is, in my opinion, it was one of 
the causes, second only to the shameful neglect of the authorities in not 
properly fortifying the coast, that caused our defeat. From these two 
causes we have the following result: the possession of Hatteras, the key 
of the Sound; the road open to invasion at any moment; Capt. Barron, 
Lieut. Sharp, and about 700 or 800 gallant men prisoners, taken by the 
Abolition Kangaroos, besides prolonging, in my opinion, the war for half 
a year. 

' ' I must not here forget to mention a trivial circumstance, it may seem, 
but one which exhibits the brave man and patriot. On going to the fort 
about two o'clock at night, Lieut. Murdaugh might be seen standing, in 
the clear moonlight, upon the well-defended ramparts at Hatteras. He 
was calmly superintending the works about the guns, having one fixed so 
as better to bear on the enemy with which he himself intended to fight. 
No one who saw him could doubt but that he would do good service. 
The next morning, August 29th, a day ever memorable to those who wit- 
nessed or particiiDated in this sublime but terrible contest, rose calm and 
beautiful. This was just what the Yankees wished. All the morning I 
was busily engaged in going to and fro on duty to Capt. Barron, who was 
very anxious for me to go on shore and help about the guns, as they had 
not many in the fort who knew much about gunnery ; but as we had not 
the officers to spare, Capt. Muse would not consent forme to go. I will here 
mention a fact to show how close the Yankees were to the fort. While 
ashore, standing on the ramparts, in company with Capt. Barron, Lieut. 
Sharp and Lieut. Barron, all of us being in uniform, were of course a 
good mark, and the Yankees thought so too, for whiz went a ball in close 
proximity to the captain's head, while several struck in the parapet im- 
mediately under VIS. It will here be proper to state that Midshipman 
J. M. Stafford had been sent ashore, where, during the fight, he fully per- 
formed his duty and rendered valuable service, conducting himself with 
manly coolness surpassing his years. 

"• At 8:30 A. M., the frigate Wabash steamed up, and as she passed Fort 
Clark the Stars and Stripes wei-e waved three times to her from the para- 
pet of the fort, which she acknowledged by dipping her colors. She then 
rounded to, dropped anchor, and opened fire upon the fort. She was im- 
mediately joined by the Susquehanna, Cumberland, and Minnesota, in an 
incessant fire of shell which dropped thick and fast around and in the 
fort. The fort replied at intervals, and the Susquehanna was evidently 
damaged, as she withdrew from the range of the fort, and only fired two 
more shots dui-ing the engagement, her place being supplied by the Roan- 
oke. Fort Clark now also opened on Fort Hatteras, together with several 
other land batteries which they had erected on shore, one of these, con 
sisting of rifle cannon, seemed to pay particular attention to us; and as 
they gradually got our range, they came near hitting us several times, so 
that we changed our position, and the guns were then turned on the fort. 



376 THE CONFEDERATE STATES NAVY. 

All eyes were now turned to that gallant little fort fighting against such 
desperate odds. One continual stream of shell fell upon it, tjut still it does 
not fire ! What can be the matter ? Look, there goes the fort again ! 
Again ! But alas ! all fall far short. The reason is now evident ; they 
cannot reach the vessels, while every shot almost from them tells upon 
the fort. Amid a perfect hail-storm of iron a boat leaves the fort. What 
can it want? My God, they are bringing the wounded to the steamer! What 
a terrible scene! Never shall I forget it. They approach. Surely that 
blackened face, that body almost covered with blood cannot be the noble 
and chivalrous Lieut. Murdaugh. Alas ! it is. He has fallen, manfully 
batthng against them by the side of his gun, with words of encourage- 
ment upon his lips. After firing three or four effective shots, which crip- 
pled the Susquehanna, and finduig they were out of range of our guns, 
he remarked to his men, ' Well, boys, we will wait till they come up, when 
we will give it to them again.' But he had hardly uttered these words 
ere an eleven-inch shell exploded close by, sent two or three fragments of 
shell through his left arm, completely shattering it to pieces, causing 
great pain, exhaustion and loss of blood. He was supplied with lint by 
Mr. Tredwell, one of our officers, who had very thoughtfully provided 
some for his own use, should he be wounded, and who, during the whole- 
action, behaved, as did all the officers, with the utmost coolness and firm- 
ness. He was taken on board the Winslou\ and placed under the care of 
Surgeon Greenhow, of the C. S. navy, an intelligent and successful sur- 
geon, where he was properly cared for. 

" The bombardment of Fort Hatteras, by the flower of the Federal 
navy, was a scene which will ever be jjresent to the minds of those who 
witnessed it. On that day many a fireside was made desolate ; many a, 
mother and wife made to weep over the sad fate of those who were near- 
est to them, and whose bloody and mangled corpses, perhaps, now lay 
stark and still upon the blood-stained beach of Hatteras. But such 
scenes as these are the necessary attendants of war. But what is that ap- 
pearing on the fort ? ^i white flag ! Surely those who were that morning so 
buoyant and full of joy and hope at the prospect of beating the Yankees, 
cannot now be suing for peace ! Yet it is so. Such a continual sti-eam of 
shell was more than the gallant little fort could stand ; the bomb-proof 
had given way, and every shell noAv played sad havoc among them ; so, 
laying aside their pride, they yielded to necessity, and to prevent any 
more sacrifice of life, had resigned themselves to months of imprisonment, 
perhaps, in the loathsome dens of the Tombs ! It Avas truly a humili- 
ating sight. 

" The fight lasted for a day and a half, out of which time there were 
fourteen hours of incessant firing, during which time they threw some 
400 or 500 shot and shell. After finding the fort had surrendered, and that 
we could be of no possible use, we left for Ocracoke, to take on board the 
sad and weeping wives of the officers, now prisoners, and shall proceed to 
Washington, N. C." 

Of this engagement Admiral Porter ' remarks that " in 
days of wooden ships one gun mounted on shore was consid- 
ered equal to five on shipl^oard ; but even this allowance 
made the squadron superior to the forts, without considering 
the heavier guns and better equipment of the frigates;*' and to 
those advantages must be added the still more important fact 
that the squadron took position beyond the range of any gun 
on shore — and thus, without the possibility of injury, were 
able to " almost smother '* the people in the forts. " This w^as- 
our first naval victory — indeed, our first victory of any kind,^ 

1 Naval History, p. 45. 2 JVaval History. \>. 47. 



THE CONFEDERATE STATES NAVY. 377 

and great was the rejoicing thereat throughout the United 
States." 

Thus, on the 31st of August, the important position atHat- 
teras Inlet was captured, and that at Ocracoke Inlet aban- 
doned by the Confederates, and safe entrance to the fleets of 
the enemy gained to the sounds and rivers of North Carolina. 
Notwithstanding the loss of Hatteras Fort and the ability of 
the enemy to cover the waters of the sound with their gun- 
boats, they soon discovered that they must hold their conquest 
with a force ever present to defend it. Capt. Wm. F. Lynch ' 
succeeded Flag-officer Barron, who had been taken prisoner 
in the command of the naval defences, and, ever alert and 
active, received information on October 1st that the enemy 
was sending reinforcements of men and supplies to Chicama- 
commico, a station about forty miles north of Hatteras Inlet, 
on the narrow strip of sand that divides the sound from the 
ocean. With the Raleigh, Lieut. Commander J\ W. Alexan- 
der ; Junaluska, Midshipman W. H. Vernon, commanding, 
assisted by Midshipman James M. Gardner, and the Curleiv, 
Capt. Lynch proceeded to intercept any steamer that might 
be found cruising in the sound. Midshipman commanding 
Taylor was left in charge of the floating battery, and Midship- 
man Gregory on the Cotton Plant. At 5 p. m. the Federal 
steamer Fanny, loaded with ammunition and supplies for the 
Federal post at Loggerhead Inlet, was sighted. The arma- 
ment of the Fanny was two rifled cannon, and she had just a 
few hours before received from the Putnam a rifled cannon 
and ammunition for the Twentieth Indiana Regiment. 

Col. Claiborne Snead, of Augusta, Ga., describing the 
spirited affair, says: 

" On the first day of October, 1861, the army of occupation of Roanoke 
Island consisted of the Third Georgia Regiment, under tlie command of 
Col. A. R. Wriglit and Col. Shaw's Sorth Carolina Regiment. Herethe.se 
Georgians, just one day after the fall of Fort Hatteras, solitary and un- 
aided, planted tlie Confederate flag. The night previous, when only a 
detachment of four companies had arrived in Pamlico Sound, they 

1 Capt. Wm. F. Lyncli, C. S. N., was born in Symonds, of the British navy, being fully cor- 
Virginia in 1801, and entered the U. S. ser- roborated as correct, and the depression estab- 
vice as a midshipman, January ■26th, 1819. He lished as 1,312 feet. On his return Lieut. Lynch 
was promoted a lieutenant in May, 1828, and published a narrative of his expedition, which 
originated his famous expedition to the Dead has passed through several editions and at- 
Sea and River Jordan, which received the sane- tained a ijosition among standard works, 
tion of the govei'ument. He sailed from this On his return he av as isronioted a commander, 
country for Smyrna in the naval store-ship He prepared to engage in an expedition into 
Supply in November, 1847. He visited Constan- Africa, but the exploration was abandoned. In 
tinoi^ie to obtain the requisite authority and 1851 lie published a volume entitled j.Vai'ai ij/e,- 
protection from the Turkish government to or. Observations Afloat and on Sliore. In 1850 he 
pass through Palestine. He made this neces- was promoted captain, and this position he re- 
sary overland journey on camels, and by the tained until his resignation on April 21st, 1861. 
aid of Arabs and others. His party was landed Immediately alter his resignation from the 
in the Bay of Acre in March, 1848. and in the U. S. navy he entered the service of Virginia 
following April began the work of navigating and was assigned to duty on the Potomac River 
the Jordan to the Dead Sea. A thorough explo- and the coast defences of the State. He en- 
ration and soimding of the sea were made. tered the C. S. navy on June 10th, 1861. with 
Among other curious features of the labor was the rank of captain. After his gaUaut defence 
the establishment by a series of levels of the of the coast of North Carolina he was assigned 
depression of the Dead Sea below the level of to duty on the Mississippi River. He died at 
the Mediterranean, a former survey by Lieut. Baltimore. October 17th, 18G5. 



378 THE CONFEDERATE STATES NAVY. 

received the unwelcome tidings of the surrender of this fort to which they 
were px-oeeeding as a reinforcement. Hence, they landed, and from that 
day till the period of which we now write, they were continuously at 
work, working by day, and frequently the moon shining on, or the dark- 
ness of night enveloped them still at work, building entrenchments and 
batteries on this and Croatan Island and other adjacent points, for the 
protection of the inland coast of North Carolina. 

" The North Carolina regiment had but recently arrived, having been 
previously in garrison at Fort Oregon, on Oregon Inlet, the extreme 
northern point on Hatteras Island, the evacuation of which had been 
necessitated by the fall of Fort Hatteras on the extreme point south. 

" Receiving information that a Federal steamer had been seen just 
south of Roanoke Island, Col. A. R. Wright, commanding as senior officer 
of the Confederate forces, determined at once to intercept and capture 
her, and if possible to learn the intentions of the enemy, who were evi- 
dently meditating some hostile movement upon his position. He was 
warmly seconded by Commodore Lynch, a man of iron nerve and justly 
celebrated for his exploration of the Dead Sea, who was then in command 
of what was commonly called " The Mosquito Fleet," composed of light- 
draft miniature vessels, drawing from two to six feet of water. These 
vessels were thus peculiarly constructed with the view to avoid the dan- 
ger of the shallows and frequent rough state of the waters of Albemarle 
and Pamlico Sounds. But the disaster at Hatteras, with the occupation 
of the inlet by the United States Navy, and the consequent opening of 
all the sounds and tributary rivers of northeastern North Carolina to the 
inroads of the enemy, caused a hasty transformation of these crafts into 
men-of-war, which, if not really formidable, were suflBcient to command 
respect and frighten off the Federals till the final attack on Roanoke 
Island by Burnside with an overwhelming land and naval force. 

" From this little fleet the steamei's Junaluska, Raleigh axiA Curlew 
were selected for the projected expedition, but as neither of these boats 
had received any armament except the Raleigh, which had a couple of six- 
pounder smooth-bore boat howitzers, it became necessary to provide guns 
and crews for them. In Fort Bartow, an earth-work just completed near 
the " marshes," there was a long navy thirty-two pounder which had been 
recently I'ified and reinforced with heavy steel rings in the navy-yard at 
Portsmouth. This gun had but a few days previously been mounted and 
placed in position en barbette in the fort. It was determined to remove 
it and place it teuiporarily on a pivot on the bow of the Curlew, which 
was a large side-wheel steamer, formerly used as a passenger boat on the 
Albemarle Sound. During the night this difficult task was accomi)lished. 
An old twelve-pounder smooth-bore gun, mounted on a field carriage, was 
placed in the stern of the Curlew, and these two guns composed her arma- 
ment. On the Junaluska, a small propeller tug-boat, drawing three and 
a half feet, was placed a six-pounder field gun. Crews to work these guns 
were selected from three companies of the Third Georgia regiment. 
These men had been practiced for a few days with the guns in the fort, 
but neither of them had ever seen a cannon dischai-ged, and were there- 
fore j)erfectly green and inexperienced in the use of such guns. Few of 
them had ever been on shipboard, their whole naval experience being 
comprised in the fact that they had been transported from Norfolk to the 
Island a few days previous on a canal barge drawn by the little tug Juna- 
luska.'''' 

" Having received their armament, guns, crews and a small force of 
infantry composed of the "Dawson Greys," the "Governor's Guards," 
and the "Athens Guards," all of the Third Georgia regiment, were dis- 
tributed on board the three little vessels, armed with Enfield rifles. Weigh- 
ing anchor they proceeded down the sound in the direction of Hatteras 
Inlet, moving slowly and cautiously in order to keep within the narrow 
channels and to avoid the dangerous shoals. In less than two hours the 
object of the cruise was plainly seen, when an advance upon her was 



THE CONFEDERATE STATES NAVY. 379 

ordered, the Curlew (Commodore Lynch's flag-ship, upon which was Col. 
Wright, commanding the expedition), leading; and when within range a 
brisk fire was opened which was promptly responded to, her guns being 
well worked and aimed with precision. Each vessel advanced rapidly 
with the intention of grappling and boarding the foe that exhibited so 
much spirit in her responsive fire; but after fifteen or twenty shots, one 
shell exploded on the deck of the Fanny (for that was the name of the 
U. S. steamer^ when immediately her colors were struck, and a few mo- 
ments thereafter up to her masthead went the Confederate ensign amid 
the shouts of the victors. 

" She carried two rifled guns, a crew of forty-nine men, besides a large 
amount of army stores valued by some as high as $100,000. Among the 
latter were 1,000 new overcoats, which were turned over to the Third 
Georgia regiment, and contributed greatly to their comfort during the 
ensuing winter. 

' ' The prisoners were sent to Norfolk, while the Fanny became a part 
of the Mosquito fleet: and subsequently, with her every now and then, 
Capt. Hunter, a vigilant, active and energetic C. S. naval officer, would 
run down the sound and send greetings with shell into Fort Hatteras. 

" This victory was important in more respects than one. It was our 
first naval success in North Carolina and the first capture made by our 
arms of an armed war-vessel of the enemy, and dispelled the gloom of re- 
cent disasters. The property captured was considerable, much needed, 
and highly esteemed at that time. But more important than all was the 
information obtained as to the movements and intentions of the enemy. 
These stores were found to be intended for the Twentieth Indiana regi- 
ment at Chickacommico, twenty miles distant, on Hatteras Island, where 
a camp had been established with a view to make it a point cVappui from 
which to attack Roanoke Island." 

The Federal account of the engagement, by Gen. Mans- 
field, is that "not a shot struck the Fanny, and some eight or 
nine shots were fired at the enemy, one of v^hich took effect. 
Then the cable was slipped and the Fanny was run ashore 
some 2| miles still from the beach, and the crew abandoned 
her in a boat, and the officer in charge, Capt. Hart, hoisted a 
white flag, and surrendered before a gun was fired on either 
side." It is not for us to reconcile the discrepancies in a re- 
port which, while mentioning an "attack" in which "eight 
or nine shots were fired at the enemy" yet concludes with the 
statement that the vessel was "surrendered before a gun was 
fired on either side."^ Capt. Lynch reports that "after an 
engagement of 35 minutes the Fanny surrendered, and we 
made prisoners of the entire force — 47 men, 2 officers and 
1 negro. The Fanny mounted two rifled guns and made a 
gallant resistance, but the superior weight of our guns gave 
ns the advantage." Want of fuel compelled Capt. Lynch to 
return and set his sailors to work cutting and chopping wood. 

While bestowing a full page to the most minute descrip- 
tion of the destruction of some abandoned material in the 
fort at Ocracoke, Admiral Ammen dismisses the capture of the 
Fanny with a single line : "this speedily led to the capture of 
the army tug Fanny and a considerable quantity of army 
stores." The prize had very valuable stores on board; besides 

1 Brig. Gen. J. K.T. Mansfield's report in Vol. TK., p. 595, Official Records. 



380 THE CONFEDERATE STATES NAVY. 

the powder, shell, and fixed ammuiiifion for her rifled guns, 
there were 65,000 musket balls and buckshot cartridges, 7,000 
Minie ball cartridges, and a large quantity of blankets, over- 
coats and shoes. The loss of the Fanny eventually led to the 
Twentieth Indiana regiment being sent elsewhere. | Tlie in- 
formation obtained by Capt. Lynch in his expedition of the 
1st led him to attempt a more important one on the 4th, with 
the whole of his little fleet, with a portion of Col. A. R.Wright's 
regiment on board. 

Col. Claiborne Snead, in describing this expedition, says : 

" Hatteras Island, whereon occurred the scene of which we write, is a 
narrow strip of land iyiny between the Atlantic Ocean and Pamlico Sound, 
about forty miles in length and from one-fourth to half a mile in 
breadth. It was a bald sand beach, interspersed here and there at a dis- 
tance of a league or more with chaparral or small clusters of trees resem- 
bling the oasis of a desert, and is inhabited by a class of people who sub- 
sist by fishing and hunting, as well as from tlie cargoes of vessels stranded 
upon the stormy coast. Tliey are commonly called " wreckers," and seem 
to do a lucrative business, from the numberless wrecks scattered along the 
beach. The warning i-ays of the light-house, the extreme point east, are 
not seen or cannot be heeded by vessels riding along this, the roughest 
point of the American coast. The misfortunes of the sea-farer bring to 
these people a day of joy, all the mysteries connected with which will 
never be revealed until old ocean unearths her account on the day of 
judgment. The islanders mingle but little with the world; apparently in- 
different to this outside sphere, they constitute a world within them- 
selves. During the late war their indifference or neutrality was evinced 
by raising white flags to the house tops on the approach of either Con- 
federates or Federals. 

"By the capture of the U. S. steamer Fanny, on the first day of Octo- 
ber, 1861, it was ascei-tained that the enemy had established a camp at 
Chicamacommico, about forty miles from Fort Hatteras, and near the 
southern extremity of Roanoke Island. The Twentieth Indiana regi- 
ment had there gone into camp, wliither the Fanny, when captured, was 
proceeding with commissary and quartermaster's supplies. A large force 
was soon to follow: and, in fact, a majority of the prisoners captured on 
this vessel were Zouaves of Col. Hawkins' New York regiment, who were 
pioneers of the projected reinforcements. The situation of the Confeder- 
ates was alarming. It was evident.that the new position taken by the 
enemy was intended as a base of operations — the point d'appvi from 
which to assail Roanoke Island and capture the small garrison thereon. 
The Third Georgia regiment and Col. Shaw's North Carolina regiment, 
with Commodore Lynch's " Mosquito fleet," comprised our entire de- 
fence, while reinforcements could not be obtained nearer than Norfolk by 
a long and difficult route throvigh Albemarle Sound, Dismal Swamp 
Canal and the Elizabeth River. On the other hand, the Federal forces, 
daily accumulating at Fort Hatteras, had behind them, on an open sea, a 
powerful navy, efficient both in attack and in the transportation of troops. 

" Col. A. R. Wright, senior officer, commanding, seeing that a crisis 
was near at hand, and fully appreciating the danger of being isolated and 
attacked at a disadvantage, determined at once to move forward and strike 
the first blow. He had the warm co-operation of Commodore Lynch, who 
in this, as in every other emergency, showed himself as zealous an officer 
as he was skillful and brave. 

' The cargo of the Fanny was valued in the cousisted of 250 of Sawyer's shells, 75,000 

reports of her loss at " about $150,000 worth of canister shot, 1.000 overcoats, 1,000 dress coats, 

property on board," and she was " one of the 1,000 pairs of pantaloons, and 1,000 pairs of 

most useful gunboats." " A. part of her cargo shoes. 



THE CONFEDERATE STATES NAVY. 381 

"All preparations having- been made which the limited means at 
hand would permit, at one o'clock on the morning of the 5th day of Oct- 
ober, the third Georgia regiment, with Lieut. Col. Reid in command, 
and Colonel Shaw's North Cai'olina regiment, were embarked on the 
steamers Curlew, Raleigh, Junaluska, Fanny, Empire, and Cotton Plant. 
Passing through Croatan Sound into and down Pamlico Sound, the little 
fleet arrived off Chicamacommico, and about three miles therefrom, just 
after sunrise. All the vessels were of too deep a draft to get nearer 
this pomt of the island, except the Cotton Plant, which was enabled to 
advance a mile further on. Upon her, Colonel Wright, with three 
companies of the third Georgia and two six -pound boat howitzers, 
commanded by Lieut. J. R. Sturgis, with forty men, proceeded to- 
wards the shore, the officers and men wading in water up to their 
middles for three fourths of a mile, and opening a rapid fire upon the 
enemy, who stood in line of battle on the beach, twelve hundred 
strong according to their muster-rolls. Soon after the firing commenced 
they began a retreat, moving hastily and in great disorder towards Fort 
Hatteras. 

"Orders were immediately sent to the North Carolinians to move 
down the sound on board the Empire, to a point opposite the light-house, 
twenty miles distant, and there intercept and cut off the enemy. 

"The rest of the Third Geoi'gia having been signalled to ad- 
vance, effected a landing in the same way as the three preceding com- 
panies. Then commenced a chase which has been properly styled "Chi- 
camacommico Races." The attacking party scarcely numbered seven 
hundred men, some of whom, with their own hands, drew the two 
howitzers through the deep sand, pursued the retreating foe flying pell- 
mell for twenty-six miles, killing eight and capturing forty-two men. 
About six miles from the starting point, Col. Wright being in advance of 
his command, overtook a part of the rear guard, who fired on him, bring- 
ing down his horse, but with one hand seizing a small Yankee boy and 
holding him in front as a shield, and with pistol in the other, he advanced 
upon the party and captured Sergt. Major Hart, who fired the shot, to- 
gether with four others of his regiment. Night alone closed the pursuit 
at Kinakeet, where the Confederates, exhausted from fatigue, went into 
camp. 

" On the following morning, learning that Col. Shaw had not effected 
a landing at the point where he was expected to mtercept the enemy, or- 
ders were given to countermarch back to Chicamacommico. And it is 
proper here to say that Col. Shaw failed to carry out his part of the pro- 
gramme not from indisposition or want of energy. His transport 
grounded on the shoals at a considerable distance from the shore. Per- 
severing in his efforts to reach the land, he, with his men, commenced to 
wade, but were stopped by intervening deep sluices, and compelled to 
return. 

" At about one o'clock, just after the Third Georgia regiment had 
emerged from the grove of Kinakeet upon a long, barren sand beach, the 
Confederate Light Guards, commanded by Lieut. C. Snead, being de- 
ployed in front as skirmishers on a line stretching from the ocean to the 
sound, in order to pick up any straggling Federals who might have been 
passed over in the preceding day's pursuit, the U. S. steamer Monticello 
hove in sight on the southeast, hugging the shore closely, which she 
could safely do in the waters of this particular locality. When within 
range she opened with round shot, following the fire up with shell, grape- 
shot and canister, moving in close proximity and at even pace with the 
Confederates, and keeping up a furious cannonade till the shades of even- 
ing closed the scene. Fortunately a rough sea, causing her to careen 
alternately from side to side, prevented precision in the aim of her guns ; 
and every man who started in the pursuit from Chicamacommico re- 
turned in safety, except a member of the Governor Guards, who died from 
exhaustion." 



382 THE CONFEDERATE STATES NAVY. 

The Confederates captured on the expedition Lieut. F. M. 
Peacock, U. S. N,, Lieut. J. W. Hart, Twentieth Indiana regi- 
met, besides forty-two privates belonging to the Ninth New 
York and Twentieth Indiana regiments. The U. S. naval 
report of this affair is one of the most remarkable made dur- 
ing the war. It is by Lieut. D. L. Braine, October 5th, 1861 : 

"At half -past 1 P. M. we discovered several sailing vessels over the 
woodland Kine Keet, and at the same time a regiment marching to the 
northward, carrying a rebel flag in their midst, with many stragglers in 
the rear; also two tugs inside, flying the same flag. As they came out of 
the woods of Kine Keet we ran close in shore and opened a deliberate fire 
upon them, at the distance of three-quarters of a mile. At our first shell, 
which fell apparently in their midst, they rolled up their flag and scat- 
tered, moving rapidly up the beach to the northward. We followed them, 
firing rapidly from three guns, driving them up to a clump of woods, in 
which they took refuge, and abreast of which their steamers lay. We 
now shelled the woods, and could see them embarking in small boats 
after their vessels, evidently in great confusion and suffering greatly from 
our fire. Their steamers now oj^ened fire upon us, firing, however, but 
three shots, which fell short. Two boats fiUed with men were struck by 
our shells and destroyed. Three more steamers came down the sound and 
took position opposite the woods. We were shelling also two sloops. We 
continued firing deliberately upon them from half-past 1 P. M. until half- 
past 3 p. M. * * * Six steamers were now off the point, one of which I recog- 
nized as the Fanny. At twenty-five minutes to 5 p. M., we ceased firing, 
leaving the enemy scattered along the beach for upwards of four miles. 
I fired repeatedly at the enemy's steamers with our rifled cannon, a Par- 
rott thirty-pounder, and struck the Fanny^ I think once. I found the 
range of this piece much short of what I had anticipated, many of the 
shot turning end over end, and not exceeding much, the range of the 
smooth-bore thirty-two pounder." 

Of that affair Gen. J. K. F. Mansfield said, October 14th, 
1801: "Under the circumstances Col. Brown probably did well. 
No guns were fired at him by the enemy, nor was he attack- 
ed" — because he fled before the Confederates could land. Con- 
tinuing, Gen. Mansfield said: 

"We lost some stragglers along the road. Not a man was killed, that 
I have heard of, except an old inhabitant shot by the rebels. I do not 
understand the report of the navy in this matter. The rebels had landed 
only about 500 out of about 2,000 supposed to be on board their fleet of nine 
steamers and vessels, besides flats, that approached the landing. I did not 
learn that a vessel of the rebels was taken or sunk or that a man was killed 
by the shells from the ships of war. I did hear that they carried off all the 
small fishing vessels belonging to the inhabitants." ^ 

Admiral Ammen finds more importance in the highly 
colored report of Lieut. Braine than Gen. Mansfield did, and 
Admiral Porter in perpetuating the misstatements of Lieut. 
Braine, says: "■ Two of the boats loaded with men were struck 
by shells and sent to the bottom, several officers were killed, and 
the shore for a distance of four miles was strewn with killed 
and wounded " — and yet Gen. Mansfield, after investigating the 
conduct of the officers commanding the Indiana regiment, 

1 Official Record, Vol. IV., p. 626. 



THE CONFEDERATE STATES NAVY. 383 

visiting the ground, and questioning the parties engaged in 
the retreat, wrote to Gen, Wool. " that I did not learn * * * 
that a man was killed by the shells from the vessels of war." 
And there was neither vessel or man injured by Lieut, 
Braine's shells. 

In November, the French man-of-war Prony. Commander 
De Pontage, was wrecked on the beach below Hatteras, and 
Lieut. Commander J. W. Alexander, in the C, S, steamer 
Winsloiv (formerly the Coffee), was sent to her relief; but 
striking on a sunken vessel in the sound, the Winslow was 
sunk and burned. The officers and crew of the Prony were 
saved by the Ellis and the Seabird without the loss of a man, 
and the wreck of the Prony burned to prevent its falling into 
the possession of the enemy. Commander De Pontage and 
his officers were carried to Norfolk by Commander Lynch, 
where they were cordially and hospitably received by Flag- 
officer Forrest. 

The capture by the U. S. forces of Hatteras Inlet and the 
sand-banks of the sound brought most forcibly to the atten- 
tion of the Confederate authorities the defenceless condition 
of the sound waters and rivers of North Carolina, which Gen. 
Gatlin had been persistently urging with little avail since he 
was placed in command. 

Upon hearing of the fall of Hatteras he wrote to the War 
Department for four regiments and a light battery for the 
eastern counties, and that now it was imperatively necessary 
to fortify every river running into the sounds. The loss of 
Hatteras exposed so many points to attack and invasion, 
some of them of great importance from their connection with 
the railroad and public works, that Gen, Gatlin again urged 
the importance of sending at least two regiments to Newberne 
and ten to Wilmington. Brig, Gen, Joseph R. Anderson was 
ordered to Wilmington, November 30th, the order assigning 
him to duty saying that one regiment of Georgia volunteers 
had been sent from Norfolk to Roanoke Island ; that two 
regiments were at the mouth of Cape Fear River, five compa- 
nies in Fort Macon, one regiment and two battalions at New- 
berne — that the whole force available in North Carolina at all 
points was equal to seven regiments, one battalion, and one 
light battery ; that a large number of heavy guns had from 
time to time been sent to the State, and that an additional 
number could be furnished if needed. At that time Fort 
Macon had not one practical gunner, only forty reliable fuzes, 
no rifled cannon, no ordnance officer, and only raw troops 
without proper supplies. It was the hope of Col. Wright at 
Roanoke Island " to have seven guns mounted to-night (Sep- 
tember 6th) on the Pah Pauh Battery, and will commence on 
Wein Point Battery as soon as they can get the engineers to 
look after the work." The British ship Alliance, learning 
from a British man-of-war that the blockading fleet would 



384 THE CONFEDERATE STATES NAVY. 

attack Fort Macon on September 7th, communicated the in- 
formation to Col. Brj^dges, at which time there were no gun- 
ners wlio could manage the guns, and Gen. Clarke called on 
Secretary Mallory for officers who understand the use of naval 
guns. Capt. Lynch determined to go into the fort with the 
crew of the Winsloiv, and placed Lieut. W. H. Parker of the 
navy, who remained for two weeks instructing the soldiers in 
the working and handling of naval guns. Gen. Clarke recog- 
nized this assignment of a naval officer to Fort Macon as very 
satisfactory, and asked that Fort Caswell might be served also 
with naval officers. The Georgia regiment was landed on 
Roanoke Island by Lynch's little fleet, which proceeded to 
Oregon Inlet and removed the troops and guns. The Winsloiv 
and Ellis, when retreating from Hatteras, had 'removed the 
guns and troops from Ocracoke Inlet. 

The work of fortifying Roanoke Island was pressed with 
vigor and energy, but under most embarrassing circumstances. 
The '■' front wheels and axles of the wagons" were taken for 
limbers for twelve and twenty-four pounders, and the latter 
were found so heavy that all the teams in the island could not 
move it to its battery. But, worse than all, the North Caro- 
lina troops were disorganized and demoralized, and Col. Wright 
could "hope nothing from them;" and Commander Thomas 
T. Hunter regarded " the maintenance of Roanoke Island pos- 
sible only so long as it is defended by troops from another 
State, or from a more loyal part of North Carolina." 

The Secretary of the Navy had sent from Norfolk to North 
Carolina, up to October 20th, 243 guns, including six rifled 
thirty-two-pounders, and he found himself unable to do any 
more, as the vessels of the navy needed guns. The condition 
of the sound defences at the middle of October is shown by 
Gen. D. H. Hill as follows : 

" Fort Macon has but four guns of long range, and these are badly 
supplied with aunuunition, and are on very inferior carriages. 

" Newberne has a tolerable battery, two eight-inch Columbiads and 
two thirty-two pounders. It is, however, badly supplied with powder. 
This is also the condition of Washington. Hyde, the richest county in 
the State, has ten landings and only one gun — an English nine-pounder of 
great age and venerable appearance. 

"Roanoke Island is the key of one-third of North Cai'olina, and whose 
occupancy by the enemy would enable him to reach the great railroad 
from Richmond to New Orleans-; four additional regiments are absolutely 
indispensable to the protection of this island. The batteries also need 
four rifled cannon of heavy calibre. I would most earnestly call the atten- 
tion of the most Honorable Secretary of War to the importance of this 
island. Its fall would be fatal as that of Manassas. The enemy now has 
8,000 men at Hatteras, and Roanoke Island will undoubtedly be attacked." 

This was a very greatly exaggerated estimate of the 
number of troops at Hatteras, which on December 1st, 1861, 
numbered only 1,712 officers and men present. ' But under the 

1 Official Record, Vol. IV., p. 632. 



THE CONFEDERATE STATES NAVV. 3S5 

impression that the enemy was very strong at Hatteras, Gen. 
D. H, Hill issued, October 17th, a peremptory order against any 
expedition for offensive operations without his previous sanc- 
tion and authority. This order prevented Capt. Lynch and Col. 
Wright from undertaking an expedition against Hatteras. They 
had a large number of flats or large fish boats, enough to trans- 
port!. •■30U or 1,500 men. Capt. Lynch's fleet was ready and he was 
willing and anxious to make the attack, but the order of Gen. 
Hill was peremptory, and thus a naval and military expedition 
was stopped which might have released eastern North Carolina 
from capture. The enemy's preparation in October of the Port 
Royal expedition was at first suspected of having either Beau- 
fort, N. C., or Roanoke Island as its objective; and its effect 
was to increase to a limited extent the efforts to defend 
eastern North Carolina. In observing the movements of the 
Federal vessels, Capt. Lynch, on October 30th, started up the 
sound and looked in on the abandoned forts at Beacon Island 
and Ocracoke, and finding no enemy at either place, continued 
on to Hatteras Inlet, and when near the position of the inner 
buoy the enemy opened fire upon the Curlew, Commander 
Thomas T. Hunter, C. S. N., from the fort and two or three of 
their steamers, without injury. On coming within easy range, 
Capt. Lynch sighted the rifled gun at the Harriet Lane,^ and 
fired, the fort and two steamers continuing to fire as rapidly 
as possible. The Curlew fired six shells of twenty-five and 
twenty fuse, and as the course of the steamer was necessarily 
changed to keep in the narrow channel, the stern gun was 
fired at them five times, training it well forward. It is un- 
certain whether the enemy sustained any injury, althougli 
many of the crew and officers thought the fourth shell took 
effect amidship of a very long three-masted steamer lying 
near the Harriet Lane, and another burst between the two. 
A small steamer was seen employed towing a merchant vessel 
either out of danger or out of range of the fort. The enemy 
fired twenty-three shells, only one of which came near. 

Having taunted and invited the enemy to accept battle, 
and finding them reluctant, Capt. Lynch withdrew and waited 
within half a mile of the buoy, hoping to draw the small 
steamer outside. When the fort returned the shot, the Cur- 
leiv stood back, fired another shell, and then sailed back to 
Roanoke Island. 

The long delay on the part of the U. S. authorities which 
ensued after the fall of the Hatteras forts, before the sounds 
of North Carolina were again visited by that navy, appears 
very strange, considering the importance of these inland seas 
to both parties to the war. Hatteras, without the complete 
control of the sounds, was a barren victory, for though the 

i"This surveying steamer Coriiim is t^e Har- about the 1st inst., and one of the vessels he 

rid Lane mentioned in the report of the rebel was supposed to have seriously damaged." 

Capt Hunter, of the naval battle at this place —N. ¥. Herald, Hatltras letter, Nov. Idth. 
25 



386 THE CONFEDERATE STATES NAVY. 

occupancy of the inlet might prevent the egress of privateers 
and blockade-runners, yet its possession only was not so 
severe a blow at the Confederate cause as the newspapers had 
represented it to be. 

The U. S. Navy Department again took the initiative, and 
in January, 1863, organized a naval expedition for the purpose 
of completely controlling tlie waters of the sounds. The an- 
noyance to and destruction of commerce, it was found, con- 
tinued as well after the fall of Hatteras as before, and public 
sentiment in loud complaint urged the department to do 
something with its immense navy to better protect the coast- 
wise commerce than had resulted from the capture of Hat- 
teras. Moreover, it was known that within the waters of 
those sounds there were building some powerful iron-clads, 
which, if permitted to be completed, woidd not only enable 
the Confederates to retain supremacy in the sounds, but re- 
capturing Hatteras, to issue to sea, and raise the blockade of 
Beaufort and Wilmington. But while the navy might capture, 
it could not hold the interior points, and it was therefore 
necessary that a combined expedition of army and navy 
should be dispatched to the sounds; and to this end Rear- 
Admiral Louis M. Goldsborough, U. S. N., and Major Gen. A. 
E. Burnside, were selected to command the navy and army 
contingents. A fleet of seventeen vessels, mounting 48 guns, ' 
and an army of 17,000 on transports, sailed from Fortress Mon- 
roe, January 11th, 1862, and arrived off Hatteras on the 12th. 
From that day till the 4th of February the expedition was en- 
gaged in getting over the bar and bulkhead at Hatteras, and 
on the 8th appeared before Roanoke Island. Gen. H. A. Wise 
was appointed to the command of the Confederate forces on 
Roanoke Island on January 22d. With the military defence 
of Roanoke Island this work has no proper connection, except 
to express the opinion that greater want of preparation was 
nowhere else shown in all the war; that a more inadequate 
force was nowhere else intrusted with the defence of an im- 
portant position; and to confirm the language of Gen. Gatlin, 
that the authorities " failed to make timely efforts to main- 
tain the ascendancy on the Pamlico Sound, and thus admitted 
Burnside's fleet without a contest : we failed to put a proper 
force on Roanoke Island, and thus lost the key to our interior 

1 The fleet was composed of the Stars and rifled; Hunchback, A. V. Lieut. Coin. Colhoun, 

Stripes, Lieut. Com. WorJen, four 8 inch 55 cwt. three 9-iuch aud one IdO-pdr. rifled; Atoise, Acting 

and one 20-pdr. Parrott gun; Louisiana, Lieut. Master H;iyes, two 9-inch; Wliitehead, Acting 

Com. Murray, one 8-inch 6ii cwt., one 3'2-pdr. Master French, one 9-inch; ,Si'ymour, Acting 

of 57 cwt., two 32-pdrs. of 3 cwt, one r2-pdr. Master Wells, one 30-pdr. i-ifled, one 12-i)dr. 

rifled Dahlgren; Hetzel, Tuieut Com. Davenport, rifled: Shawsheen, Acting Muster Woodward, 

one 9-inch, one 80-pdr. cwt.; Underwriler, Lient. two 20-pdr. rifled; Lockxvood, Acting Master 

Com. Setfers, one 8-inch 63 cwt., one 80-pdr Graves, one 80-pdr. rifled, one 12-pdr. rifled, one 

rifled, one 12-pdr. rifled, one 12-pdr. smooth- 12-pdr. smooth-bore; Ceres, Acting Master Mc- 

bore; Delaware, Lieut. Com. Quackenbuah, one Diarmid, one 30-pdr. rifled, one 32-p(ir. of 33 

9-inch, one 32-pdr. 57 cwt., one 1'2-pdr rifled; cwt ; Ihtlnam, Acting Master Hotclikiss, one 20- 

Valley City, Lieut. Com. Chaplin, four 32-pdr. pdr rifled; Brinckner. Acting Master Giddiugs; 

■42 cwt., one 12-pdr. rifled; Southfield, Act. Vol. aud Granite, Acting Master's Mate Boomer, one 

Lieut. Com. Behm, three 9-inch, one lOO-pdr. 32-pdr. 



THE CONFEDERATE STATES NAVY. 387 

coast; and we failed to furnish Gen. Branch with a reasonable 
force, and thus lost the important town of Newberne." 

On that day Capt. Lynch, from on board the Seabird, off 
Roanoke Island, informed Secretary Mallory of the enemy's 
readiness to advance from Hatteras with a fleet of twenty- 
four gunboats seven large steamers, and sixteen transports, 
and that : 

"To meet these, I have two old side-wheel steamers, and six pro- 
pellers — the former possessing some speed; the latter slow in their 
movements and one of tliem frequently disabling its shaft; but my great- 
est difficulty is in the want of men. So great has been the exposure of our 
crew that a number of them have necessarily been invalided; conse- 
quently the complements are very much reduced, some of them one-half. 
I have sent to Washington, Plymouth, Edenton and Elizabeth City for 
recruits without success, and an earnest appeal to Commodore Forrest 
brought me only four. To meet the enemy I have not more than a suf- 
ficient number of men to fight half the guns." 

The military defence of the island and that by the navy 
are so connected that it is proper to explain in brief the pro- 
visions for defence on the island, and its adjacent waters. By 
a strange omission, and against suggestions amounting almost 
to orders, the defence of the island was made north of Ashby's 
Point, which was left dependent for defence upon two pieces 
of field artillery; and there was '"no battery on Sandy Point," 
which Admiral Goldsborough regarded as an ''omission to 
guard the point," which was the most favorable one on the 
island for the debarkation of troops, and where it was made 
unmolested and undisturbed. The forts upon the island were 
Fort Bartow, the most southern end of the defences on the 
west side — a sand fort well covered with turf, armed with six 
long thirty-two-pounders in embrasure, and three thirty- 
two-pounders en barbette; next Fort Blanchard on the 
same side of the island, about two and a half miles from 
Fort Bartow — a semi-circular sand fort, turfed, and mounting 
four thirty-two-pounders en bar-bette; twelve hundred yards 
from Fort Blanchard, on the same side of the island, stood 
Fort Huger, a turfed sand fort, with a low breastwork in rear, 
with a banquette for infantry, armed with eight thirty-two- 
pounders in embrasur^e, ten rifled thirty-two-pounders en bar- 
bette, and two small thirty-two pounders en bai^bette on the 
right. On the east side of the island, three miles from Fort 
Bartow at Midgett's Point, there was a battery of two 
thirty-two-pounders, guns en barbette, and in the centre of 
the island a mile from Fort Bartow, and one mile from 
Midgett's Point, there was a redoubt, or breastwork, across 
the road, about seventy or eighty yards long, with embras- 
ures for three guns, with a swamp on the right and a marsh 
on the left, supposed to be impassable to infantry; and on 
other side of the sound, nearly opposite Fort Huger, there 
stood Fort Forrest, mounting seven twenty-two-pounders, 
A barrier of piles extended from the east side of Fulker's 



388 



THE CONFEDERATE STATES NAVY. 



Shoals toward the island, having for its object to compel 
vessels passing on the west side to approach the shore bat- 




PLAN OF ROANOKE ISLAND. 



teries, but up to the day of the battle a space of 1,700 yards 
was open opposite Fort Bartow, since vessels had been sunk 



THE CONFEDERATE STATES NAVY. 389 

and piles driven on the west side of Fulker's Shoals. These 
completed the land defences of the island, which, when man- 
ned, left 1,024 men, of whom 200 were on the sick list, 
available to resist Burnside's army of 17.000. 

In the sound, between the island and the mainland. Com- 
modore Lynch had his fleet of seven vessels — the Seabird 
(flagship), Lieut. Com. Patrick McCarrick. one 32-pounder 
smooth bore, and one 30-pounder Parrott ; the Cv^rleiv, Lieut. 
Com. Thos. T. Hunter, one 32-pounder; the Ellis, Lieut. Com. 
J. W. Cooke, one 32-pounder ; the Appomafox, Lieut. Com. 
C. C. Sims, one 32-pounder; the Beaufort, Lieut. Com. W. H. 
Parker, one 32-pounder ; Raleigh, Lieut. Com. J. W. Alexan- 
der, one 32-pounder; Fanny, Midshipman Commander Taylor, 
one 32-pounder ; Forrest, Lieut. Com. James L. Hoole, one 
32-pounder; the i^/ac/i'T^FarWor, Lieut. Harris, two 32-pounders. 
Of these vessels, the Seabird was a wooden side-wheel steamer, 
and the Curleiv an iron side- wheel steamer, the others were 
screw tugboats built for the canals; the Black Warrior was a 
large schooner. The armaments of the fleets were as 11 to 
48, ' and even with the land batteries that could be used in 
the battle, the disparity in numbers, as well as weight of 
metal, was still very largely in favor of the U. S. fleet. At 11 
o'clock, the enemy's fleet, consisting of about thirty gunboats 
and schooners, advanced in two divisions, the rear division 
having the schooners and transports in tow. The advance 
and attacking division again sub-divided, one assailing Capt. 
Lynch's squadron, and the other firing upon the forts with 
nine-inch, ten-inch and eleven-inch shell, spherical case, a few 
round shot, and every variety of rifled projectiles. The fort 
replied with four guns (all that could be brought to bear), and 
after striking the foremost vessel several times, the enemy's 
fleet fell back so as to mask one of the guns of the fort, leaving 
but three to reply to the fire of the whole fleet. The bombard- 
ment continued in that manner throughout the day, and the 
enemy withdrew at dark. Com Lynch's squadron retained 
its position most gallantly, notwithstanding the disparity of 
guns, and only retired after exhausting all its ammunition 
and the loss of the Curleiv and the disabling of the Forrest, 
and wounding her gallant young commander, Lieut. Hoole. 
On the morning of February 7th, 1862, the enemy succeeded 
in landing a large infantry and artillery force at Hammond 
(a point north of Ashby's Landing, and out of reach of 
the few field-pieces at Ashby's, and defended by a swamp 
from the advance of the Confederate infantry, and protected 
by his gunboats), and eff'ected a permanent lodgment on the 
island. Having landed a force amounting nearly to 15,000 
infantry and artillery, the enemy was able to outflank the 

1 Capt. Pafter says: "At daylight the next and theTFarWor did not take any part in the ac- 
morning, the Appomatox was dispatched to tion, this reduced our force to s'evetiH'essels and 
-Edentou, and as she did not return till simset, eight guns." — Kecolledions of a Naval Off., p. 229. 



390 . THE CONFEDERATE STATES NAVY, 

Confederate line, upon which there "were but 803 men [left] 
for infantry duty," and compelled the abandonment of the first 
line of defence; repeating the movement, the enemy compelled 
the abandonment of Fort Bartow, and also of Forts Blanchard 
and Huger. 

Upon the evacuation of the forts, Capt. Lynch held a con- 
sultation with his officers on the propriety of retreating to Nor- 
folk, through the Chesapeake and Albemarle Canal, or to 
Elizabeth City on the Pasquotank River. By going to Norfolk 
all the vessels miglit have been saved, but that would have 
been a total abandonment of the waters of North Carolina, 
to defend which Com. Lynch had been sent to the sounds. 
For that reason it was decided to retreat to Elizabeth City, the 
terminus of the Dismal Swamp Canal, by which it was hoped 
to obtain ammunition from Norfolk. Having communicated 
this determination to Col. Shaw,' in command on Roanoke 
Island, through Lieut. Parker, the squadron got under way 
for Elizabeth City, the Seahird towing the Forrest. The night 
was pitchy dark, and as no vessel could show a light without 
discovering to the enemy the retreat, navigation without col- 
lision required all tlie skill and nerve of the officers. On the 
morning of February Stli, Com. Lynch had the satisfaction of 
finding his six steamers at Elizabeth, and immediately dis- 
patched Capt. Hunter to Norfolk for ammunition. The next 
morning, having found a few rounds of ammunition, he 
steamed out of the river in the Seahird, taking the Raleigh with 
him. to reconnoitre and ascertain the purpose of the enemy. 

The fleet of Commander Goldsborough, consisting of the 
Louisiana, the Hetzel. the Under wriier, the Delaware (flag- 
ship), the Perry, the Valley City, the Morse, the Seymour, the 
Whitehead, the LocHvood, the Ceres, the Shawsheen, Brinck- 
ner, and Putnam, after getting through the obstructions, fol- 
lowed close upon the retreating squadron of Commander 
Lynch; for as the enemy's flotilla passed into Albemarle 
Sound, the smoke of Commander Lynch's steamers was seen 
not far distant near the opposite shore, heading for Pas- 
quotank River. Chase was immediately signaled by Com- 
mander Rowan, commanding the flotilla, and an effort made 
to cut off the steamers before they could reach the river. But 
Lieut. Parker was too quick and safely steamed in, and as 
night closed on the enemy, he discontinued tlie chase, and 
anchored at 8 p. m. within ten miles of Fort Cobb, on Cobb's- 
Point. 

Capt. Lynch's reconnoitering detachment found Com- 
mander Rowan's fleet, which immediately sent two steamers 
in pursuit — compelling Lynch to return to Elizabeth City, 
which place he reached about 5 p. m. About dajdight on the 
10th, Commander Rowan's flotilla weighed anchor and with 
the tj7iderivriter. Perry, Morse and Delaware, the Ceres, Loui- 
siana, Hetzel, Valley City and Whitehead, proceeded up the 



THE CONFEDERATE STATES NAV'Y. 391 

river, and discovered Lynch's six steamers behind the battery 
at Cobb's Point— which contained four thirty-two-pounders 
taken from the lost Curlew — the schooner Black Warriot\ two 
thirty-two pounders, which was moored on the opposite side of 
the river. The armament of the respective forces was eight 
guns to thirty-two — six vessels to fourteen. The Raleigh had 
escaped to Norfolk, and the Forrest was drawn up on the ways 
at Elizabeth City. At 8:30 a. m., the enemy's flotilla was 
seen steaming swiftly up the river — and at that moment the 
Confederate infantry in the fort fled, and Lieut. Parker, of 
the Beaufort, was ordered with his crew to occupy the aban- 
doned fort; and, quick to obey the order, he dispatched the 
Beaufort to Norfolk, under the pilot, and with his men re- 
paired to the fort. The enemy, while this change was taking 
place, had got into line and was received by the fire of the 
guns of the fort under Parker and his men from the Beaufor^t. 
Capt. Lynch was caught on shore, by his row-boat being cut 
to pieces by one of the enemy's first shots. The flotilla under 
Commander Rowan reserved its fire until close to the fort 
and the vessels of Capt. Lynch, when without slacking its 
speed it passed the fort and fell upon the little -fleet of Capt. 
Lynch — the Perry rammed and sunk the Seabird, the Ellis 
was speedily captured after a desperate defence, in which her 
gallant commander, James W. Cooke, was badly wounded — 
the schooner Black Warrior was set on fire and abandoned 
by her crew — the Fanmj was run on shore and blown up by 
her officers. The Appomatox was fought with great success 
by Lieut. Commander Simms until her gun was accidentally 
spiked, when she was drawn off, firing her howitzer from the 
stern, and made for the mouth of the canal, but being about 
two inches too wide she could not enter and was then set on 
fire by Lieut. Simms. Parker from the fort witnessed the 
destruction of the fleet, but was powerless to prevent or even 
annoy the enemy while at their work of destruction, and 
seeing that he could do no further service, spiked the guns 
and withdrew his men, and with Capt. Lynch and the sur- 
vivors retreated to Norfolk. Midshipman Wm. C. Jackson, in 
swimming from the Ellis, was wounded and taken on board 
the Wetzel, where he received every attention and kindness 
until he died the next day. The Forrest was burned on the 
ways to prevent her falling into the hands of the enemy. ' 

1 Tlie following officers and men of the C. S. any manner or way, nor divulge, to their preju- 

navy were captured and paroled upon signing a dice, anything I may have heard or seen during 

pax^er worded as follows : my captivity." 

"Off Roanoke Island, North Carolina, J Their names and rank are ; 

On Boaed U. S. Vessel-of-War, V J. W.Cooke, lieut. commanding: J. W. B.Green- 

February 12th, 1862. ) how, surgeon; E. Holt Jones, assist, surgeon; P. 

"Belonging to the Confederate State.'* navy, McCarrick. master commanding; Jerry Bowden, 

and held as a prisoner of war by the authori- colored boy; Stephen Beasly, seaman; Thomas 

ties of the United States, I, understanding that T. Baum. ordinary seaman; Eames Williams, 

this paper is intended to release me on yiarole, landsman: John Thornton, ordinary seaman; 

do hereby pledge my saored honor that, until James Barnett. seaman; Iowa Gregory, ordi- 

duly exchanged. I will neither take up arms nary seaman; Elias Williams, seaman; James 

against the United States, serve ayainsttUem in A. Peters, midshipman; J. W. Wolmsley, third 



392 THE CONFEDERATE STATES NAVY. 

Speaking of the engagement in Albemarle Sound. Com- 
mander John N. Maffitt. C. S. N., in his Reminiscences, says: 
•• Commodore Lynch was appointed to the command of the 
naval forces in the waters of North Carolina. Early in Feb- 
ruary, 18G2, he hoisted his flag on board the Seabird, a small 
passenger steamer. The six remaining vessels of his force 
were of the same flimsy character. Burn side entered the 
sound with sixty-seven vessels. Twenty-five were powerful, 
well-armed gunboats, mounting the heaviest naval ordnance; 
the remainder transported a large army with its equipment 
and all military requirements. 

" Nothing daunted, the heroic Lynch, on the 7th of Febru- 
ary. 1863, formed his line of battle abreast of the Confederate 
batteries established on Roanoke Island." 

" The boldness and unflinching attitude of these diminutive rebel ves- 
sels in defying immense odds in power and number, elicited from many 
Federals flattering expressions of admiration for this exhibition of decided 
pluck by their nautical enemies — a chivalry of sentiment too rarely in- 
dulged in by eitlier side during the war. To dispai*age the courage of an 
enemy is to detract from tlie honors of tlae victoi*. 

" The unequal contest commenced at 10 A. M., and continued until 
5 p. M., when Lynch was forced to retire, having expended all his ammu- 
nition, not a cartridge remaining in the fleet ; in fact the Ellis, Capt. 
Cooke, had conttuued fighting for hours on borrowed powder. Several 
vessels were seriously damaged. The Curlew was struck by a 100-pound 
shot between wind and water; the commander ran her ashore and ap- 
plied the torch. The casualties in the fleet were numei-ous. The commo- 
dore hastened to Elizabeth City and sent to Norfolk by express for ammu- 
nition. On its arrival he started baq^ for Roanoke Island, but returned 
to Elizabeth City on receiving information of the surrender. Here the 
determined Lynch, with a lew remaining vessels, decided to make a final 
stand for weal or woe. 

"On the morning of the 10th, fourteen Federal gunboats, fiushed 
with their recent success, dashed impetuously upon the Confederates, and 
in spite of a desperate resistance then* immense preponderance of force 
swept everything before them. Tlie commandei-s of the Fanny, Acco- 
mac, and Seabird, seeing that capture was inevitable, fired their steam- 
ers and escaped with their crews. The Beaufort and Raleigh passed 
through the canal and arrived in safety at Norfolk. The Ellis, com- 
manded by James W. Cooke, resisted to the bitter end. Boarders 
swarmed on board of her, and were met, cutlass in hand, by the daunt- 
less captain, who, though badly wounded by a musket ball and by a 
thrust from a bayonet, fought with the fierceness of a tiger, refusing to 
surrender or haul down his flag. 

" Overpowered by numbers he was borne to the deck: and would have 
been slaughtered on the spot but for the generous interference of an old 
associate, who caused him to be safely conveyed to Commodore Rowan's 
flag-ship, where extreme kindness was extended. 

"The regular officers of the navy had not expunged from their bear- 
ing the ancient chivalry of the profession ; brave jjrisoners received at 

assistant eiiprfnoer; George Livingston, cajitain's assistant engineer ; Reuben Willis, pilot : Jo- 
clerk; Jas. McCarrick. master's mate; John W. seph F. Weaver, carpenter; Alfred Keid, officer's 
Young, seaman; J. W. Ballance, landsman, cook; JosiaU W. Butt, qnartermaater: Edwin T. 
John W. Phillips, quartermaster; Thomas John- K. Jones, carpenter's mate; John W. Horton, 
ston, gunner's mate; John A.Wilson, seaman; ship's cook. George W. Dowdy, seaman; Jas. 
■\Villiam Maro, second-class fireman; James T. L. D:iy. seaman; William R. Scraggs, second 
Sullivan, ordinary seaman; J. J. Henderson. lieutenant, company D., artillery corps. Wise 
lliird assistant engineer; Junius Hanks, third legion. 



THE CONFEDERATE STATES NAVY. 393 

their hands that generous consideration taught by the examples of Deca- 
tur, Stewart, Bainbridge, and other grand old nautical fathers. If dur- 
ing the struggle there was a departure from the golden rule of honor, the 
perpetrator was anathematized by the navy proper, which, through all 
the labyrinths and horrors hidigenous to civil war, humanely endeavored 
to ameliorate its harshness. 

''The naval battles in Albemarle Sound and off Elizabeth City re- 
flected much credit upon the personal courage of all the Confederate offi- 
cers therein engaged. With mere abortions for gunboats, badly armed 
and sparse of ammunition, they confronted without hesitation the well- 
equipped and powerful vessels of the North. 

" Even those who, to prevent cai3ture, fired their steamers, fought 
their guns amid raging flames and bannei's flying, retreating at last with 
the stubbornness of the Old Guard, that 'were conquered, but not sub- 
dued.' This defeat, like those of Hatteras Inlet and Port Royal, being 
inconsiderately weighed in the scales of popular estimation, as a natural 
sequence the navy was pronounced 'short of weight.' Success is the 
vital spark that excites confidence and admiration. Without the smiles 
of good fortune all the ability man can possibly be endowed with is un- 
appreciated.'" ^ 

Thus Roanoke Island was lost. It was the key to all 
the rear defences of Norfolk: it unlocked two sounds (Albe- 
marle and Currituck), eight rivers — North, West, Pasquo- 
tank, Perquimans. Little, Chowan, Roanoke and Alligator, four 
canals — the Albemarle and Chesapeake, the Dismal Swamp, 
the Northwest and the Norfolk, and two railroads — the Pe- 
tersburg and Norfolk and the Seaboard and Roanoke. It 
guarded more than four-fifths of Norfolk's supplies of corn, 
pork and forage, and it cut the command of Gen. Huger off 
from all its most efficient transportation. Its possession by 
the enemy endangered the existence of Huger's army, threat- 
ened the navy-yard at Gosport, and to cut off Norfolk from 
Richmond, and both from railroad communication with the 
South Atlantic States. It lodged the enemy in a safe harbor 
from the storms of Hatteras, gave him a rendezvous and a 
large and rich range of supplies, and the. command of the sea- 
board from Oregon Inlet to Cape Henry. It ought to have 
been defended by 20,000 men, instead of the single brigade 
of Gen. Wise and the little fleet of seven small vessels of Capt. 
Lynch. That the enemy did not appreciate the value of his 
capture, and the importance of the waters he had won, is as 
little to the credit of the military and naval authorities of the 
United States as the loss of the position was discreditable to 
the Confederate authorities. 

From Elizabeth City Commander Rowan dispatched the 
Louisiana, the Underwrite}', the Ferry, and the Lockn:ood to 
Eilenton, where a vessel was being built, which was destroyed. 
Upon the return of the expedition from Edenton. Commander 
Rowan dispatched a portion of his fleet to block the Chesa- 
peake and Albemarle Canal, and while he was blocking it at 
one end. the Confederates were doing the same work further 

1 Reminiscences of the Confederate Navy, United Service Magazine, Oct. 1830. 



394 THE CONFEDERATE STATES NAVY. 

up, and thus the back door of Norfolk was effectually closed 
by the labors of its assailants and defenders. 

The Confederate navy in the waters of the sounds of North 
Carolina was in that first action, if not entirely destroyed, 
dissipated and scattered; the enemy not encountering a single 
armed vessel in any one of the expeditions up the rivers and 
to the towns of that large section of that State. 

The official report of Commodore Lynch of the participa- 
tion of his fleet in the defence of Roanoke Island and Elizabeth 
City, on the 7th of February, was as follows: 

"Flag-ship 'Seabtrd,' ) 
"Off Roanoke Island, February 7th, 1862. ) 

•' Sir: I have the honor to report that the enemy, at 10 A. M., to day, 
with twenty-two heavy steamers and one tug, made an attack upon this 
squadron and the battery at Pork Point. 

" As his numerical force was overwhelming, we commenced the action 
at long range, but as our shell fell short, while his burst over and around 
us (owing, I think, to the superior quality of his powder, we were event- 
ually compelled to shorten the distance. 

"The fight lasted continuously from 10 A. M. to 5:30 P. M., throughout 
which the soldiers in the battery sustained their position with a gallantry 
wliich won our warmest approV)ation. The fire was terrific, and at times 
the battery would be enveloped in the sand and dust thrown up by shot 
and shell. 

" And yet their casualties was only one man killed and three wounded. 
The earthwork, however, was very much cut up. I mention the battery 
because, in all probability, communication will reach you before intelli- 
gence will be received from appropriate official source. The enemy ap- 
proached in two divisions, the rear one having the schooner transports in 
tow. 

"The advance, which was the attacking division, again subdivided, 
and one portion assailed us and the other the batteiy. Repeatedly, in the 
course of the day, I feared that our little squadron of seven vessels would 
be utterly demolished, but a gracious Providence preserved us. 

" Master-Commanding Moall, of the Forrest, received a wound in the 
head, which is pronounced serious, if not mortal. I yet trust that this 
promising young officer, who so bravely fought his ship, will be spared to 

the service. Midshipman Camm, of the M/is, and of the Curlem, 

each lost an arm, which, with three others slightly wounded, constitute 
the sum of our personal casualties. 

' I am sorry to say that the Cu7'Ieu\ our largest steamer, was sunk, 
and the Forrest, one of the propellers, disabled. We have received other 
injuries from the shot and shell, but comparatively of light character, 
and could, with the exception of the Forrest, be prepared to renew the 
action to-morrow, if we only had ammunition. I have not a pound of 
powder nor a loaded shell remaining, and few of the other vessels are bet- 
ter off. During the latter part of the engagement, when the ammunition 
was nearly exhausted, I sent to the upper battery for a supply, but ten 
charges were all that could be spared, and those were expended at dark, 
as the enemy was withdrawing from the contest. 

" In all probability the contest will be renewed to-morrow, for the 
enemy having landed a force below the battery will doubtless endeavor 
to divert its fire. I have decided, after receiving the guns from the wreck 
of the Curlew, to proceed direct with the squadron to Elizabeth City, and 
send express to Norfolk for ammunition. Should it arrive in time we will 
return to aid in the defence; if not, will there make a final stand, and 
blow up the vessels rather than they shall fall into the hands of the 
enemv. 



THE CONFEDERATE STATES NAVY. o05 

"There are reasons for retiring upon Norfolk, but it would be un- 
seemly thus to desert this section of country. If 1 have erred in judgment, 
by a speedy notification the error will be corrected. 

"Commander Hunter, Lieut. Commanders Cooke, Parker, and Alex- 
ander, and Mastei-s Commanding McCarrick, Taylor, and Hoole, l^ravely 
sustained the credit of the service, and every oflicer and man performed 
his duty with alacrity. Lieut. Commanding Simms, although absent on 
detailed service, exhibited such an eagerness to participate in the conflict 
as to give full assurance that, if gratified, he would have upheld his high 
reputation. , , ,. 

" I am, very resi)ectfully, your obedient, 

"W. F. Lynch, Flag-offlcer. 

''The Hon. S. R. Mallory, Secretary of the Navy:' 

But tliough defeated, and all the naval vessels destroyed, 
and the enemy controlling all the waters of the North Carolina 
Sounds — the hope yet remained of regaining control and re- 
establishing Confederate ar.thority over the district watered 
by the rivers and sounds of eastern North Carolina. While new 
vessels were being constructed in the upper waters, the enemy 
was watched with eagerness for any unguarded point where 
an enterprising and bold assailant might make an effort to 
capture a gunboat to form the beginning of a force afloat. 
The long period of inactivity, with only patrol duty by gun- 
boats in the sounds and rivers, produced a carelessness and 
want of watchfulness which offered the opportunity desired. 

In January, 1864, the Confederate naval commanders at 
Richmond, Wilmington and Charleston, received orders from 
the Navy Department to select a boat's crew of fifteen able and 
trusty seamen, under the command of an experienced officer, 
from each of the gunboats then lying at the above-named 
ports, and report with their arms and boats to Commander 
John Taylor Wood, of the C. S. navy, and Colonel on the 
President's staff, at Wilmington, N. C. By the latter part of 
January everytliing was in readiness; the men were well 
armed, and accompanied by four boats and two large launches, 
they left Wilmington by the Kingston railway, under the 
command of Col. Wood. The utmost secrecy had been observed 
by those in command as to the object of the expedition and its 
destination. 

The town of Newberne, a place of some note in North 
Carolina, lies on a point of land at the junction of the Trent 
and Neuse Rivers with Pamlico Sound. Roanoke Island was 
captured on the 14th of February, 1862, and following that 
event Newberne surrendered to the Federals. They at once 
threw up fortifications, which extended over an area of twenty 
miles, and in order to strengthen tlieir position and provide 
against the'chances either of surprise or capture, three or four 
of their gunboats were either anchored off the wharf at New- 
berne, or else kept cruising up and down the Neuse or Trent 
Rivers. The largest of these gunboats was the Under ivr iter, 
a large side-wheel steamer, which fired the first gun in the 
attack on Roanoke Island, and participated in most of the 



396 THE CONFEDERATE STATES NAVY. 

engagements fought along the North Carolina coast. The 
Underwriter had engines of 800 horse power, and carried four 
guns, one six-inch rifled Dahlgren. one eight-inch of the same 
pattern, one twelve-pound rifle, and one twelve-pound how- 
itzer. Jacob Westervelt. of New York, Acting Master U. S. 
navy, was her commander. 

The expedition under Col. Wood reached Kingston early 
on the morning of Sunday, January 31st; the boats being at 
once unloaded from the cars and dragged by the men to the 
river and launched in the Neuse. The distance between 
Kingston and Newberne by rail is about thirty miles, but the 
tortuous and circuitous course which the river takes, makes 
the journey by water at least twice that length. Bending 
silently to the muffled oars, the expedition moved down the 
river. Now, the Neuse broadened until the boats seemed to be 
on a lake; again, the tortuous stream narrowed until the party 
could almost touch the trees on either side. Not a sign of life 
was visible, save occasionally when a flock of wild ducks, 
startled at the approach of the boats, rose from the banks, and 
then poising themselves for a moment overhead, flew on swift 
wing to the shelter of the woodland or the morass. No other 
sound was heard to break the stillness save the constant, steady 
splash of the oars and the ceaseless surge of the river. Some- 
times a fallen log impeded the progress, again a boat would 
run aground, but as hour after hour passed hj, the boats still 
sped on, the crews cold and weary, but yet cheerful and un- 
complaining. Night fell, dark shadows began to creep over 
the marshes and crowd the river ; owls screeched among the 
branches overhead, through which the expedition occasionally 
caught glimpses of the sky. There was nothing to guide the 
boats on their course, but the crew still kept hopefully on, and 
by eleven o'clock the river seemed to become wider, and Col. 
Wood discovered that he had reached the open country above 
Newberne. 

When in sight of the town, Col. Wood ran his boats into 
a small stream, and succeeded in getting them close to the 
shore. The party landed on what seemed to be a little island 
covered with tall grass and shrubs. Here the men found tem- 
porary shelter, and rations were served. 

At midnight the men were called to quarters, and the object 
of the expedition was explained. Major Gen. G. E. Pickett, 
who was then commanding the Confederate forces operating 
against Newberne, was to open fire on the enemy's lines 
around the town, thus drawing his attention inland, while 
Col. Wood and his command, under cover of the diversion, 
were, if possible, to capture one or more of the gunboats and 
clear the river. Arms were inspected and ammunition dis- 
tributed, and everything made ready to embark on what 
each of the party felt was a perilous enterprise. In order to 
distinguish the Confederates in the dark, each man was 



THE CONFEDERATE STATES NAVY. 397 

furnished with a white hadge, to be worn around the left arm. 
and the pass-word " Sumter" was given. 

The firing of Pickett's command was now heard on the 
right. In company with Hoke's brigade, a part of Corse's 
and Clingham's and some artillery, Gen. Pickett had made a 
reconnoissance within a mile and a half of Newberne. He 
met the enemy in force at Batchelor's Creek, killed and 
wounded about one hundred in all, captured thirteen officers 
and 280 men, fourteen negroes, two rifled pieces and caissons, 
oOO stands of small arms, besides camp and garrison equipage. 
His loss was thirty-five killed and wounded. 

While the engagement at Batchelor's Creek was in prog- 
ress. Acting Volunteer Lieut. G. W. Graves, of the U. S. 
steamer Locknvood, commanding the Federal vessels at New- 
berne, communicated with Acting Master Westervelt, com- 
manding the Underwriter, and Acting Master Josselyn, com- 
manding the^w/Z, ordering them to be in readiness for a move. 
Early on the morning of the 1st of February, Lieut, Graves 
ordered the Underwriter to get under way and take up posi- 
tion on the Neuse River, so as to command the plain outside 
of the Federal line of works, and the Hull to take a station 
above her. At 9 a. m. the Underivriter had reached the posi- 
tion assigned her, but the Hull, soon after getting under way, 
got aground, and could not be got off during the day. Soon 
after this, hearing from Gen. J. W. Palmer, in command of 
the Union forces, that the Confederates were planting a bat- 
tery near Brice's Creek, Lieut. Graves, in the Lockwood, pro- 
ceeded as far up the Trent River as he could get, and laid 
there for the night. 

In the meantime, Col. Wood had again launched his boats 
in the Neuse, and arranged them in two divisions, the first 
commanded by himself, and the second by Lieut. B. P. Loy- 
all. After forming parallel to each other, the two divisions 
pulled rapidly down stream. When they had rowed a short 
distance. Col. Wood called all the boats together, final instruc- 
tions were given, and this being through with, he offered a 
fervent prayer for the success of his mission. It was a strange 
and ghostly sight, the men resting on their oars with heads 
uncovered, the commander also bareheaded, standing erect in 
the stern of his boat ; the black waters rippling beneath ; the 
dense overhanging clouds pouring down sheets of rain, and in 
the blackness beyond an unseen bell tolling as if from some 
phantom cathedral. The party listened — four peals were 
sounded and then they knew it was the bell of the Underimnter, 
or some other of the gunboats, ringing out for two o'clock. 
Guided by the sound, the boats pulled toward the steamer, 
pistols, muskets and cutlasses in readiness. The advance was 
necessarily slow and cautious. Suddenly, when about three 
hundred yards from the Underiutnter, her hull loomed up out 
of the inky darkness. Through the stillness came the sharp 



398 THE CONFEDERATE STATES NAVY. 

ring- of five bells for lialf-past two o'clock, and just as the echo 
died away, a quick, nervous voice from the deck hailed," Boat 
ahoy !" No answer was given, but Col. Wood kept steadily 
on. "Boat ahoy ! Boat ahoy ! !" again shouted the watch. 
No answer. Then the rattle on board the steamer sprang 
summoning the men to quarters, and the Confederates could 
see the dim and shadowy outline of hurrying figures on deck. 
Nearer Col. Wood came, shouting, "Give way !" "Give way, 
boys, give way !" repeated Lieut. Loyall and the respective 
boat commanders, and give way they did with a will. The 
few minutes that followed were those of terrible suspense. To 
retreat was impossible, and if the enemy succeeded in opening 
fire on tlie boats with his heavy guns all was lost. 

The instructions were that one of the Confederate divi- 
sions should board forward and the other astern, but, in tlie 
excitement, the largest number of the boats went forward, 
with Col. Wood amidships. 

In the meantime, the Underwriter, anchored within thirty 
yards of two forts, slipped her cable and made efforts to get 
up sufficient steam from her banked fires, to move off, or run 
the Confederates down. This movement only hastened the 
boarding party, and the crews pulled rapidly alongside. Lieut. 
George W. Gift, believing that the Underivriter was moving, 
gave orders to Midshipman J. Thomas Scharf, who was in 
command of the boarders in the bow of his launch, to open 
fire on the steamer with the howitzer which was mounted in 
the bow, and endeavor to cripple her machinery. One shot 
was fired which struck in the pilot-house, and before the how- 
itzer was reloaded the boats were alongside, and the crews 
scrambling on deck. The enemy had by this time gathered 
in the ways just aft of the wheel-house, and as the Confeder- 
ates came up they poured into them volley after volley of 
musketry, each flash of which reddened the waters around, 
enabling the attacking party to note their position. In spite 
of the heavy fire, the boarders were cool and yet eager, now 
and then one or more were struck down, but the rest never 
faltered. When the boats struck the sides of the Underivriter, 
grapnels were thrown on board, and the Confederates were 
soon scrambling, with cutlass and pistol in hand, to the deck 
with a rush and a wild cheer, that rung across the waters, the 
firing from the enemy never ceasing for one moment. The 
brave Lieut. B. P. Loyall was the first to reach the deck, with 
Engineer Emmet F. Gill, and Col. Wood at his side. Following 
in their steps came Lieuts. Francis L. Hoge, Wm. A. Kerr. 
Philip Porcher, James M. Gardner, F. M. Roby, Henry Wilkin- 
son, George W. Gift, Midshipmen Saunders, H. S. Cook, J. T. 
Scharf, and William S. Hogue, gallantly leading their men. 

The firing at this time became so hot that it did not seem 
possible that more than half the Confederates would escape 
with their lives. Col. Wood, with the bullets whistling around 



THE CONFEDERATE STATES NAVY. 399 

liim, issued his orders as coolly and unconcernedly as if tlie 
enemy luul not even been in sight. All fouglit well. There 
was no halting, no cowardice; every man stood at his post and 
did his duty. The conduct of the officers was beyond all 
praise. Cool and collected in every movement, they executed 
their parts well. From Commander Wood down to the young- 
est midshipman, not one faltered. Conspicuous among all 
was the conduct of the marines, a company of them under 
Capt. Thomas S. Wilson being distributed through the boats. 
As the Confederates came up to the ship the marines rose and 
delivered their fire, taking accurate aim, reloading still under 
the iieavy fire from the enemy. When on board they obeyed 
iheir orders promptly, and, forming on the hurricane deck, 
not even the explosion of the monster shell fired by the enemy 
from one of the shore batteries among them could break the 
ranks or turn a man from his post. 

Once on the deck of the Underivriter the onslaught was fu- 
rious. Cutlasses and pistols were the weapons of the Confed- 
erates, and each selected and made a rush for his man. The 
odds were against the attacking party, and some of them had 
to struggle with three opponents. But they never flinched in 
the life-and-death struggle, nor did the gallant enemy. The 
boarders forced the fighting. Blazing rifles had no terrors for 
iihem. They drove back the enemy inch by inch. Steadily, 
but surely, the boarders began to gain the deck, and crowded 
their opponents to the companion-ways or other places of con- 
cealment; while all the time fierce hand-to-hand fights were 
going on on other portions of the vessel. Now, one of the Con- 
federates would sink exhausted — again, one of the enemy 
would fall on the slippery deck. Rifles were snatched from 
the hands of the dead and the dying, and used in the hands 
as bludgeons did deadly work. Down the companion-ways 
the attacked party were driven pell-mell into the ward-room 
and steerage, and even to the coal-bunkers, and after another 
sharp but decisive struggle the enemy surrendered. The Un- 
derwriter was captured, its commander slain, ' and many of 
its officers and men killed and wounded, or drowned. The 
Confederate loss was over one-fourth of the number engaged 
— six killed and twenty-two wounded. E. F. Gill,'^ the Con- 
federate engineer, lay in the gangway mortally wounded, and 
Midshipman Saunders, ^ a gallant boy, cut down in a hand-to- 
hand fight, breathed out his young life on deck. 

The Undernvriter was moored head and stern between 
Fort Anderson and Fort Stevenson, and scarcely a stone's 

1 Acting Master Josepli Westervelt, the com- time of his death he was stationed ou the irou- 
mander of the Undenvriter,vfa,s born in New York, clad Fredericksburg, at Richmond, Va. 

and appointed from that State, Feb. 8th 1862. His 3 Palmer Saunders was born in Virginia, and 

body was not recovered until Feb. "iSth, 1864. appointed from that State on August Uth, 1861, 

2 Emmet F. Gill was born in Virginia, and a midshipman in the C. S. ua^y. He was cut 
appointed from that State a Third Assistant En- through the head several times with a cutlass, 
gineer in the Provisional Navy of the Confed- and afterwards shot in the stomach. He was a 
erate States on February 19th, 1863. At the very promising youn^ officer. 



400 THE CONFEDERATE STATES NAVY. 

throw from the shore. The sound of the firing was heard at 
the batteries, and by the time the Confederates captured the 
boat, which took about ten minutes, the Federals on shore fired 
a shell into her, which struck the upper machinery and ex- 
ploded on deck. All of the shore batteries then opened fire on 
the doomed vessel, either careless of or not realizing the fact 
that their own wounded must be on board; and the captors soon 
found that a rapid movement would have to be made. The 
prisoners were ordered into the boats, and the Confederates who 
were on board began to prepare for action. Lieut. Hoge opened 
the magazines and manned the guns. Steam, however, was 
down and the machinery disabled, and with a heavy fire from 
the batteries pouring upon them, it was seen that the Confed- 
erates could not take suflEicient time to carry off their prize. 
It was, therefore, determined to set fire to the vessel. The 
Confederate wounded and those of the enemy were carefully 
removed to the boats alongside, the guns were loaded and 
pointed towards the town, fire was applied from the boilers, 
and in five minutes after the boarders left, the Underwriter 
was in one mass of flames from stem to stern, burning with 
her the dead bodies of those of the brave antagonists who had 
fallen during the action. 

The Confederates retired under a heavy fire from the shore 
batteries, and also from a volley of musketry, which whistled 
along the water. They turned once more up the Neuse, and 
pulled away from the town. As they rounded a point of woods 
they took a last look at the burning steamer, now completely 
enveloped in flame, the lurid light flaming in the sky and 
flashing for miles across the water. Although hidden from 
view, they could see by sudden flashes in the sky, and by the 
dull, heavy booming sound which came to them upon the night 
air, that the shell-room was reached and that the explosion 
had begun. Turning into Swift Creek, about eight miles from 
Newberne, the party landed on the shore to care for the 
wounded and receive intelligence froin Gen. Pickett. It was 
part of the Confederate plan, if the military had been success- 
ful in their attack on the enemy's works on the land side of 
Newberne, for the boats to land a large force of infantry on the 
water side of the forts and to attempt to carry them by assault. 
Owing to the failure of some of his command to co-operate in 
tlie demonstration. Gen. Pickett withdrew his troops from 
before Newberne, and the naval force, on the next morning, re- 
tired up the river. 

During the attack on the Underwriter, which was defended 
with great gallantry, the other gunboats took the alarm and 
maile up the Trent as fast as steam could carry them, and 
luckily for the Confederates they did not dare to take ]>art in 
the fight. When the shell exploded on the deck of the Under- 
writer, it is said that Acting Master Westervelt, the commander, 
leaped overboard, and was killed hanging to a hawser. Edgar 



THE CONFEDERATE STATES NAVY. 401 

G. Allen, the engineer of the Underwriter, who escaped, in his 
report to Lieut. Graves, under date of February 2d, 1804, says: 

" I, together with eighteen or twenty of the crew, being put into the 
whale boat belonging to the Underwriter. * * * We then shoved off 
and were proceeding up the stream, the boat I was in being astern the rest, 
when I discovered that, in their hurry to get off, they had put only two 
men as guard in the boat. This fact I discovered by the one in the stern 
steering (by whom I was sitting) hailing the other boats, which were 
some fifty yards ahead of us, and asked them to take off some of us, as 
the boat was so overloaded it could make no headway, and also saying 
they wanted a stronger guard, as all but two were prisoners. One of the 
other boats was turning to come back, when I snatched the cutlass from 
the belt of the guard and told the men to pull for their lives. Some of 
the men, the other guard among them, jumped overboard and swam for 
the land. I headed the boat for the shore and landed at the foot of the 
line of breastworks, delivered my prisoner to the commanding officer, and 
procuring an ambulance, took one of our disabled men to the hospital." 

The Undericrifer lost in the engagement about nine 
killed, tw^enty wounded and nineteen prisoners. Twenty- 
three of her officers and men escaped. 

In recognition of the distinguished gallantry displayed in 
the capture of the Underwriter, the Confederate Congress, on 
February 15tli, 1864, unanimously passed the following: 

'^^ Joint resolution of thanks to Commander John Taylor Wood and 
the officers and men under his command, for their daring and brilliant 
conduct. 
'•'■ Resolved, by the Congress of the Confederate States of America., That 
the thanks of the Congress of the Confederate States are due, and are 
hereby tendered, to Commander John Taylor Wood, Confederate States 
Navy, and to the officers and men inider his command, for the daring and 
brilliantly executed plans which resulted in the capture of the U. S. trans- 
port schooner Elmore, on the Potomac River; of the ship Alleghany, and 
the U. S. gunboats Satellite and Belianee ; and the U. S. transport 
schooners Golden Bod, Coquette and Two Brothers, on the Chesapeake ; 
and more recently, in the capture from under the guns of the enemy's 
works of the U. S. gunboat Unde /'writer, on the Neuse River, near New- 
berne, North Carolina, with the officers and crews of the several vessels 
brought off as prisoners. " 

" This was rather a mortifying affair for the navy " (U.S.) 
says Admiral Porter, "however fearless on the part of the 
Confederates. This gallant expedition," he continues, " was 
led by Commander John Taylor Wood. * * It was to be ex- 
pected that with so many clever officers who left the Federal 
navy and cast their fortunes with the Confederates, such gallant 
actions would often be attempted," and it is his opinion that 
"had the enemy attacked the forts the chances are that they 
would have been successful, as the garrison was unprepared 
for an attack from the river, their most vulnerable side."-" 

1 Most of the officers associated with Col. Navy DEPAET>rENT, C. S. A. | 

Wood were promoted for their daring and des- Kichmond, Feb. 10th, 1865. ) 

perate act iu capturing the Underwriter. Lieut. Commander Benjamin P. Loyall, P. N. C. S.: 

Loyall received the following letter from Secre- Sib : You are hereby informed that the Presi- 

tary of the Navy S. R. Mallory in recognition of dent has appointed you, by and with the advice 

his distinguished gallantry: and consent of the Senate, a Commander in the 
26 



402 THE CONFEDERATE STATES NAVY. 

The experience which old steamboats mounting a gun, 
and called by the sounding name of a gunboat, brought to 
the Confederate authorities, was of a kind to teach the lesson 
that, as the vessels which could regain the sounds must be 
built, it was wiser to build iron-clad steamers of light draft, 
and to carry one or two guns, than to attempt to strengthen 
any river craft and convert them into gunboats. 

The Confederate Navy Department on January 13th, 1862, 
entered into a contract with Gilbert Elliott, agent for J. G. 
Martin, of Elizabeth City, N. C. , to construct and deliver to the 
Navy Department, at Elizabeth City, the hulls of three gun- 
boats, within four months after the Gth day of January, 1862. 
The capture of Roanoke Island, followed by the occupation of 
the Pasquotank River, frustrated that contract. Again, on 
April 16th, 1862, another contract was entered into with the 
same party for the construction of "one gunboat, to be iron- 
clad," wherein it was stipulated "that if the work is inter- 
rupted by the enemy, the party of the first part is to receive 
compensation for the work done upon the boat to the time of 
such interruption. The contract as published in the report of 
the Investigating Committee, does not indicate in what waters 
that iron-clad was to be built. On September 17tli, 1862, an- 
other contract with Martin & Elliott, of Elizabeth City, was 
made for the construction at Tarboro', N. C. of the hull of one 
gunboat, to be iron-clad, and to be completed on or before the 
first day of March, 1863. On October 17th, 1862, a contract 
with Howard & Ellis, of Newberne, N, C, was entered into 
for the construction, at White Hall, N. C, of the hull of one 
gunboat, to be iron-clad, and completed on or before the first 
day of March, 1863. 

Almost a year before the battle of Plymouth and the ex- 
ploit of the Albemarle, Lieut. Commander C. W. Flusser, of 
the Miami, obtained all the particulars of the construction of 
"a rebel iron-clad battery nearly completed on the Roanoke 
River above Plymouth " — and on June 8th, 1863, advised Act- 
ing Rear Admiral S. P. Lee, with the following description: 

" The battery is built of pine sills fourteen (14) inches square, and is 
to be plated with railroad iron. The steamer intended to tow her is one 
hundred and thirty-four (134) feet long-, and twenty-four (24) feet beam, 
"with two screws. The boat has six ports, two on each side, and one on 
either end. She carries a pivot gun forward, and another aft. Each gnn 
works out of three ports. The battery carries two gvins on each of two 
opposite faces, and one on each of the two remaining sides. The boat is 
built on the plan of the former llerrimac. The roof (slanting) of the 

Provisional Navy of the Confederate States of When the Confederates landed in Swift Creek, 

America, " tor gallant and meritorious conduct as they took their woiiiuled ashore where two of 

second in command and executive officer of the naval the crew died. They were buried in the after- 

expeditiomvhich.onthenightof the 1st of February, noon, the funeral services being read by Lieut. 

1864, cut out from under the guns of the enemy at Loyall. It was a very solemn scene. The boats 

Newberne. N. C, tlie Federal gunboat Underwriter crews were formed in a. square around the graves, 

and destroyed her." with the officers in tlie centre After the fune- 

Yoii are requested to signify your acceptance ral services, Lieut Loyall offered up a beautiful 

or uon-acceptance of this appointment. prayer, thanking God for their victory and safe 

S. B. Malloey, Secretary of the Navy. return. 



THE CONFEDERATE STATES NAVY. 



403 



battery and all parts exposed are to be covered with five inches of pine, 
five inches of oak, and then plated with railroad iron. So say the work- 
men. We are driving piles in the river, and prepai-ing to receive them. 
I do not doubt we shall whip them if they venture down." 



plan 



At the same time Lieut. Flusser enclosed the following 




A. 6. C. D. E, F IS 10 De plated. 

Perpeadicula; liae between C D dcooio: iDe cutracce to the vessel. 

DIAGRAM OF THE RAM "ALBEMARLE." 



On August 8th, 1863, Rear Admiral Lee wrote to Secretary 
Welles, that: 

" The iron-clad on the Roanoke River at Edward's Ferry, forty miles 
above Rainbow Bluff, heretofore reported to the department, is consid- 
ered by Lieut. Commander Flusser as a formidable affair though of light 
draft. The fortifications at Rainbow Bluff, and the low state of the 
river, make it impracticable for the navy to destroy her before comple- 
tion, which is reported near. I have made written application to Major 
Gen. Peck to send out an expedition to accomplish this desirable object. 
If practicable. If this is not done, we must have iron-clad defence on the 
sound, though I do not see how any iron-clads we have now can be got 
over the bulkhead at Hatteras, where the most water is about nine feet 
in the best tides." Admiral Lee, September 10th, ordered Lieut. Flusser 
to co-operate with the land forces of Gen. Foster on an expedition up the 
Chowan River, having for its destination the destruction of the railroad 
bridge at Weldon. The object of the expedition not being attained, 
Lieut. Flusser requested Gen. Foster to detach a small party from the 
main eavahy force to destroy the boat and battery building at Edward's 
Ferry, but did not succeed in impressing him with the Importance of the 
move and it was not done. 

Secretary Welles, under date of September 17th, 1863, 
represented to Secretary Stanton the near completion of the 
ram at Edward's Ferry, and urged a joint expedition of land 
and naval forces for her destruction. Secretary Stanton 
merely referred the letter to Gen. Foster for such action as his 
judgment suggested, by whom it was transmitted to Major' 
Gen. Peck, who advised Admiral Lee, November 13th, 1863, 



404 THE CONFEDERATE STATES NAVY, 

that he had frequently called Gen. Foster's attention to the 
ram being built at Edward's Ferry, and proposed to him expe- 
ditions for burning the same, but " he never attached any im- 
portance to it," and Admiral Lee, in a communication to Secre- 
tary Welles, November 24th, 1863, says: "The general [Foster] 
expressed his unconcern about the rebel ram." This " uncon- 
cern " cost the Federal army the loss of Plymouth, the destruc- 
tion of several gunboats, and the death of many brave men, 
among them Lieut. Flusser. 

" In 1863 two citizens, residing near Edward's Ferry, ^ on the Roanoke 
River, proposed to tlie Navy Department to construct an iron-clad. 
Their experience heretofore had been limited to flat-boats, but Avith the 
assistance of an intelligent, practical naval officer, coupled with their own 
natural genius, they felt confident that the desired vessel could be built 
and rendered formidable for service. 

" As Commander Cooke was near at hand, the Secretary of the Navy 
very judiciously directed him to assume control of the work for the con- 
struction of this earnestly desired vessel, whose province was expected to 
be the rescue of Albemarle and Pamlico Sounds from the possession of 
the enemy. When aroused to action Cooke was one of the most industri- 
ous and indefatigable officers in the navy. With hearty zeal he embarked 
in the enterprise. 

" Iron in all shapes was a necessity. In person Cooke ransacked the 
country, gathering bolts and bars and the precious metal in any shape 
that admitted of application to his needs by the manipulation of the 
blacksmith. His greed for iron became amusingly notorious. At the 
Tredegar Works in Richmond, and the Clarendon Foundry at Wilming- 
ton, he was amusingly known as the 'Ironmonger Captain.' To vamp 
up from refuse piles serviceable pieces of machinery afforded him excessive 
delight. 

'' The building of the iron-clad, under all the disadvantages of place 
and circumstances, was viewed by the community as a chimerical absurdity. 
Great was the general astonishment when it became known that the in- 
domitable commander had conquered all obstacles and was about to 
launch his bantling. On the appointed day ' Cooke & Company ' com- 
mitted their ' nonesuch ' to the turbid waters of the Roanoke, christening 
her, as she glided from the launching- ways, ' the good ship Albemarle.' 

" Boilers, engines, roofing, and iron shield were to be fitted ere the 
iron-clad would be ready for service. While this finishing work was in 
progress Cooke received a communication from Gen. Hoke asking for a 
careful statement as to the exact time, with increased facilities, that the 
Albemarle could be depended upon for assistance in an important mili- 
tary expedition. The commander's response was quite laconic : 

" 'In fifteen days, with ten additional mechanics.' The assistance 
was rendered, Cooke was ordered to prepare the ram, and guns, ammuni- 
tion, and a few men arrived, with a promise of the remainder of the crew 
in a few days. 

" On the 17th, two young officers with twenty men and the residue of 
the steamer's outfit arrived. In spite of the herculean exertions of the 
comruander, the Albemarle was not entirely completed. The energetic 
commander had named his day for action, and he was not a man to deal 
in disappointments. 

" At early dawn on the 18th, steam was up; ten portable forges, with 
numerous sledge-hammers, were placed on board, and thus equipped the 
never-failing Cooke started on his voyage as a floating workshop. Naval 
history affords no such remarkable evidence of patriotic zeal and individ- 
ual perseverance. 

1 " Keminiscences of Confederate Navy," by John N. Maffltt. The United Service, p. 501. 



THE CONFEDERATE STATES NAVY. 405 

" On the turtle-back numerous stages were suspended, thronged with 
sailors wielding huge sledge-hammers. Upon the pilot-house stood Capt. 
Cooke giving directions. Some of the crew were being exercised at one 
of the big guns. ' Drive in spike No. 10 ! ' sang out the commander. ' On 
nut below and screw up ! Invent and sponge! Load with cartridge,' 
was next command. 'Drive in No. 11, port side — so. On nut and screw 
up hard ! Load with shells — prime ! And in this seeming babel of words 
the floating monster glided by. 

" By five in the afternoon the Albemarle was secured to the river 
bank, her forges landed, decks cleared, and the efficiency of the ram en- 
sured, so far as human ingenuity contending against meagre facilities 
could accomplish. 

"The entire construction was one of shreds and patches; the engine 
was adapted from incongruous material, ingeniously dove-tailed and put 
together with a determined will that mastered doubt, but not without 
some natural anxiety as to derangements that might occur from so 
heterogenous a combination. The Albemarle was built in an open corn- 
field, of unseasoned timber. A simple blacksmith shop aided the me- 
chanical part of her construction. 

" How diflferent the accomplishment of like work at the North. There, 
convenient docks, elaborate machine shops, material in abundance con- 
veniently at hand, and throngs of machinists accomplish construction with 
methodical ease and promptness. 

"After an active di'ill at the guns, an aide was dispatched to sound 
the obstructions placed in the river by the enemy. He returned at mid- 
night and reported favorably, upon which all hands were called, and soon 
the steamer was under way. 

" Soon that dull, leaden concussion which to practiced ears denotes a 
heavy bombardment, smote upon the ear. Nearer the rapid explosions 
grew upon the ear, and ere long, by the dawns early light, the spires of Ply- 
mouth greeted the sight. Cooke was up to time, and now for his promise. 

" It was 3 A. M. on the 19th of April, 1864, when the Albemarle 
passed in safety over the river obstructions, and received without reply a 
furious storm of shot from the fort at Warren's Neck. Instantly grasping 
the situation, amid the cheers of his crew, he made for the Federal gun- 
boats that were chained together in the rear of Fort Williams, guarding 
its flank, and dashed nme feet of his prow into the Southjield, delivering 
at the same time a broadside into the Miami, killing and wounding many 
of her crew. Among the killed was numbered her commander, the brill- 
iant Flusser. In ten minutes the Southfleld was at the bottom, the prow 
of the ram still clinging to her and exciting for a few moments serious ap- 
pi'ehensions for the safety of the Albemarle. However, she was soon dis- 
entangled, and being released from the downward pressure, was fiercely 
pursuing the enemy, who were finally driven out of the river. 

" This brilliant naval success ensured the triumph of Gen. Hoke. The 
defences of Fort Williams, the citadel of Plymouth, were powerful on the 
land side, and had already repulsed several Confederate assaults; on the 
river side the fortification was defective, its open works entirely depend- 
ing on gunboats. These having been dispersed, Cooke promptly opened 
with his guns upon the vulnerable part of the fort, soon rendering it un- 
tenable, and Gen. Ransom's command entered the town on that fiank. 
This was the prominent part performed by the Albemarle in the sanguin- 
ary but brilliant capture of Plymouth. 

" Major Gen. Peck, the second in command of the Federal forces in 
the military district, in his official report asserted and demonstrated that, 
in the absence of the Confederate ram, and with the Federal gunboats 
intact. Gen. Wessels could have sustained himself for an indefinite length 
of time. 

" After raising the Federal steamer Bombshell, which Hoke's artillery 
had consigned to the bottom, Cooke soon floated and prepared her for 
service. 



406 THE CONFEDERATE STATES NAVY. 

" On the 4th. of May, Commodore Pinkney, commanding the naval 
defenses of the Roanoke, ordered Commander Cooke to convoy the 
steamer Cotton Planter (a cotton-clad vessel sent from Halifax with sharj)- 
shooters to aid Gen. Hoke) and the Bombshell to Alligator River for mili- 
tary i3urposes. On the 5th, at noon, the Albemarle left the river with her 
consorts. 

" She proceeded about sixteen miles on the east -northeast coast when 
the Federal fleet, consisting of nine i^owerfully-armed steamers, hove in 
sight and gallantly approached in double line of battle. By orders, the 
Cotton Planter instantly returned to Plymouth. Two broadsides received 
by the Bojnbshell brought down her colors and she surrendered. 

" Admiral Lee's instructions to Commander Smith, who commanded 
the fleet, were imperative: 'At all hazards the rebel ram must be de- 
stroyed, by shot, ramming, or torpedoes. Her existence jeopardizes our 
occupation of this section of North Carolina.' 

" These stringent orders were issued to brave and intrepid seamen, 
who right gallantly (though failing) performed their duty. Their oppo- 
nent, reared in the same school, was equally bi*ave and as firm as ada- 
mant. Though considering his vessel impervious to shot, he was con- 
scious of many defects in her improvised machinery, steering-gear, and 
fire-draft if, perchance, his smoke-stack should be injui-ed. Combined 
with these drawbacks was the lack of necessary experience among the 
very young officers who composed his command. The crew, with but 
few exceptions, were all landsmen and but slightly practiced in gunnery. 
All these drawbacks in the aggregate rendered his vessel less formidable 
than reputation awarded. 

" The most serious impediment to a successful issue of a contest 
against nine fast and well-disciplined men-of-war, using torpedoes, was 
the lack of speed, which, if possessed, would have enabled Cooke to frus- 
trate every critical movement of the enemy, select his own distance for 
battery effect, and avoid being demolished by their torpedoes. 

" At 4 P. M. the Federal fleet fearlessly approached in double columns 
and delivered their heavy broadsides at less than 100 yards. The Albe- 
marle responded effectually, but suffered in return with loss of boats, 
riddled smoke-stack, broken plates on the shield, and the after-gun 
cracked some eighteen inches from the muzzle. The fleet grouped around 
the ram and hurled their 100-pound shot, fired with double charges of 
powder, aiming particularly at the ports and stern, which they supposed 
were the vulnerable parts of the vessel. Near sunset, Commander Roe, of 
the Sassocus, selected his opportunity, and with open throttles and a 
speed of about eight knots, struck the Albemarle squarely, just abaft her 
starboard beam, causing every timber in the vicinity of the impact to 
crack and complain, but not give way. The pressure from her revolving 
wheels was so powerful as to force the deck of the iron-clad several feet 
below the surface of the water and create a momentary impression that 
she was sinking. The crew became alarmed, and were becoming panic- 
stricken, when the stern voice of the undismayed Cooke checked incipient 
disorder and promptly restored discipline as he sang out: 'Stand to your 
guns ! If we must sink, let us pei'foj'm our duty and go down like brave 
men.' 

" The Albemarle soon recovered, and hurled shot after shot through 
and through her assailer. The last caused howls of agony and shrieks of 
despair, for one of her boilers was shattered, and the hissing steam em- 
braced with its deadly vapor some twenty of the crew of the iSassacus. 
Notwithstanding the natural consternation under the appalling circum- 
stances, two of her guns' crews continued to energetically fire upon the 
Albemarle until the disabled vessel drifted out of the arena of battle. 

" The enemy's fleet were not idle ; the incessant roar of their artillery 
thundered over the placid waters of the sound as their ponderous pro- 
jectiles thugged upon the shield of the Albemarle and ricochetted innocu- 
ously beyond. One of the fleet made an ineffectual effort to foul the ram's 



THE CONFEDERATE STATES NAVY. 407 

propeller with a large seine, and the 3Iiami failed with her torpedo in eon- 
sequence of the I'am's destructive fire. The contest continued until niylit 
shrouded the inland sea, when both parties withdrew from the fierce con- 
test. The Federals suffered severely in their hulls and killed and wounded. 
His tiller broke when rammed by the Sdssacus, and it was with great diffi- 
culty, from the construction of the vessel, that she could be guided by the 
relieving tackjes. 

" One gun was badly cracked in the muzzle by a shot, and the smoke- 
stack was so torn and riddled that its draft-power became entirely oblit- 
erated, and a small head of steam could only be obtained by burning 
bacon, lard, and the bulkheads. At last the afflicted Albemarle arrived 
and anchored oflf Plymouth. Had her speed amounted to ten or eleven 
knots, the Federal squadron might have been annihilated. 

" After being thoroughly repaired the AWemarle was detained at 
Plymouth for harbor defence, a^vaiting the completion of a sister iron- 
clad, then nearly ready for launching on Tar River. 

" The government had decided that two ironclads acting in concert 
were necessary for a successful encounter with the formidable force of the 
enemy then in possession of the Albemarle and Pamlico Sounds. 

'' The Fates had decided that the career of the Albemarle should close. 

"On anight of November, 1864, while the Confederate was insuffi- 
ciently guarded by a section of artillery, the ubiquitous Lieut. Gushing, 
with hardy daring, entered the harbor with a torpedo-boat, and in spite 
of the strenuous efforts of Lieut. Warley, then commanding the Albe- 
inarle, succeeded in blowing her up." 

As has been stated by Commander Maffitt, the Confed- 
erate authorities, in 18G4, had organized and equipped another 
naval force in the waters of North CaroHna. 

The co-operating naval expedition was under the command 
of Commander R. F. Pinkney. Commander J. AV. Cooke com- 
manded the iron-clad gunboat Albemarle, in Roanoke River, 
Lieut, B. P. Loyall commanded the iron -clad gunboat Neuse, 
in the Neuse River, and Lieut. R. B. Minor, commanded a flo- 
tilla of "cutters " in the Chowan River. 

Plymouth is in Washington county, near the mouth of the 
Roanoke River, and the country around was very rich and 
full of supplies. The two other places held by the Federal 
forces on the North Carolina coast were Washington, at the 
mouth of Tar River, and Newberne, at the mouth of the Neuse. 
The latter was strongly garrisoned; but it was supposed that 
the larger part of the forces at Washington had been moved 
np to Plymouth. 

The contest for the capture of Plymouth lasted night and 
day, from Sunday the IGtli to the 20th, and resulted in the 
capture of the cit}^ by Gen. Hoke, including Gen. Wessels and 
his forces, numbering over 1,500 men, and twenty-five pieces 
of artillery. 

On Monday morning the U. S. gunboat Bombshell ran up 
the Roanoke River to reconnoitre, and observing the ram Albe- 
tnarle approaching turned to steam down to the U. S. fleet, but 
was struck by a shell from a Confederate battery, and sunk. ' 

1 The gunboat Bnmbshell was one of the vessels two small light pieces. Her early history may 
used by theU. S. Marine Artillery corps. She was be found among the records of the Erie Canal. 
au ordinary canal boat, mounting one gun and She was purchased, with four others, for the 



408 THE CONFEDERATE STATES NAVY. 

Below the town of Plymouth, in the broad waters of the 
sounds of North Carolina, were five U. S. gunboats — the Wliife- 
Jiead, t\\e South field, the Miami, the Ceres, the Mattabessett, the 
Sassacus, and the Wyalusing. 

The approach of the Albemarle had been made known to 
the officers commanding the Federal fleet, and every prepara- 
tion had been made to meet and overpower her. The South- 
field and the Miami had been chained together for the purpose 
of running bows on, and possibly in obedience to the instruc- 
tions of Rear Admiral Lee, that " the great point is to get and 
hold position on each side of the ram. Have stout lines with 
small heaving lines thereto, to throw across the ends of the 
ram, and so secure her between two of our vessels. Her plat- 
ing will loosen and bolts fly like canister, and the concussion 
will knock down and demoralize her crew if they keep their 
ports down." 

To encounter that formidable squadron, Commander 
Cooke' steamed slowly down the Roanoke, in the early morn- 
ing of April 19th. The Federal vessels came on at full speed — 
the Miami and the Southfield chained together. The former 
was struck by the Albemarle on the port bow, and later the 
Southfield, pierced by a shot, rapidly sank. The Miami, un- 
injured, surged a little off, passed ahead and delivered her 
broadside at short range ; using her 100-pounder rifle and 
nine-inch guns, loaded with shells. It was directly after 
that fire that Flusser, commanding the Miami, fell, struck by 
a piece of shell, which bounded from the side of the ram — and 

Bumside expedition. The others were named a negro coal-heaver to the enemy, who prevented 

respectively Grenade, Rocket, Schrapnel and it. Midshipman William C. Jackson was shot 

Grapeshot. They were officered and manned by and taken on board a Federal vessel where he 

marine artillerists, under Col. Howard, formerly died in twenty hours. He was a meritorious 

of the United States revenue service. officer." 

Lieut. Commander Cooke in this desperate 

1 Capt. James Wallace Cooke entered the U. S. engagement displayed the greatest gallantry, 

navy April 1st, 1828, and resigned as lieutenant He fired all the muskets brought to him by Mr 

May 1st, 1861. On May 4th, 1861, he received an Bagley from the armory, and was badly wounded 

appointment iu the navy of Virginia, and on in the right arm. and received a thrust from a. 

June 11th, 1861, entered the service of the C. S. bayonet iu the leg. He was kindly and courte- 

navy. He was engaged in blockading the ously treated by his captors, and paroled and 

Potomac at Aquia Creek until after the battle allowed to return to his home at Portsmouth, 

of Manassas, when he was ordered to take com- Va., until exchanged. He remained iu Ports- 

mand of a small steamer at the Gosport navy- mouth until March 8th, 1862, when he removed 

yard for operations in North Carolina waters. to Wai-rentou, N. C. He was exchanged in 

He was employed in putting obstructions at the September, and on the 17th of that month was 

entrance of Albemarle Sound to prevent the promoted to Commander in the C. S. navy, with 

entrance of the Federal gunboats to Roanoke orders to proceed to Halifax on the Roaucike 

Island. The.se were afterwards removed by Kiver, in North Carolina, to build a gunboat. 

order of the commandiug general, and the He selected as his navy-yard the farm of Peter E. 

island and Elizabeth City captured. In the Smith at Edward's Ferry. From this laud the 

battle of Roanoke Island, Lieut. Cooke, while iu timber for building the Albemarle was cut, and 

command of the Ellis, was the last to haul off, here her keel was laid. The citizens of the 

after he had fired all his ammunition and that neighborhoodrenderedCommanderCookeevery 

taken from the Curlew, which was disabled. In assistance in their power. There were, how- 

his official report of the naval engagement at ever, no machine shops, no shipwrights, and no 

Elizabeth City he said: " Being surrounded and collection of material for ship-building. There 

boarded by two of the enemy's vessels -, and was an inexhaustible supply of pine for the 

having made every possible effort of resistance, frame, but even this was sprouting and bloom- 

and seeing that it was in vain to resist further, lug iu the green tree. Iron, so indispensable in 

I gave the order to blow up the vessel. I ordered the equipment of an iron-clad, in the neighbor- 

the men to save themselves, if possible, as the hood of Commander Cooke's navy-yard, was. 

vessel was near shore. Several had been killed. scarce to the degi'ee of a famine. His entreaties 

The order to blow up the boat was betrayed by at the Tredegar Iron Works, iu Richmnud, for 




COMMANDER JAMES W. COOKE, C. S. N, 



THE CONFEDERATE STATES NAVY. 409 

several others were wounded at the same time. At that mo- 
ment the bow-hawser parted and the after-hawser being cut 
or broken, the Miami swun,g round to starboard and the 
Southjield sank. The Albemarle then turned again upon the 
Miami, whose officer reported that " from the fatal effects of 
her prow upon the Southjield, and our sustaining injury, I 
deemed it useless to sacrifice the Miami in the same way " and 
withdrew from action. 

This great triumph of the Albemarle was -a severe disap- 
pointment to the Federal authorities, and the Navy Depart- 
ment called upon Capt. Melancton Smith to destroy the 
ram; and Admiral Lee said to Capt. Smith, ** entrusted by 
the Department with the performance of this signal service, 
I leave (with the expression of my views) to you the manner 
of executing it." To the discharge of that duty Capt. Smith, 
on May 20th, hoisted his flag on the " double ender " _Ma^^a- 
bessett, and arranged the following order of fighting: 

" The steamei's will advance in the third order of steaming, the Miami 
leading the second line of steamers. The Mattabessett, Sassacus, Wyalusing 
and W7i?'te/iea(i forming the right column, and th.Q Miami, Ceres, Commo- 
dore Hull and Seymour the left. 

" The proposed plan of attack "vvill be for the large vessels to pass as 
close as possible to the ram without endangering their wheels, delivering 
their fire and rounding to immediately, for a second discharge. 

" The steamer Miami will attack the ram and endeavor to explode 
her torpedo at any moment she may have the advantage, or a favorable 
opportunity. Ramming may be resorted to, but the peculiar construction 
of the sterns of ' double enders ' will render this a matter of serious con- 
sideration with their commanders, who may be at liberty to use their 
judgment as to the j^ropriety of this course when a chance presents itself." 

tbis necessary article secured for bim the name the enemy's ships and batteries; and in co- 
ot the " Iron Captain." After the launch of the operating with the army in the capture of Ply- 
^toemarie she was removed to Halifax, N C.for mouth, N. C; and in the action of the 5th of 
completion. As it was feared the waters of the May, 1864, between the sloop Albemarle, under 
river would be too low to get her down in the your command, and nine of the enemy's gun- 
summer, about April 1st she was removed about boats in Albemarle Sound, 
twenty miles lower down to Hamilton. Here "S. R. Mallort, Secretary of the Navy." 
Commander Cooke and his men suffered from ^e was relieved from the immediate command 
the eflects of bad water and poor food, consisting ^f tj^g Albemarle and placed in command of the 
almost wholly of coarse, unbolted corn-meal and uaval forces operating in the waters of North 
bacon. At this time the indefatigable com- Carolina, in the neighborhood of Plymouth. /' 
maiider worked on board of his ship from sun- lj^.^. Commander John N. Maffitt reUeved ^ 
rise until very often to midnight. About the ^apt. Cooke in command of the Albemarle, and 
lethof April Gen. Hoke, commander of the land j^ ^ short time he being required for other 
forces, visited the Albemarle, and notwithstand- ^^jy^ Lieut. Commander A. F. Warley succee<led 
ing she was far from being finished her heroic i^j^. xhe Albemarle was destroyed by a torpedo 
commander promised that she would be ready ^^-jj^g uy(jer the command of Lieut. Commander 
to co-operate with him in the Confederate attack Warley. While tlie Albemarle was being built 
on Plymouth. How far Commander Cooke kept ^^ the Roanoke River, the c;onfederate govern- 
his promise, and the distinguished part the j^gj^j ^as engaged in building another iron-clad 
Albemarle took in that gallant aflair, has been (,^ ^he Neuse River. This vessel was never 
elsewhere sho^vn. After the successlul engage- completed, but was destroyed after the loss of 
ments of the Albemarle. Commander Cooke was the Albemarle. Capt. Cooke remained at Halifax 
promoted to the rank of Captain in the Pro- ^^,41 that place was abandoned by the Con- 
yisional Navy of the Confederate States. The federates about the 1st of April, 1865. He per- 
letter conveying the commission was as follows: formed arduous service during this time in 
"Capt. James W. Cooke, Plymouth, N. C: facilitating army movements, and laying tor- 
" SiK — You are hereby informed that the Presi- jiedoes in the rivers, wliich were very effective 
dent has appointed you, with the advice and in destroying several of the enemy's gunboats, 
consent of the Senate, a Captain in the Pro- and preventing marauding expeditious in the 
visional Navy of the Confederate States for interior of North Carolina. Capt. Cooke re- 
gallant and meritorious conduct in command of turned to Portsmouth, Va., after the surrender 
the iron-clad steam sloop Albemarle on the 19th, of Gen. Lee, and spent the remaining four years 
20th and 21st days of April, 1864, attacking of his life there, dying in 1869. 



410 THE CONFEDERATE STATES NAVY. 

In that order of battle, Capt. Smith's squadron on May 
5th, when near tlie buoy at the mouth of the river, saw the 
Albemarle moving- down to tlie sound, accompanied by the 
little transport Cotton Plant and captured gunboat Bomhshell. 
Observing- the enemy's fleet, Commander Cooke ordered tlie 
Cotton Plant to seek a place of safety and proceeded on with 
the Bombshell. A Confederate eye-witness gives the follow- 
ing description : 

" Three very large gunboats were moving swiftly around Sandy Point 
and directly for the lani. She meanwhile stood still, her brave little con- 
sort slightly in the advance, and as the forward vessel came within range, 
saluted her with one ot her deep-mouthed guns. Very promptly the Fed- 
eral forces responded with one of theirs, and the fight began. 

" The enemy came on in single file and at full speed. The foremost 
vessel ran straight up to the ram, as if she would run her down, veered 
off a little, passed ahead and gave her a broadside ; then crossed her bows, 
returned and delivered another broadside, and passed on out of range. 
The second and third steamers moved and fired in lik:e manner. The first 
repeated these evolutions, and was again followed by the other two. This 
terriiic grand waltz continued for some time, the ram receiving the tre- 
mendous fire apparently with the most stoical coolness and indifference, 
aiid delivering her fatal bolts deliberately and accurately, while the enemy 
fired rapidly and very wildly. 

" Meantime the inglorious squadron of observation, with one addi- 
tional boat, were coming up from the distant rear, and very cautiously 
joining, one by one, and at long range, in the melee. The little Bomhshell 
had been standing up bravely to the large vessels as they passed, they con- 
temptuously sparing her till her sharp fire provoked tiiem to attack her. 
The rear boat, avoiding closer quarters with the ram, found a nearer and 
less formidable antagonist in the Bomhshell, which, undismayed, main- 
tained a brisk fight with nearly the whole squadron for some minutes, 
till, surrounded and cut off from her consort and protector, she raised a 
white flag and dropped out of action — a captive, mute and motionless, 
and awaiting the orders of captors. 

"During this time the guns of the ram had been doing execution. 
From the iiold of the largest steamer issued a thick column of smoke, 
wiiich increased as the cloud of powder smoke was blown away. She 
ceased firing, and all hands seemed to engage in subduing the flames. Af- 
ter half an hour's work this was accomplished, and again she mingled in 
the dreadful fray. The battle now raged more fiercely than ever. The 
ram, to our surprise, began to move slowly toward Plymouth, firing regu- 
larly, but at longer intervals, while the enemy pressed her more hotly. 
The larger steamers kept up their solemn waltz, varied witli occasional 
digressions; the smaller boats moved a little nearer, and the whole nine 
vomited forth their shell and solid shot at irregular but frequent inter- 
vals. Sometimes the whole number, the ram included, were completely 
shrouded in thick, white smoke, which lay upon the blue, rippling, glanc- 
ing waters like a thunder cloud in a clear summer sky, wliile naught else 
was seen of the fierce conflict Ijehind it but columns of snowy spray, ris- 
ing successively in long lines as the balls ricochetted across the water. 
Then the soft south wind would lift the curtain just in time to disclose 
the red flashes of new broadsides from the enemy, or the jet of lurid 
fire which preceded one of the sonorous, metallic voices of the iron 
monster. 

"Now one of the enemy's largest vessels has withdrawn froui the 
fight and steams rather slowly behind Sandy Point, where she still lies at 
this moment, badly crippled; the ram meanwhile steadly pursuing her 
course towards Roanoke River, and firing leisurely as she moves. The 
fire of the enemy somewhat slackens, and only the two remaining large 



THE CONFEDERATE STATES NAVY. 411 

vessels continue the pxirsuit. Presently they stop and Wiiit for two 
smaller boats coming up, and while the four are lyinji: in a p:roup, as if in 
consultation, we distinctly hear the dull crash of a ball from the ram as it 
buries itself in one of the wooden hulks. As if maddened by the blow, 
they start more eagerly after the retreating monster, who now nears the 
river's mouth. Away in the distance the battle once more rages furiously, 
and long after we ceased to distinguish the vessels, the flashes of flame 
were visible till the gathering gloom of evening put an end to the fight. 
The last gun, as well as the first, was fii'ed by the Albemarle as she entered 
the Roanoke." 

The Federal accounts, now at hand, show that the Matta- 
bessett, leading the right column of attack, received two shells 
from the ram, which did considerable wounding among the 
crew — and that the first line of the enemy's vessels continued 
their advance, when the Albemarle put her helm to port, with 
the purpose of ramming the Mattabessett, and that vessel put 
her helm to starboard to avoid the ram — which action threw 
the two vessels apart. The Mattabessett in passing delivered 
her broadside of two rifled guns and four nine-inch guns, 
at a distance of 150 yards; the Sassacus about this time, while 
nearly abeam the ram, delivered her broadside, and passed 
astern of the Albemarle, following the Mattabessett, which as 
she passed the little Bombshell fired her rifled gun and howit- 
zer, and compelled her surrender. The Wyalusing following 
the Sassacus poured in her broadsides and was followed by 
the Whitehead; while tlie ram thus surrounded was replying 
to her many foes, the Sassacus ran into the Albemarle, striking 
her nearly at right angles, just abaft the casemate, and at a 
speed estimated by her commanding officer of not less than 
ten knots. The ram, though jarred, was able to fire her rifle 
gun and put a shot through both sides of the Sassacus. Just 
at that moment three solid shots from 100-pounder rifles were 
fired into the Albemarle, and shattered on her armor came in 
fragments on the deck of the Sassacus — but at that moment 
the ram righting herself sent a shell from her Armstrong gun 
longitudinally through the Sassacus, which filled her with 
steam and drove her out of the fight. Baffled at every attack 
Capt. Smith now, at 5:20, signalled the Miami "to go ahead 
and try her torpedo" — signals to "keep in line" "close 
order" and "cease firing" followed at short intervals until at 
6:55 the Wyalusing replied that she was "sinking" — when the 
Mattabessett steamed inside and delivered her fire as rapidly 
as possible when on the quarter and abeam the ram, and en- 
deavored ineffectually to lay a seine to entangle the propeller 
of the Albemarle — then the pounding continued until 7:30 P. M., 
when the enemy retired. In that fight the Mattabessett from 
her two 100-pounder Parrott rifles expended twenty-seven solid 
shots, from her four nine-inch Dahlgrens expended twenty- 
three solid shot; four twenty-four-pounder howitzers expended 
one shrapnel; two twelve-pounder howitzers expended one shell 
— casualties; three killed, five wounded. 



413 THE CONFEDERATE STATES NAVY. 

Sassacus battery, two 100 -pounders Parrott guns, four 
nine-inch Dahlgrens, two twenty-four-pounder howitzers, two 
twelve-pounder howitzers, expenditure not given — casualties, 
one killed, nineteen wounded. 

Wijalusing battery, two 100-pounder Parrott rifles ex- 
pended forty-seven solid shot, twenty-eight shell; four nine- 
inch Dahlgrens expended thirty-seven solid shot, thirty- 
three shell; two twenty-four-pounder howitzers expended 
twenty-seven Shrapnel, eighteen shell; two twelve-pounder 
howitzers (one rifled) — casualties, one killed. 

Miami battery, one 100-pounder Parrott rifle expended 
forty - one solid shot ; six nine-inch Dahlgren expended 
seventy-six solid shot; one twenty-four-pounder howitzer. 

Whitehead battery, one 100-pounder Parrott rifle ex- 
pended seventeen solid shot; three twenty-four-pounder how- 
itzers. 

Commodore Hull battery, two thirty-pounder Parrot rifles, 
expended sixty shell; four twenty-four-pounder howitzers, 
expended twenty-four shell. 

Ceres battery, two twenty-pounder Parrott rifles (pivot). 

The Albemarle had one of her two guns disabled early in 
the action, but notwithstanding that, she maintained her 
ground, drove off the enemy, disabled, discomfited and de- 
feated. The ''eye-witness," from whom we have already 
quoted, continued: 

"The shore now bears innumerable evidences of the damage done to 
the enemy — splinters and large fragments of oak sheathing, copper fas- 
tened, portions of window sash, with bits of glass and putty still adher- 
ing, pieces of paneling and other ornamental work from cabins or 
saloons, several fine launches, two of which are badly shot to pieces; 
oars, gun rammers, window shutters, cabin doors, hatchments, fragments 
of fine furniture, and even of little articles of toilet and table furniture, 
with hundreds of other little proofs of the destruction wrought by the 
gun, rather than the guns, of the ram." 

On the 24th of May, 1864, the Albemarle again made her 
appearance, dragging for the torpedoes which the enemy had 
laid in the mouth of the Roanake — the Whitehead observed her 
and from afar fired a single shell and retired out of the way. 

From the 24th of May to the 27th of October the Albemarle 
lay in inglorious inactivity at Plymouth. Cooke, her former 
gallant commander, had broken down in health and had been 
superseded by Lieut. A. F. Warley, who fought the Manassas 
so gallantly at New Orleans. This long period of inactivity 
is unexplained either in contemporaneous accounts or in any 
extant official records — indeed, the published Confederate 
Official Records at Washington contain nothing whatever of 
the ram Albemarle. 

About eleven o'clock at night on May 25th, an effort was 
made by five volunteers from the U. S. Steamer Wijalusing to 
destroy the Albemarle while she was lying at Plymouth. The 



THE CONFEDERATE STATES NAVY. 413 

party left their vessel at two o'clock p. m. on the 25th of May, 
(having- made a reconnoissance two days before, ) and ascended 
the middle river in the Mattahessetf s dingey, with two torpe- 
does (each containing 100 pounds of powder), and their ap- 
pendages, which they transported on a stretcher across the 
island swamps. Charles Baldwin, coal-heaver, and John W. 
Loyd, cockswain, then swam the Roanoke River, with a line, 
and hauled the torpedoes over to the Plymouth shore, above 
the town. They were then connected by a bridle, floated down 
with the current, and guided by Charles Baldwin, who de- 
signed to place them across the bow of the ram — one on either 
side — and Allen Crawford, fireman, who was stationed on the 
opposite side of the river, in the swamp, was to explode them 
on a given signal. 

Everything had worked favorably for the enemy from the 
time of starting until the torpedoes were within a few yards 
of the ram, when Baldwin was discovered, and hailed by a 
sentry on the wharf. Two shots were then fired, and a volley 
of musketry, which induced John W. Loyd, who heard the 
challenge and reports of small arms, to cut the guiding line, 
throw away the coil, and swim the river again to join John 
Laverty, fireman, who was left in charge of his clothes and 
arms. These two men, with the boat-keeper, Benjamin Loyd, 
coal-heaver, returned to the Wyalusing on the morning of tlie 
27th, after an absence of thirty-eight hours in the swamps, 
encountering the additional discomfort of a rainy day and 
night. 

Two days' unsuccessful search was made by the Confed- 
erates for Baldwin and Crawford, both of whom made their 
appearance in the Federal fleet on Sunday, the 29th of May, 
much fatigued by travel, and somewhat exhausted from want 
of food. The attempt to blow up the Albemarle was defeated by 
the party accidentally fouling a schooner anchored in the river. 
The next attempt, however, by Lieut. Commander Wm. B. 
Cushing, on October 28th, 1864, was more successful. 

On the morning of October 27th, the Albemai^le was 
moored near the wharf at Plymouth, a gangway connecting 
her with the shore. Some distance down the river, in the 
stream, lay the hull of the Southfield, sunk thereby Capt. Cooke 
when Plymouth was captured from the Federals! The South- 
field was used as a picket station by our infantry forces, to 
which they passed to and from the shore by a boat, and this 
boat was usually kept at the Southfield. The night was dark 
and stormy, and the Federal expedition under Lieut. Cushing 
passed the Confederate pickets on the wreck of the Southfield 
unobserved. About 3 a. m. a fire on shore lighted the way for 
Lieut. Cushing, and showed him the Albemarle surrounded 
by a raft of logs. The lookout on the Alhemarle did not dis- 
cover the approaching enemy until they reached the log barri- 
cade, about thirty feet from the ram. Although defence was 



414 THE CONFEDERATE STATES NAVY. 

attempted, it was too late to prevent the use of torpedoes on 
the launch from blowing- a hole in the bow of the ram, from 
which she filled and sank. ' 

Thus, by negligence and carelessness on the part of the 
Confederates, and by the enterprise and gallantry of the Fed- 
eral detachment, the ram Albemarle, which had successfully 
stood the solid shot and shell from the Federal gunboats, was 
destroyed by a launch and thirty brave men, and with the 
weapon the Confederates had perfected and appropriated as 
peculiarly theirs. With the destruction of the Albemarle the 
control of the waters of the North Carolina sounds was again 
assured to the Federal gunboats. The companion boat of the 
Albemarle thsd, was building on the Neuse River, was destroyed 
by a raid of the Federal forces under Gen. Foster; and later, 
the ram Neuse, in Cape Fear River, was destroyed by the Con- 
federates, on the retreat of Gen. Hardee after the battle of 
Kins ton. 

Wilmington continued to resist all efforts for her capture, 
until exhaustion had weakened the grasp which no Federal 
effort had been able during four years to un wrench. But 
while the forts resisted successfully assault after assault, and 
blockade runners eluded all the watchfulness of the squad- 
rons — the same fatality seemed to follow Confederate naval 
vessels at Wilmington, that had destroyed the vessels wher- 
ever they displayed their colors in battle. 

At half-past seven o'clock on the night of May 6th, 1864, 
the iron-clad Raleigh, Lieut. Pembroke Jones commanding, 
bearing the broad pennant of Flag-officer Lynch, with the 
Yadkin and Equator, two small river steamers, steamed out of 
New Inlet, Cape Fear River, convoying several blockade run- 
ners and in quest of the enemy. The Raleigh steamed di- 
rectly for the U. S. steamer Britannia, with the evident pur- 
pose of running her down. The intention was discovered in 
time, but the Britannia narrowly escaped being injured from 
her shot and shell. When the Britannia discovered the 
Raleigh she made signals to the Federal fleet of approaching 
danger, and fired several shots "without effect at the advanc- 
ing ram. Several block aders, whose stations were convenient, 

1 See particulars in oUapter on torpedoes else- to my notice during the war by iny hapisening 

where. to get bold of his report of the loss of the U. S. 

Of Cooke and Gushing, Capt. W. H. Parker Steamer EllU, under his command, at New 

says : Kiver Inlet, Nov. 24th, 1862. I was impressed 

"I had not known Capt. Cooke in the old with this part of his official report (the italics are 
navy, but I saw enough of him at Roanoke mine) : ' and the only alternatives left were a 
Island and Elizabeth City to know that he was surrender or a pull of one and a half miles un- 
a hard fighter. Few men could have aocomp- der their lire in a small boat. The first of these 
lished what he did in taking the Albemarle Aowd. was not, of course, to be thought of.' Knowing 
the river with the carpenters still at work upon him to be at that time only 19 years old, I com- 
ber. It was only done by bis energy and per- prehended his heroic qualities and was not at 
severance. He was deservedly ijromoted for all surprised to bear more of him. Immedi- 
his services. ately after the war I went to San Francisco, and 

" Youijg Gushing had been a pui^il of mine at my first visitor was Gushing. He was the hero 
the Naval Academy in 1861. He was rather a of the hour and the citizens made much of him. 
delicate-looking youth, fair, with regular, clear- Under the circumstances, I thought he con- 
cut features, and a clear, greyish-blue eye. He ducted himself with much modesty. He died 
stood low in his classes. He was first brought in Wli." — KecoUedions of a yavy Officer, y 340. 



THE CONFEDERATE STATES NAVY. 415 

stood for the scene, thinking that it was a blockade-runner 
trying to escape. When the Raleigh got within GOU yards of 
the Britannia she began firing, the first sliot putting out the 
Britannia's binnacle hght. and the next going over her star- 
board paddle box. The Britannia then burned a blue light 
when the Raleigh fired again. The Britannia in her efforts 
to elude the Raleigh changed her course three times, until she 
passed the buoy and got into shallow water, where she burned 
several Coston signals for assistance from the Federal fleet. 
The Raleigh then changed her course and steering northeast, 
about midnight, ran for the U. S. Steamer Nansemond. The 
Federal vessel challenged the Raleigh a third time, and then 
ran off and opened fire with her after-howitzer. The Raleigh 
immediately replied by a shot, which passed over and near the 
Nansemond' s walking beam, the Raleigh at this time not being 
over 500 yards distant. Several shots were exchanged on both 
sides until the Nansemond got out of range. Near daylight 
the Raleigh sighted the U. S. steamer Howquah, which put to 
sea Avith all speed aft.er firing twenty shot and shell. The 
Raleigh returned the fire with her bow gun, one shell going 
through the Hoivquah's smoke-stack. At daylight the Nanse- 
mond. Mount Vernon, Hoivquah, Britannia, Kansas, Niphon 
and the entire Federal fleet came upon the scene of action, 
when the Raleigh and her consorts returned up the river. The 
ill-fated luck of the Confederate vessels overtook the Raleigh 
as she crossed the bar. She stuck and '' broke her back."' 

The Federal blockading fleet, believing that the iron-clad 
which had been destroyed on the bar a little above Fort Fisher 
was the North Carolina, organized an expedition under the 
command of Lieut. Commander William B. Cushing, U. S. N. , 
to attempt the destruction of the only remaining iron-clad in 
Cape Fear River, which they supposed was the Raleigh. Before 
proceeding on his perilous journey, Lieut. Cushing deemed it 
prudent to make a thorough reconnoissance of Wilmington 
harbor, to determine the position of the Raleigh, and to post 
Acting Rear Admiral S. P. Lee, commanding the North At- 
lantic blockading squadron, in regard to the city, land and 

1 Commander Jones asked for a Court of In- mained outside the bar of Cape Fear River for a 

quiry which examined the circumstances with few hours with apparent [safety]; but, in the 

the following result: opinion of the court, it would have been im- 

At Wilmington, N C. June 6 1864 proper: and, in view of all the circumstances, 

Reoort of the Court of Inquiry convened to'examine ^^^ commanding officer was justified in at- 

into ike circumstances connected with the loss of tempting to go back into the harbor when he did. 

the iron-clad sloop Raleigh, on the Cape Fear I* is further the opinion of the court, that the 

Jiiner draft of water of the Raleigh was too great, even 

The Court having inquired into all the facta lightened as she had been on this occasion to 

connected with the loss of the C. S. steamer render her passage of the bar, except under 

Raleigh, in the waters of North CaroUna have favorable circumstances, a safe operation, par- 

the honor to report the same, together with our ticularly as her strength seems to have been in- 

opinion upon the points in which it is required sufficient to enable her to sustain the weight of 

by the precept ber armor long enough to permit every prac- 

"in the opinion of the court, the loss of the ticable means of lighteuing her to be exhausted. 

Raleigh cannot be attributed to the negligence or Geobge N. Hollins. 

inattention on the part of any one on board of Captain and President. 

her.and every eftbrt was made to save said vessel. J. W. B. Greenhow, 

We furtlier find that the Raleigh could have re- Surgeon and Judge Advocate. 



416 THE CONFEDERATE STATES NAVY. 

water defences of that port. He left the U. S. steamer Mon- 
ticello off Wihnington, N. C, on the night of the 2od of June, 
in the first cutter, with two officers (Acting Ensign J. E. Jones 
and Acting Master's Mate William Howorth) and fifteen 
men, and started in for the west bar. In his official report to 
Rear Admiral Lee, dated July 2d, he says : 

"We succeeded in passing the forts, and also the town and batteries 
of Smithville, and pulled swiftly up the river. As we neared the Zeke 
Island batteries, we narrowly escaped being run down by a steamer, and 
soon after came near detection from the guard boat; evading them all we 
continued our course. As we came abreast of the Old Brunswick batter- 
ies, some fifteen miles from the starting point, the moon came out 
brightly and discovered us to the sentinels on the banks, who hailed at 
once, and soon commenced firing muskets and raising an alarm by noises 
and signal lights. We pulled at once for the other shore, obliquing so as 
to give them to understand that we were going down; but as soon as I 
found that we were out of the moon's rays, we continued our course 
straight up, thereby baffling the enemy and gaining safety. When within 
seven miles from Wilmington, a good place was selected on the shore; the 
boat hauled up, and into a marsh, and the men stowed along the bank. 
It was now nearly day, and I had determined to watch the river, and if 
possible to capture some one from whom information could be gained. 
Steamers soon began to ply up and down, the flag-ship of Commodore 
Lynch, the Yadkin, passing within two hundred yards. She is a wooden 
propeller steamer of about three hundred tons, no masts, one smoke- 
stack, clear deck, English build, with awning spread fore and aft, and 
mounting only two guns; did not seem to have many men. Wine steam- 
ers passed in all, three of them being fine, large blockade-runners. Just 
after dark, as we were preparing to move, two boats rounded the point; 
and the men thinking it an attack, behaved in the coolest manner. Both 
boats wei-e captured, but proved to contain a fishing party returning to 
Wilmington. From them I obtained all the information that I desired, 
and made them act as my guides in my further explorations of the river. 

"Three miles below the city I found a row of obstructions, consisting 
of iron-pointed spiles driven in at an angle, and only to be passed by 
going into the channel left open, about two hundred yards from a heavy 
battery that is on the left bank. 

"A short distance nearer the city is a ten-gun navy battery, and 
another line of obstructions, consisting of diamond shaped crates, filled 
and supported in position by two rows of spiles; the channel in this in- 
stance being within fifty yards of the guns. A third row of obstructions 
and another battery complete the upper defences of the city. The river 
is also obstructed by spiles at Old Brunswick, and there is a very heavy 
earthwork there. Discovering a creek in the Cypress swamp, we pulled 
or rather poled up it for some time, and at length came to a road which, 
upon being explored, proved to connect with the main road from Fort 
Fisher and the sounds to Wilmington. Dividing my party, I left half to 
hold the cross-road and creek, while I marched the remainder some two 
miles to the main road and stowed away. About 11:30 A. M. a mounted 
soldier appeared with a mail-bag, and seemed much astonished when he 
was invited to dismount, but as I assured him that I would be responsi- 
ble for any delay that might take place, he kindly consented to shorten 
his journey. About two hundred letters were captured, and I gained 
such information as I desired of the fortifications and enemy's force. As 
an expedition was contemplated against Fisher by our army about this 
time, the information was of much value. There are thirteen hundred 
men in the fort; and the unprotected rear that our troops were to storm 
is commanded by four light batteries. I enclose rebel requisition and re- 
port of provisions on hand. 



i 



THE CONFEDERATE STATES NAVY. 417 

" I now waited for the courier from the other direction, in order that 
we might get the papers that were issued at 1 P. M. in Wilmington; but 
just as he hove in sight, a blue jacket exposed himself, and the fellow 
took to instant flight. My pursuit on the captured horse was rendered 
useless from the lack of speed, and the fellow escaped after a race of some 
two miles. 

" In the meantime we captured more prisoners, and discovered that a 
store was located about two miles distant, and being sadly in need of 
some grub, Mr. Howorth, dressed in the courier's coat and hat, and 
mounted upon his horse, proceeded to market. He returned with milk, 
chickens, and eggs, having passed every one, in and out of service, with- 
out suspicion, though conversing with many. At 6 P. M., after destroying 
a portion of the telegraph wire, we rejoined the party at the creek, and 
proceeded down, reaching the river at dark. In trying to land our prison- 
ers upon an island, a steamer passed so close that we had to jump over- 
board, and hold our heads below the boat to prevent being seen. As we 
had more prisoners than we could look out for, 1 determined to put a por- 
tion of them in small boats, and set them adrift without oars or sails, so 
that they could not get ashore in time to injure us. This was done, and 
we proceeded down the river, keeping a bright look out for vessels in or- 
der to burn them, if possible. None were found, but I found the pilot to 
take me to where the ram Raleigh was said to be wrecked. She is indeed 
destroyed, and nothing now remains of her above water. The iron-clad 
North Carolina, Capt. Muse commanding, is in commission, and at anchor 
off the city. She is but little relied upon, and would not stand long 
against a monitor. Both torpedo boats were destroyed in the great cot- 
ton fire some time since. One was very near completion. As I neared the 
forts at the east bar, a boat was detected making its way rapidly to the 
shore, and captured after a short chase. It contained six persons, four 
of whom were soldiers. Taking them all into one boat, I cut theirs adrift, 
but soon found that twenty-six persons were more than a load. By ques- 
tions I discovered that at least one gviard-boat was afloat, containing 
seventy-five musketeers, and situated in the narrow passage between Fed- 
eral Point and Zeke Island. As I had to pass them, I determined to en- 
gage the enemy at once, and capture the boat if possible. 

" The moon was now bright, and as we came nearer the entrance, I 
saw what we supposed to be one large boat just off the battery; but as 
we prepared to sail into her, and while about twenty yards distant, three 
more boats suddenly shot out from that side, and five more from the 
other, completely blocking up the sole avenue of escape. I immediately 
put the helm down, but found a large sail-boat filled with soldiers to wind- 
ward, and keeping us right in the glimmer of the moon's rays. In this try- 
ing position both officers and men acted with true coolness and bravery. 

" Not the stroke of an oar was out of time; there was no thought of 
surrender, but we determined to outwit the enemy or fight it out. Sud- 
denly turning the boat's head, we dashed off as if for the west bar, and 
by throwing the dark side of the boat towards them, were soon lost to 
view. The bait was eagerly seized, and their whole line dashed off at 
once to intercept us. Then again turning, by the extraordinary pulling 
of my sailors I gained the passage of the island, and before the enemy 
could prevent, put the boat into the breakers on Caroline shoals. The 
rebels dared not follow, and we were lost to view before the guns of the 
forts, trained on the channel, could be brought to bear upon our unex- 
pected position. Deeply loaded as we were, the boat carried us through 
in fine style, and we reached the Cherokee just as the day was break- 
ing, and after an absence from the squadron of two days and three 
nights." 

The U. S Navy Department had endeavored, from the 
v^inter of 18(32, to induce the War Department to make a joint 
attack upon the defences of Cape Fear River, but the latter 

27 



418 THE CONFEDERATE STATES NAVY. 

department claimed that no troops could be spared for the ex- 
pedition. Lieut. Gen. Grant, late in the summer of 1864, gave 
his attention to the subject and decided that a body of troops 
could be spared to make the attack about the 1st of October. 
Upon consultation he was of the opinion that the best results 
would follow the landing of a large army, under the guns of 
the U. S. navy, on the open beach north of New Inlet, to 
take possession and intrench across to Cape Fear River, the 
navy to occupy the attention of tlie Confederate works on 
Federal Point with a heavy fire, in conjunction with the army, 
and at the same time, such force as could run the batteries 
was to do so, and thus isolate the Confederates. "The oper- 
ation," says Secretary Welles, "is an important one, as closing 
the last port of the rebels, and destroying their credit abroad, 
by preventing the exportation of cotton, as well as preventing 
the reception of munitions and supplies from abroad." 

Rear Admiral David G. Farragut was assigned to the 
command of the North Atlantic Squadron on the 5th of Sep- 
tember, and the whole subject was committed to his hands. 
The necessity of rest, however, rendered it important that he 
should come immediately North, and he declined the com- 
mand of the operating Federal navy forces. The command 
was then given to Rear Admiral David D. Porter, and every 
squadron was depleted and vessels detached from other duty 
to strengthen the expedition. 

It was arranged that an attack should be made on the 1st 
of October, but it was postponed to the loth, and in the mean- 
time over 150 vessels of war were concentrated at Hampton 
Roads and Beaufort, to form the attacking squadron. 

This immense fleet of war vessels remained idle, awaiting 
the movements of the army, until the day before Christmas, 
when it went into position and attacked the forts at the mouth 
of the Cape Fear River. 

William R. Mayo, who was a midshipman in the Confed- 
erate States Navy, but who is now (1887) Collector of the port 
of Norfolk, Va., and who took a prominent part in the defence 
of Fort Fisher, has kindly furnished the following interesting 
narrative of the two attacks on that fort : 

" During the summer of 1864, the navy of the Confederacy stationed at 
Wilmington, or a portion of it, together with ofiBcers and men from some 
other stations, were put ashore at tlie mouth of New Inlet to garrison a 
battery built at Confederate or Federal Point, which was commanded by 
Lieut. Robert T. Chapman, formerly of the U. S. navy, then of the C. S 
navy. This battery was called by Gren. Whiting, ' Buchanan, ' after the 
admiral. It was built somewhat after the fashion of the Mound Battery 
of Fort Fisher, though a more complete and formidable work. It mounted 
two Brooke guns of heavy calibre. The names of most of the officers of 
this battery have escaped me. It is well known that Fort Fisher was 
built along the Atlantic coast line, which line was about North and South. 
Battery Buchanan was located to the west of and about a mile from 
the mound at Fort Fisher on the extreme south point of the Atlantic 
beach, the land falling back at this point in a westerly direction for about 



THE CONFEDERATE STATES NAVY. 419 

;i mile. The first attack of the Federal fleet that was made during? the 
latter days of December, 18(54, was confined entirely to Fort Fisher, 
they paying no attention to Battery Buchanan— indeed if they knew it 
were there is doubtful. Having no demand for the garrison at home. there- 
fore, about one-half of the men and officers were sent to relieve the Fort 
Fisher garrison, and were stationed principally at the guns on what is 
knoAvnas the land face of the fort — the chief point of attack. The next 
day these were relieved and the other half of the Buchanan garrison were 
sent up. Thus, all of the garrison had a chance at this attack to help re- 
ply to the salutations of the Federal fleet, and those of the last day to 
witness at night Mr. Butler's reconnoisance in force— which resulted in his 
withdrawal the next morning and the sailing away of the fleet. Some 
two weeks afterwards the second attack was made. Admiral Porter again 
in command of the fleet, but Mr. Butler was succeeded by Gen. Terry. 
This time the attack of the fleet was more systematic and well organized. 
Instead of, as in the first attack, moving around in a circular direction at 
too great a distance generally for the most effective work of the long range 
guns of the fleet, and much too far for a fair exchange of courtesies, our 
guns being of shorter range, each ship fired her battery as she came 
abreast of us. This was the general tactics of Uie first attack— the iron- 
clads and lighter gunboats came at once in close to the beach, and the 
iron-clads apparently anchored. The next of the fleet taking up a posi- 
tion farther out, and all paying their especial attention to the land face 
of the fort, the idea being to disable this portion of the fort, which was 
the only obstacle in the way of the army, which had been landed some 
eight miles up the beach. There must have been some four or five hun- 
dred guns brought to bear upon this earthwork during this attack. Dur- 
ing the first day of this second attack no special attention was paid to 
the southern point of the fort, or mound as it was called, but if my mem- 
ory is not here again at fault, during the morning of the second day 
one or more of the enemy's vessels seemed to have been directed to shell 
this particular spot, which they did, and later in the day a detachment of 
several double-enders and the lighter gunboats, some six or eight, perhaps, 
in nuiuber, came around the south and east of the mound directly in the in- 
let, and evidently for the purpose of attacking Battery Buchanan and run- 
ning in the river, thus taking the fort in the rear, which, had it been ac- 
complished, rendered a surrender at once imperative. I think Admiral 
Porter saw this, and as the work was the navy's, would have been de 
lighted to have stamped it as such while the army was lying hid away 
among the sand hills up the beach. During all this day, the first of the 
second attack, the garrison of Battery Buchanan was in Fort Fisher, man- 
ning the land face guns mot all of them, of course), which were one by 
one disabled by the terrific bombardment, and until the demonstration 
was made upon our own battery and the inlet. At this time the Con- 
fedei-ate navy detachment was withdrawn from Fort Fisher and placed 
in Battery Buchanan. The vessels sent around in front of us were 
shy, keeping well off, being evidently uncertain of what we were and 
of the channel also. In a few minutes they had a fleet of several boats 
out sounding, and these came in and in, until within range of our guns, 
when they were opened upon by the gun covering this particular point. 
There is one circumstance which I remember distinctly in this con- 
nection which is worthy of note. Each of these boats was in charge of 
an officer sitting in the stern. One of them more venturesome than the 
rest came neai-er; a shell fired from our gun cut away the fiag from his 
boat; it fell in the water; he backed his boat up to it, picked it up, waved 
it over his head and replaced it on the broken staff. Another shot was 
fired at him, which cut his boat in two and spilled him and his jolly tars 
in the water, but the other boats instantly came to his rescue, gathered 
them all in and at once took their departure. The gunboats made no ef 
fort to run in. I have heard since, and with much pleasure, that no lives 
were lost on account of this shot, the only casualty being a broken leg. I 



430 THE CONFEDERATE STATES NAVV. 

have never learned the name of the officer who commanded that boat, but 
he certainly did not leave his flag. 

" The Federal fleet, after battering down or disabling all the guns, or 
nearly all, on the sea face of Fort Fisher, landed a large force of sailors 
and marines on the beach in front of the sea face of the fort and made an 
assault, with great loss. Though proving a great failure in itself, this 
assault occupied the nearly worn-out and depleted garrison, and had the 
direct result of admitting the army to the ramparts of the disabled land 
face of the fort before attention could be given to the assaulting column in 
that direction. 

" Among those of the garrison of Battery Buchanan who were act- 
ively engaged in repelling the combined attack of the Federal army and 
navy, were the Confederate marines under Capt. Van Benthuysen of the 
C. S. Marine Corps, who had with him about fifty men. How they worked 
that night with the rest of the little garrison falling back from gun chamber 
to gun chamber can best be told by Col. Lamb. They were all killed or 
captured. The writer of this took to the water as the Fedei-als, having 
captured the fort, pushed their way down the beach, and on that January 
night, in preference to being caught, ran the risk of freezing and drowning 
too, but finally succeeded in getting in a boat some several hundred yards 
out. After the fall of Fort Fisher, the navy at Wilmington garrisoned 
the batteries on the north side of the Cape Fear. The lowermost of them 
was commanded by Lieut. Grregory, who also escaped from Fisher, and 
the upper one by Lieut. Camm. I was at the lower one with Lieut. 
Gregory, and as (len. Hoke, C. S. army, fell back before the overwhelm- 
ing numbers of Gen. Terry, this battery finally became the base of the 
extreme right wing of his army. I think there was some doubt in the 
Fedej'al mind as to the exact location and character of these batteries. 
They really amounted to very little, yet great caution was displayed in 
coming up the river. One morning early, I remember, as the fog lifted, 
the sentry reported a monitor in full view from around the point a mile 
below. Glasses were instantly turned that way, and Gregory after a little 
observation determined it was a decoy, as it was, an old barge of some 
sort with a sham turret, and so kept quiet. Not so Camm above us, how- 
ever ; being a half mile farther away he was deceived, and very soon 
opened in good earnest, but after a few shots the monitor (?) retired, having 
found out where we were, and also that we ' were alive and able to be 
about.' Here this portion of the navy remained until Wilmington was 
evacuated, whicli Avas brought about by the advance of a force on the 
south side of the Cape Fear, Gen. Hoke holding Gen. Terry in check on 
the nortli side, when he fell back with the army through North Carolina 
until it arrived in the lines around Petersburg. The naval force from 
Wilmington with the army then joined the garrison at Drewry's Bluff on 
the James Rh^er." 

The part taken by the navy contingent in the defence of 
Battery Buchanan near Fort Fisher, is reported by Lieut. 
Com. Robert T. Chapman to Flag-officer R. T. Pinkney, com- 
manding the naval forces at Wilmington, as follows ; 

" Battery BuCHAN AX, Dec. 29th, 1864. 

" Sir : I reported to you on the 20th inst. that the fleet of the enemy 
had arrived off this place. They disappeared on the same day and re- 
turned on the 23d, and anchored about six miles off Fort Fisher. A de- 
tachment of twenty -nine men, under Lieut. Roby, was sent from this bat- 
tery to man the Brooke guns at Fort Fisher. 

" On the 24th, at 13 M., the fleet of the enemy got under way in line 
ahead (the /ro;m(ie,s leading), and at one o'clock they opened fire on the 
fort. There were forty-three vessels engaged, throwing every kind of 
projectiles from a three-inch bolt to a fifteen-inch shell. A most terrific 
bombardment continued until 5:30 P. M., when the enemv withdrew. On 



i 



THE CONFEDERATE STATES NAVY. 421 

the 25th, at half-past ten, the fight was renewed, by the same number of 
vessels, and the fire was incessant until 5:30 p. m., when the fleet again 
went beyond the range of our guns. 

" At half past two o'clock a number of boats were lowered from the 
ships of the fleet and approached the battery. I think they were drag- 
ging for torpedoes. We opened fire on them from one gun, and at the 
fourth discharge sunk one of their boats ; the others quickly withdrew. 
At 5:20 P. M. a message was received from Fort Fisher saying that the 
enemy had landed and were advancing on the fort, and asking for rein- 
forcements. Two-thirds of the men belonging to the battery were imme- 
diately sent to the fort, under Lieut. Arledge and officers of the companies. 
They double-quicked to the fort, and got there in time to assist in repel- 
ling the assault. We were at quarters nearly all Sunday night, expecting 
an attack from the boats of the fleet. 

" On the 26th, the men belonging to the battery, except those under 
Lieut. Roby, returned from Fort Fisher. There was no firing on the fort 
on the 26th or 27th. On the 26th the forces of the enemy re-embarked, 
and on the night of the 28th the fleet disappeared, leaving only the regu- 
lar blockading squadron off this place. 

" Both of the guns commanded by Lieut. Roby burst. I send his report. 

"Passed Midshipmen Gary and Berrien were with Lieut. Roby, and 
I understand the conduct of these officers and the men with them is above 
all praise. Out of the twenty -nine men from this battery serving at Fort 
Fisher nineteen were killed and wounded, and I regret to state that some 
have since died. Lieuts. Armstrong and Dornin came down as volun- 
teers. They went to the forts and behaved as gallantly as men could do. 
Lieut. Dornin was painfully wounded by the explosion of a shell." ^ 

Major Gen. W. H. C. Whiting, in his report of the attack 
on Fort Fisher under date of December 31st, 1S64, presents his 

"Acknowledgements to Flag-officer Pinkney, C. S. N., who was 
present during the action, for the welcome and eflicient aid sent to Col. 
Lamb, the detachment under Lieut. Roby, which manned the two Brooke 
guns, and the company of marines under Capt. Van Benthuysen, which 
reinforced the garrison. Lieut. Chapman, C. S. N., commanding Battery 
Buchanan, by his skilful gunnery saved us on our right from a movement 
of the enemy, which, unless checked, might have resulted in a successful 
passage. 

" The navy detachment at the guns, under very trying circumstances, 
did good work. 

" No commendations of mine can be too much for the coolness, disci- 
pline and skill displayed by officers and men. 

" Their names have not all been furnished to me, but Lieuts. Roby, 
Dornin, Armstrong and Berrien atti'acted special attention throughout. 

"To Passed Midshipman Cary I wish to give personal thanks. 
Though wounded he reported after the bursting of his gun, to repel the 
threatened assault, and actively assisted Col. Tansil on the land front. 

"Above all and before all we should be grateful, and I trust all are, 
for the favor of Almighty God, under which and by which a signal de- 
liverance has been achieved." 

The landing of the Federal forces was effected on Janu- 
ary 12th, 1865, and during the llth the fire of the Confederate 

1 Lieuts. Thomas L. Dornin and R. F. Arm- pressing the guns to sink Lieut. Wm. B. Cush- 

strong, although senior in rank to Lieut. Roby ing's boat, close inshore dragging for torpedoes, 

who commanded the naval contingent of two Lieut. Dornin was wounded, and Roby ordered 

guns' crews at Battery Buchanan (named in honor to another part of the defences of Fort Fisher, 

of Admiral Franklin Buchanan, C. S. N.) volun- Lieut. Armstrong then volunteered in a battery 

teered, and served one of the guns as sponger commanded by a North Carolina ofi&cer, who by 

and loader until it burst. They served likewise order of Col. Lamb was detached, and Lieut, 

at the second gun until it burst, caused by de- Armstrong placed in command of the two guns. 



423 THE CONFEDERATE STATES NAVY. 

cruiser Chickamanga, which had returned to Wihiiington, 
killed and wounded a number of men, so that Lieut. O'Keeffe, 
with his company of the fifteenth regiment N. Y. V., was di- 
rected to build a battery of thirty-two-pounder rifle Parrott 
guns on the bank of the river to drive her off. ' 

The following account of the part taken by the officers of 
the Chickamauga in the defence of Wilmington, is from the 
pen of Midshipman Clarence Gary, now a prominent member 
of the New York bar : 

" Arrived at Wilmington, the ChiGkamauga had for the next month 
but httle to do. There had been some intention on the part of the naval 
authorities to send her out on another raid, but rumors of an impending 
great naval demonstration against Fort Fisher decided them to keep the 
ship at hand for such service as events might enable her to i*ender. In 
December, these rumors began to take shape, and it became apparent 
that the most formidable fleet yet called into being by the war was 
gathering at Hampton Roads, for the projected attack. About the 22d 
of December, 1864, affairs had progressed to such a degree that the scanty 
garrison at Fort Fisher was hastily, although still insufficiently, rein- 
forced, and preparations for resistance hurried forward. A call was made 
upon the Chickamauga for sufficient men and officers to man two 
seven-inch Brooke rifled and banded guns which, taken recently from the 
sunken Roanoke in the river, had been mounted in a partially completed 
battery on the sea-face of the fort ; the navy men being desired in this 
instance, because the soldiers did not understand the tackling and man- 
agement of the pieces. 

" Accordingly on the morning of the 23d, a picked lot of some twenty- 
nine blue-jackets from the Chickamauga, in charge of Lieut. Roby, 
and two passed midshipmen, were drafted away for shore service, and 
soon found themselves tramping over the long sand stretches of Fort 
Fisher, where, during the next few days, they were destined to meet some 
novel and adverse experiences. If any anticipation of misfortunes 
troubled these lads, it was not apparent. They had left the ship in high 
spirits, envied by those who were forced to remain behind, and the usual 
sailor-like, devil-may-care hunger for adventure possessed them wholly. 

" The advance vessels of the fleet were already hovering on the coast, 
a little way to the northward, and it was ' in the air ' that the attack 
might begin at any moment. The sailor men w^ere quartered in the fort, 
but the scanty provision for officers' quarters there forced the lieutenant 
and midshipmen to find temporary accommodation, pending the outbreak 
of the expected battle, in a deserted hut, a little way up the beach out- 
side the fort. This circumstance led to their being closer than any others 
of the garrison to the scene of explosion of the famous powder-ship, 
brought in by the enemy on the following night, a demonstration which 
was expected by its promoters to level the walls of the fort and produce 
general havoc and dismay in the ranks of its defenders. 

" This is what the Chickamauga''s officers heard of it: Towards morn- 
ing on the night of the 23d, while sleeping on the floor of the hut in that 
uneasy half-consciousness which men have, even while asleep, on the 
eve of battle — for the great fleet was then close at hand and might come 
in for attack at any high tide— a half heard muffled report, such as might 
come from a distant, heavy gun, was noticed. Rousing at once for atten- 
tion, for they sujjposed the sound to be that of an alarm gun, and that it 
would i)e followed by the long roll beat of the drums calling the men to 
the batteries, they waited with an alert interest. But nothing more came 
of the interruption, and the circumstance was forgotten in renewed slum- 
ber. It was not learned till afterwards that the sound they heard and 

1 Bep. of Ch. of Eugineers of U. S. A., year ending Jan. 30tb, 1865, p. C3. 



THE CONFEDERATE STATES NAVY. 



423 



puzzled over was the explosion of the powder ship, and that they chanced 
to be in such close proximity to a form of attack which, if only half its 
expected success had attended it, would have incidently blown themselves 
into space. 

"On the followinfj morning, that of Christmas Eve, 1864, when the 
sky was clear and the sea blue, with just enough westerly breeze to ripple 










XJKB OB CONrEHERATETfOIlKS; 



Pari) oTaHCtr / SttOuif)- 



the surface of the ocean and stiffen out the dancing flags overhead, the 
splendid fleet steamed slowly in for the attack. In stately line of battle, 
three abreast, with the iron-clads in the van and the frigates, sloops of 
war and gunboats, all trimiued for action, ranged behind, the fifty-five 
vessels of the squadron silently advanced. Inside the fort, from the navy 
guns, now manned by the CMckamauga's people, all the way up the 
quarter mile of sand mounds composing the sea face, and away back 



434 THE CONFEDERATE STATES NAVY. 

along the more elevated land face which turned off at right angles till it 
met the marsh and river at the rear, one could see the motionless groups 
of grey-uniformed gunners standing silently at the barbette guns, no 
movement showing anywhere, except in the flags which still fluttered 
gaily in the wind. 

" Presently the formidable Ironsides took up her desired position, and 
rounding slightly, jetted out a puff of heavy smoke from one of her bow 
ports. This, with the screaming, whizzing shell which followed, gave the 
signal for the heaviest artillery battle of modern times to begin its two 
days of turmoil. 

' At the first shot from the enemy, the fort began its response. The 
rigid groups unlocked, and a lively, rattling interchange of fire opened 
between the hundreds of guns of tiae fleet and the fifty odd pieces perched 
on the sand mounds of the fortress. What with the continuous roar of 
the firing, and the scarcely frequent reports of bursting shell, the aggre- 
gate noise was not unlike that of a rolling, volleying, long-sustained thun- 
der storm. It continued throughout the day till, with the setting in of 
the early winter twilight, the fleet hauled off and left the fort to recoup 
its damages and wonder at the shower of shell fragments and pit-holes so 
plentifully besprinkling its spacious surface that turbulent Christmas Eve. 
The Chickwmauga detachment had found themselves in an unfinished 
battery, where the incomplete sand mounds, or traverses between the guns, 
left them somewhat exposed to a raking fire,but they were not without the 
satisfaction of seeing more than one or two of their chilled bolts and big 
shells knock a shower of splinters from the wooden ships abreast of the 
position. An able seaman named Higgins had been the first to figure in 
the hst of casualties. Early in the day he found his left leg spinning 
away from him across the sand plain before a bursting shell. Later, other 
mishaps here and there occurred, and in the afternoon a shell burst in the 
battery of gun No. 1, which sent a five pound fragment through the 
shoulder of a sailor, and at the same moment bestowed a crack on the 
knee to the officer in charge. It had not been deemed expedient to fire 
the heavy Brooke guns of the navy detachment oftener than at fifteen- 
minute intervals, by way of saving undue exposure of the guns' crews, 
and also avoiding heating the pieces; and so, between the discharges, 
and while crouching in comparative safety under the sand mounds, am- 
ple opportunity was found to watch the antics of the hostile missiles 
showered into the fort. These were of all sorts and sizes, from the big 
fifteen-inch spherical shot or shell, and the 100-pounder rifled Parrotts, 
down through the list, and the whiz or whistle of each variety seemed to 
strike a different and more vicious note. Occasionally a spherical shell, 
after it had passed safely by, and was nearly spent, exploded with its 
base turned towards the battery, the result being to toss its bottom-end 
back among the unprotected gunners, and curiously enough one of these 
bits dehvered a highly-condensed temperance lecture by knocking a bot- 
tle of grog just then served out to the sailors, from the hands of the man 
engaged in taking the first pull. Tl;ie sympathy of the blue jackets was 
not addressed to the unfortunate sailor who held the bottle, although he, 
too, had received a knock from the same fragment. 

" In one interval of watching, a young courier was observed running 
in at top speed across an exposed place to gain cover under the Chicka- 
maugfi's battery. Before the lad reached it, however, an exploding fifteen- 
inch shell intervened, and almost eliminated him, so much so, that the 
sailors could find scarcely a recognizable semblance of humanity left to 
bury in the little hole they hastily scraped out of the sand for that pur- 
pose. Some of the missiles striking the sand mounds ' full and by,' sent 
fountains of dust aloft, while here and there others burrowed in the sand 
plain, and exploding, left a hole big enough to plant a tree in. Just back 
of the navy guns, scarcely two hundred yards away, were some frame- 
work stables in which a few officers' horses had been left in the emergency 
of the attack. These buildings, being in the hottest line of concentrated 









I' . ' 




THE CONFEDERATE STATES NAVY. 425 

fire, and wholly unsheltered, were speedily breached, and set in flames by 
the shells, leaving the terrified animals free to escape and gallop madly 
up and down the plain inside the fort, until one after another they were 
shotdown. One horse, a handsome grey, came back exhausted after his 
frantic gallop, with the blood from a wound showing plainly on his neck, 
and stood patiently as near his stable gate as the flames would permit, 
until another shell fortunately soon finished his affair. 

"Up in the bomb-proof, in the angle formed by the meeting of the 
land and sea faces of the fort, the surgeons were busily at work over the 
stream of wounded which trickled in to them during the day, and just 
outside of their doorway, beyond a little sand-curtain, one found an indi 
cation of their whereabouts, in the dozen or so of legs and arms which had 
been hastily tossed there after amputation. The Chickamauga detach- 
ment furnished its quota to the hospital, but the worst experience for the 
sailors was destined to come the following day, 

"Then, on Christmas morning, after an harassing night of false 
alarms spent by the garrison, the fleet came in again, this time earlier, 
and prepared for a fuller day of it. The same hammering from the ships, 
and the same sullen and slow response from the fort, characterized the 
proceedings of the second day's work during the morning hours, but the 
enemy's flre increased in intensity in the afternoon, as the preliminary of 
an attack from the land forces of military, which were then disembarking 
from various transports beyond range up the beach. 

"Before this latter demonstration took place, however, the Chicka- 
tnauga's people were treated to a new and highly disagreeable ex- 
perience. 

" While they were engaged in firing gun No. 1, and just as a shell 
burst over the battery, severely wounding Lieut. Dornin of the navy, who 
was standing near, the piece itself exploded with terrific force. This heavy 
gun, weighing about 15,000 pounds, was split by the explosion from the 
jaws of the cas-cabet horizontally through to the trunnions, and then 
sliced perpendicularly through the chase. One-half of its breech was 
blown back over the heads of a group of officers near by, and the other 
portion smashed through the carriage to the ground, while the heavy 
bands from around the breech spread apart and miscellaneously damaged 
the gun's crew. When the officers at the rear struggled to their feet . . . 
and whether they were knocked down by concussion or astonishment 
they never knew ... a strange sight presented itself. 

"One man lay dead, with his arms stretched out towards them and 
his skull blown off, while another appeared twisted in a knot over a piece 
of iron band lapped across his stomach. Others were more or less hurt, 
and one man was leaping about the battery like a lunatic, crying out that 
he was on fire. He could scarcely be comforted, even when on stripping 
off his shirt he was found only to be tattooed by grains of powder and 
sand blown into his back and shoulders. 

"This finished the work of gun No. 1. Its remaining crew turned to 
at the other gun, and its midshipmen found duty at headquarters in 
assisting the staff of Gen. Whiting about the preparations then in course 
to meet the threatened land attack. 

" As it happened curiously enough. Passed Midshipman Berrien's 
gun, the remaining one of the (JMckaniauga's battery, soon after followed 
the bad example of its mate, and exploded much in the same manner, 
with a further but not so disastrous damage to the crew. 

"By this time, towards three o'clock in the afternoon, there was a 
slackening of the shelling on the land face, and a redoubled firing on that 
fronting the sea, indicating that the land forces were advancing to attack 
the former portion of the fort. Orders were immediately issued by the 
general to man the breastworks and parapet on that side, and to this end 
it became necessary to get from out of the bomb-proofs a battalion of 
conscripts which had been drafted from home-guard service to eke out 
the garrison. As these 'Junior Reserves' were the remains of former 



42G THE CONFEDERATE STA.TES NAVY. 

conscriptions, and composed of decrepit old men and young boys, with- 
out experience of service, and wholly unfit lor the field, it was some- 
what of a task to dislodge them from the * rat-hole ' where they had 
sheltered in security while the two days' cannonade had thundered over- 
head. But by dint of scolding and swearing on the part of the oflficers 
of the staff, and an occasional use of the flat of the sabre, the unhappy 
creatures were finally marshalled out on the parapet where thej' made a 
show of numbers, and so helped out the gallant soldiers of the regular 
garrison. 

"By this time, a glance over the parapet disclosed an irregular blue 
line of skirmishers trotting out across the sand plain at tiie front from a 
denser body of troops behind them; those in advance alternately putting 
up their muskets to tire at the men in the fort, and then burrowing like 
fiddler-crabs, behind hastily tossed-up piles of sand. A liv-ely exchange 
of musketry fire ensued for a few minutes, but it lacked seriousness on 
the part of the attaclv, and presently lulled, showing the blue coats 
scampering back out of range. This was all that came of the land at- 
tack. If it had been pushed with vigor, as was the similar one a few 
weeks later, it is hardly probable that the fort, weakly garrisoned as it 
was, could have successfully resisted. 

"When it was observed from the fleet that the military were re- 
treating, the shijas hauled off, out of action, but not without a long, 
vindictive spurt of terrific shelling at the land face, by way of parting 
salute. 

"After two days' further waiting, spent in anxiously watching the 
fleet and the land forces which remained up to the beach, in sight but out 
of range, the garrison had the agreeable surprise and satisfaction of see- 
ing the troops re-embark, and their transports, accompanied by the host 
of war-vessels, fade aAvay out of sight to the northward. For the present, 
at least, the victory was left with Fort Fisher. 

"The Chicka mango's detachment of thirty-two men and officers, 
what with the casualties due to their exposed position and to the burst- 
ing of their guns, had a 'butcher's bill' of nineteen killed and wounded 
to show for their share in the two days' affair, and the following morning 
saw them a shabby, limping squad on foot, with a cart-load of disabled 
companions trailing on astern ; marching back across the sandy plains to 
where the ship lay anchored in the river. 

" They had received a kind congratulation from Gen. Whiting, and 
a cordial mention in his official report, as also pleasant demonsti-ations 
from gallant Col. Lamb and the garrison on leaving the fort; but perhaps 
the most stirring moments of their lives were still in waiting for them 
further down the point, at the navy works of Battery Buchanan, where 
the garrison was composed of some two hundred and fifty of their brother 
sailors. There, after a brief halt at the shut doors of the sally-port, the 
(Jhicka7nauga lads found themselves, cart and all, unexpectedly marched 
into the centre of a hollow square of tunuiltuously cheering sailors. Af- 
ter this episode, they were soon again at home and afloat in the Chicka- 
mituga. 

" The second attack on the fort occured on January 15th, a few weeks 
later, and although the military officers of Fort Fisher kindly applied 
again for the detachment in the preparation for that affair, the ship was 
deemed too short-handed to admit of their going back. Thus they es- 
caped a further harsh experience, and, as events proved, a certain cap- 
ture. Their part in the subsequent operations was limited to such shell- 
ing of the attacking troops as the ship was able to aecomj)lish from her 
position in the river. 

" From there they witnessed the second attack and the flnal capture 
of the fort. After that the ship was taken back to Wilmington, and sub- 
sequently burnt and sunk, higher up the river, where she lay at peace 
till some enterprising Yankee a few years later raised her hull and con- 
verted her into an inglorious West India fruiterer." 



THE CONFEDERATE STATES NAVY. 427 

The fall of AVilmington was the severest blow to the Con- 
federate cause which it could receive from the loss of any 
port. It was far more injurious than the capture of Charles- 
ton, and but for the moral effect, even more hurtful than the 
evacuation of Richmond. With Wilmington and the Cape 
Fear River open, the supplies that reached the Confederate 
armies would have enabled them to have maintained an un- 
equal contest for years, but with the fall of Fort Fisher the 
constant stream of supplies was effectually cut off and the 
blockade made truly effective — not by the navy fleet, but by 
its captures on land. 



CHAPTER XVI 
THE BLOCKADE. 



THE diplomacy of Wm. H. Seward, U. S. Secretary of 
State during the years 18G1-5, is a subject of much perplex- 
ity, and the more it is examined and analyzed with the 
light of contemporary and subsequent facts, the greater 
will be the difficulty in deciding whether it was more harmful 
to the cause of the United States than to that of the Confederate 
States. That he accomplished no practical result; that he hu- 
miliated the pride of the United States; that he abandoned the 
historical policy of the government from its beginning without 
successfully initiating any other in its stead, will be apparent to 
the most cursory reading of his diplomatic dispatches. And 
a closer examination will convince the reader that he exhibited 
an ignorance of geography, of history and of literature, 
which cannot be traced in the dispatches of any of his official 
predecessors. ' 

Nor was his temper and discretion suited to the manage- 
ment of diplomatic intercourse. His defects were so well 
marked and defined that to them may be directly traced sev- 
eral of those rebuffs and discourtesies which were given him 

1 A few extracts from his diplomatic corre- sijapi was discovered, either at its source or its 

spondence will establish the truth of this asser- mouth. His literature is as defective as hi» 

tion. Ou July 7th, 1862, writing to Mr. Adams geography and history are incorrect. Commend- 

of Commodore Farragut'spassing the batteries at iiig Mr. Harvey, U. S. Minister at Lisbon, for at- 

Vicksburg, he says: "Thus the last obstacle to tending the erection of a monument to Camoeiis^ 

the navigation of the Mississippi River has been he says: "The incident seems doubtless the 

overcome, and it is open to trade once more more pleasing to us because it occurs at this con- 

from the head waters of its tributaries, near juuctiire, when we are engaged in combating, in 

the Lakes and Prince Rupert's Land, to the Gulf its f uU development, a gigantic error which Por- 

of Mexico." tugal, in the age of Camoens. brought into this 

Prince Rupert's Land lies on the eastern contineut." Camoens died at Lisbon in 1.579, 

side of Hudson's Bay at least fifteen degrees of and the Portugese slave trade in this hemisphere 

latitude, and, as a " bird flies, " over a thousand began in 1630. Such litei-ary bungling is further 

miles from the sources of the Mississipjji. So clouded with a vulgarity and insensibility to 

much for geography. His history is not more decorum which never before dirtied the pages 

reliable. After calling the motto of the Order of of American diplomacy. The eui^hemism by 

the Charter, " tlie motto of the National Arms," which when a household is gladdened by the 

he asserts that " Richelieu occui^ied and forti- birth of a baV)e. the convalescence of the mother 

fled a large portion of this continent, extending is described in technical and courtly phrase: 

from the Gulf of Mexico to the Straits of Belle " that the mother is getting on as well as could 

Isle." The cai'dinal was dead and in his grave be exjiected," was introduced by Mr Seward in 

in the Sorbonne thirty years before the Missis- a dispatch of July 18th, 1862, to Mr. Adams,. 

(428) 



THE CONFEDERATE STATES NAVY. 429 

by Lord Russell, by M, Drouyn de Lhuys, and by Baron Van 
Luyden. The moral side of his character involved him in 
questions of personal veracity with M. Mercier which his 
most devoted friends have failed to satisfactorily explain. His 
political fortunes, or some other motive as yet unexplained, 
induced him to select for diplomatic positions abroad the 
Pikes and Foggs, and Judds, names which recall the grotesque 
characters of Dickens' novels, and whose performances and 
dispatches add to, if they do not embellish, the absurdities 
and crudities which fill the volumes of diplomatic correspon- 
dence for the years 18G1-5. Of all the men selected to repre- 
sent the United States at European courts only Mr. Adams at 
London, and Mr. Dayton at Paris, and possibly Cassius M. Clay 
a,t St. Petersburg, had any reputation for fitness or capacity 
beyond the narrowest limits of their homes; the rest were ob- 
scure and untrained fanatical stump speakers, and news- 
paper purveyors. To Holland he sent a semi-editor of a New 
York paper. At religious and bigoted Madrid he placed a 
German adventurer, — the word is not used in an offensive 
sense, but as descriptive of the unfitness of Mr. Schurz. 

One turns from these mental and moral defects to an ab- 
sence of political convictions, and a vacillation of political 
purpose, that is astonishing. It is not surprising to read in a 
dispatch of March 9th, 1861, that "the President entertains a 
full confidence in the speedy restoration of the harmony and 
the unity of the government;" while the powers of Europe were 
advised by a dispatch to England of April 10th, 1861, that 
'" The President neither looks for nor apprehends any actual 
and permanent dismemberment of the American Union, 
especially by a line of latitude. He is not disposed to reject 
a cardinal dogma of the South, namely, that the Federal gov- 
erment cannot reduce the seceding States to obedience by con- 
quest, even although he were disposed to question that propo- 
sition. But, in fact, the President ivillingly accepts it as tr'ue. 
Only an imperial or despotic government could subjugate 

as : " The work of pacification in the region patches of Mr. Seward describe the British 
concerned is going on as successfully as could be Colonial Empire as " extending from Gibralter, 
expected. You hear of occasional guerilla raids, through the West Indies and Canada, till it be- 
but these are the after-pangs ol revolution in gins again on the southern extremity of Africa;" 
that quarter which has proved an abortion." and that " armed insurrections to overturn the 

He accuses Voltaire of having said, " Dieu est government are frequent in Great Britain;" that 

tonjonra stir le cote dea gros canons." No edn- most of the wars iu modern times have been 

cated Frenchman woiild have said " sur le cote." revolutionary wars ;" that " the government of 

What Voltaire did say to M. Le Riche was: " Le the Netherlands is probably an ally of Japan;" 

Dombre des sages sera toujours petit. II est and, lastly, his singular forgetfulness or igno- 

vrai qu'il est augmente; mais ce n'est rien en ranee of the history of his own country, and of 

ciimparaison des sots, et par malheur on dit que what Silas Deane and Dr. Franklin, and the 

Dieu est toujours pour les gros bataillons," and Lees, and John Adams were sent to do and did, 

M. Bussy Rabutin wrote : "Dieu est d' ordi- in Europe, when he wrote to Mr. Schurz that "it 

inaire powr les gros escadrona contre les petits," seems the necessity of faction in every country, 

but neither wrote sur le cote. And Minister Sand- that whenever it acquires sufficient boldness to 

ford informs Mr. Seward, July 3d, 1861, that inaugurate revolution, it forgets alike the coun- 

" They would in no case make a treaty which sels of prudence, and stifles the instincts of 

should bind them to perpetual abolition of pass- patriotism, and becomes a suitor to foreign 

ports, vis-a-vis to my nation." He might have courts for aid and a.ssistance." These specimens 

iSaid with equal propriety, dos-a-dos ! ! of literary bungling and ignorance might be mul- 

In such tawdry effusions the diplomatic dis- tiplied a hundred-fold if space only permitted." 



430 THE CONFEDERATE STATES NAVY. 

thoroughly disaffected and insurrectionary members of the 
State. This Federal republican system of ours is, of all forms 
of government, the very one which is most unfitted for such a 
a labor." The dispatch continues to explain how the Constitu- 
tution can be amended by a "National Convention," and con- 
cludes that while " the President will not suffer the Federal 
authority to fall into abeyance, nor will he, on the other hand, 
aggravate existing evils by attempts at coercion which must, 
assume the form of direct war against any of the revolution- 
ary States." Thus Mr. Seward sustained the political doctrine 
of the South that the Federal government had no constitu- 
tional right to coerce a seceded State, and par consequence, 
no power to declare war, proclaim blockade, or exercise any 
other hostile agency to reconstruct the Federal Union. Tiie 
British government, thus advised of the principles by 
which Mr. Lincoln proposed to conduct his administration, 
must have naturally concluded that secession had divided the 
Federal Union into two confederacies, which were to be re- 
united only by discussion and agreement. Within ten days 
after that pacific declaration, Europe was astonished by the 
Proclamation of Blockade, of April 19th, 1861, from the Capes 
of Virginia to the mouth of the Rio Grande. 

Blockade is a recognized agency of war only between in- 
dependent nations. European governments had never seen a 
nation blockade its oivii ports; and as Mr. Seward had declared 
that this government had no constitutional right to coerce a 
State back into the Union, and had followed that declaration 
with a blockade, the conclusion was irresistable, that the 
seceded States were to occupy some intermediate position be- 
tween independency and restoration to the Federal Union. Is 
it surprising that this anomalous and contradicting diplo- 
macy should have determined European governments to as- 
sume a neutral position and to declare both the United States 
and the Confederate States to be belligerents ? What other 
course was open to them ? Hence, the Queen's Proclamation 
of Neutrality of May 13th, and that of the Emperor of the 
French of June 10th, 1861, were the consequences of Mr. Sew- 
ard's diplomacy and of his blockade which constituted the Con- 
federate States belligerents both on land and at sea. England 
and France recognized wliat Mr. Seward had done as the con- 
stitutional outcome of the absence of the right to coerce the 
States back into the Union, and as a declaration of war 
against the Confederate States for the purpose of conquering 
them, notwithstanding tlie want of constitutional warrant. 

" The only justification that I have heard for this extra- 
ordinary concession," said Senator Charles Sumner ' " whicli 
unleashed upon our country the furies of war to commingle 
with the furies of rebellion at home, is that President Lincoln 

1 Speerh in the U. S. Senate on tlie JohiiBon-Clareudoii Treaty. 



THE CONFEDERATE STATES NAVY. 431 

undertook to proclaim a blockade of the rebel ports. By the 
use of this word • blockade' the concession (of belligerency) is 
vindicated. Had President Lincoln proclaimed a closing of 
the rebel ports, there could have been no such concession." 
And again : 

" So far as is now known, the whole case for Eng:land is made to stand 
on the use of the word 'blockade ' by President Lincohi. Had lie used 
any other word the concession of belligerency would have been without 
justification, even such as is now imagined. It was this word whicli, with 
magical miglit, opened the gates to all those bountiful supplies by which 
hostile expeditions were equipped against the United States. It opened 
the gates of war. Most appalling is it to think that one little word, un- 
consciously used by a trusting President, could be caught up by a friendly 
power and m.ade to play such a part." 

It was Mr. Seward that spoke the word ''blockade," and 
whether by ignorance of its import and consequences, or by a 
design to have that " little blood-letting " which Senator 
Chandler invoked as the best means of preserving tlie unity 
of the Republican party, was immaterial to European powers. 
Tliey accepted the war agency of Mr. Seward's selection, and 
made their governments neutrals, in the war between the 
*' belligerents." 

Mr. Seward had but two objects before him. One was, 
to prevent even the indirect recognition of the Confederate 
States; the other, to effect a complete prohibition of privateer- 
ing. His diplomacy completely failed in both. His blockade 
constituted the Confederate States belligerents, and as such 
they were recognized; and being belligerent, and not having 
acceded to the Treaty of Paris of 185G, the right of privateer- 
ing belonged to both the United States and the Confederate 
States, and was recognized as a rightful war agent to either 
belligerent. Mr. Seward's blockade, which prevented unre- 
stricted trade between the Confederate States and foreign 
countries, was not without a multitude of troubles to his de- 
partment and to his country. While it affected the recogni- 
tion of the Confederate States as belligerents, it also caused 
the government of those States to resort to privateering as a 
counterstroke against the blockade. The Act of the Confed- 
erate Congress of May 6th, 1861, by which letters of marque 
were authorized to be issued, assigned as a reason that the 
President of the United States '' has issued his other procla- 
mation announcing his purpose to set on foot a blockade of the 
ports of the Confederate States." Thus Mr. Seward's manage- 
ment of the State Department, which had been so bungling 
and unwise as to cause European powers to invest the Con- 
federate States with a quasi-recognition, had also set loose, 
"unleashed" as Mr. Sumner put it, a fleet of privateers to 
prey upon the commerce of the United States. England 
and France, in accordance with the purpose of the Treaty 
of Paris to suppress privateering, closed their ports to Con- 
federate and United States privateers, and Mr. Seward's 



4:'32 THE CONFEDERATE STATES NAVY. 

blockade shut up the Confederate ports, so that the con- 
demnation of prizes by admiralty courts was impossible to 
Confederate captors. The wisdom of a policy which, depriv- 
ing the merchant owners in the United States of all the ad- 
vantages of trial of prizes for condemnation by admiralty 
courts, and compelling the burning on the high seas of many 
captures, will certainly not be regarded as evincing any very 
great statesmanship. 

The Hon. Charles Sumner, in his speech in the Senate' 
was as unreliable in his statements as the Secretary of State 
was unwise in his diplomacy. Mr. Sumner averred, years 
after the war was closed, that at the time when belligerency 
was conceded to the Confederate States, they were " without 
prize courts, or other tribunals for the administration of jus- 
tice on the ocean."'^ By the Act of March 11th, 1861, the Con- 
federate Congress established "a Court of Admiralty and 
maritime jurisdiction at Key West, in the State of Florida," 
and adopted for its guidance the " laws of the United States," 
until otherwise provided. And the Act of March 16th, 1861, 
" to establish the Judicial Courts of the Confederate States," 
gave to all district courts "original cognizance of all civil 
causes of admiralty and maritime jurisdiction," and gave to 
" the laws of the United States and the rules of court in ref- 
ernce to admiralty proceeding in force in the Admiralty Courts 
of the United States on the 30th day of December, 1860," * * * 
full force and effect in the courts of the Confederate States." 
Thus it will be seen that it is not a fact, as Mr. Sumner as- 
serted, that " at the early date when this was done the rebels 
were, as they remained to the close, v/ithout ships on the ocean; 
without prize courts or other tribunals for the administration 
of justice on the ocean, witliout any of those conditions which 
are the essential prerequisites to such a concession." Adopt- 
ing, then, Mr. Canning's celebrated declaration made during 
the Greek Revolution, that ocean belligerency is a "fact," and 
not a principle — a " fact " to be proved, as any otlier fact, by 

1 On the Johuson-Clarendon Treaty. their cargoes, were captured or jjlundered, and 

BUi'.h ships and cargoes were appropriated to 

2 If that assertion had been true, there were their own use. The titling out of these priva- 
well-established precedents in American history teers at Baltimore was a matter of public no- 
to sustain the claim of the Confederate States toriety, and many of the leading citizens there, 
to recognition as a belligerent, and to the use including the sheriff and postmaster, were sum- 
of privateers in the war with the U. S. Refer- moned before the courts as owners or infer- 
ence need only be made to the Portuguese case ested in such privateers. It is well known that 
and to the correspondence thereon between the noted Bauda-Oriental chief, Artigas, held no 
Chevalier Joseijh Correa de Serra, Portuguese seaport, had no ships, no sailors; and the priva- 
Miuister at Washington, with Mr. Monroe, Sec. teers. assuming his unrecognized flag, were 
of State, in 1815-1(5, with John Quincy Adams, mostly manned and commanded by citizens of 
Sec. of State, in 1818, published in Ex. Doc. Ist the United States, and in some instances, the 
Sess. 32d Congress. Doc. No. 53, 3d series. No. 1, officers held commissions in tlie navy of the 
pp. 161, 163. 166. Also the correspondence on United States." Tlie U. S. naval officers were 
the same case in 1850, between Chevalier de Lieuts. Peleg and Dunham, and Midshipmen 
Figauier, Portuguese Minister at Washington, Swartout and Grimke. The United States re- 
and Mr. Clayton and Mr. Webster, Sec. of State fused positively to entertain the Portuguese 
(Ex. Doc. supra pp. 179 and 180). In the latter claims, to appoint commissions, or in any man- 
correspondence Chev.Figauier presents the same ner whatever to accept responsibility tor the 
Btate of facts which Mr. Sumner imagined. $1,.500,U00 worth of vessels destroyed by Ameri- 

•'Upward of sixty Portuguese vessels, with can privateers. 



THE CONFEDERATE STATES NAVY. 433 

evidence — it is shown that the Confederate States had ships- 
of-war on the ocean, and possessed admiralty courts, where 
the laws and proceedings of the United States were recog- 
nized and administered; that they were organized in their 
State autonomies and even confederated by the same kind of 
league or constitution that bound together the States of the 
United States; and that Mr. Seward had recognized all these 
evidences of " fact" by resorting to the blockade of the Con- 
federate ports, the ports of the very States he had declared 
could not be coerced back into the Federal Union. 

Events culminated in the assault on Sumter, and on April 
19th, 1861, the Proclamation of Blockade was issued. ' 

The administration of Mr. Lincoln was from its beginning 
greatly embarrassed as to the commercial questions likely to 
be involved in secession. As early as March 7th, the subject 
was being discussed in the leading newspapers. The N. Y. 
Herald of that day, voiced the prevailing opinion when it said: 

" We may observe in this connection that no government can block- 
ade its own ports. It may lay an embargo on goods leaving its ports, but 
it cannot legally and constitutionally prevent the ships of other nations 
entering its ports while it is at peace with those nations. As to laying 
a,n embargo on cotton going to England and France, we hardly think Mr. 
Lincoln will ever try that game with two powerful nations, who so re- 
cently cut their way to Pekin to establish the freedom of their commerce." 
* * * "At present the distinguished rail-splitter is too much en- 
gaged in the distribution of the spoils to pay much attention to foreign 
policies, or to the blockading of the Southern coast, but it is evident from 
the paragraph in the Tribune that that journal feels that the government 
of Mr. Lincoln will never undertake a blockade."^ 

On March 10th, 1861, the U. S. government had only forty- 
two vessels in commission and 207 men in all the forts and re- 
ceiving ships upon the Atlantic coast. Of these vessels, 
twenty six were steamers, with eleven knots as the highest 

1 " Washington, April 19. — Tlie President has lives and property of quiet and orderly citizens 

issued a proclamation as follows : pursuing their lawful occupations, until Con- 

" An iusurrection against the Government of gress shall have assembled and deliberated on 

the United States has iiroken out in the States of the said unlawful proceedings, or until the same 

South Carolina, Geor^jia, Alabama, Florida, Mis- shall have ceased, has further deemed it ad- 

sissipiii, Louisiana and Texas, and the laws of visable to set on foot a blockade of the ports 

the United States for the collection of the rev- within the States aforesaid, and in piu'suance 

enue cannot be effectually executed therein of the laws of the United States and the law of 

comfortably to that provision of the Constitu- nations in such case provided, 

tion which requires the duties to be uniform " For this purpose a competent force will be 

throughout the United States. jjosted so as to prevent the entrance and exit of 

•' And, further, a combination of persons en- vessels from the ports aforesaid, 

gaged in such insui-rcctiou have threatened to " If, therefore, with a view to violate such 

grant pretended letters of marque to authorize blockade, any vessel shall attempt to leave 

the bearers thereof to commit assaults on the any of said ports, the vessel will be duly 

lives, vessels and property of good citizens of warned by the commander of one of said 

the country, engaged in commerce on the high blockading vessels, who will endorse en her 

seas and in the waters of the United States. register the fact and date of such naming, and 

" And whereas an Executive proclamation has if the same vessel shall again attempt to enter 
been already issued, requiring the persons en- or leave the blockaded port, she will be cap- 
gaged in these disorderly proceedings to desist tured and sent to the nearest commercial port, 
therefrom, calling out a militia force for the for such proceedings against her and her cargo 
purpose of repressing the same, and convening as may be deemed advisable." 
Congress in extraordinary session to deliberate 

and determine thereon, the President with a 2 in April, 1861, a resolution was adopted by 

view to the same purposes before mentioned, the New York Chamber of Commerce : " That 

and to the protection of public i^eace and the the United States Government be recommended 
28 



434 THE CONFEDERATE STATES NAVY. 

speed. The entire naval force available for defence of the whole 
Atlantic coast consisted of the Brooklyn (twenty-five guns), 
and store-ship Relief (two guns), while at that date fifty-six offi- 
cers had resigned. Orders were hurried abroad for the return of 
all war-vessels, the navy-yards were filled with operatives, and 
day and night were heard the sounds of earnest preparations 
for war, and the Navy Department consulted with some of the 
most prominent shipping merchants of New York relative to 
the enlargement of the navy by purchase and charter. 

The blockade of the Atlantic coast, to be recognized by 
foreign powers, "must be effective." The Maritime Law, as 
laid down by the Treaty of Paris, would have to be observed 
by the United States; and though the blockade law does not 
define the effectiveness which it prescribes, yet the accepted 
opinion of publicists and naval officers was that from " two to 
six " vessels at each port would be necessary. To that end, 
ships, barks, schooners, sloops, tugs, ferry-boats, anything 
that floated and could carry even a howitzer, were accepted 
and put in commission by the U. S. Navy Department, to give 
an appearance of effectiveness. In addition to vessels-of-war 
at the liarbors, a novel mode of blockade was adopted — that 
of sinking vessels loaded with stone across the main channel 
of entrance to Charleston Harbor and the Savannah River, 
and the threat to apply the same mode of closure to every 
Southern harbor. The rights to open and close ports of en- 
try, that is, to declare which natural harbors shall be revenue 
ports and which shall not be open to trade, was never before 
understood to carry the right to destroy the natural road- 
steads which offered to vessels a harbor of refuge from the 
storms of the coast. Mr. Seward, as the diplomatic chief of 
his government, was bound to know that such barbarism 
would not be tolerated by enlightened governments, and he 
ought to have restrained Secretary Welles, of the navy, from 
doing an act so wicked and so uncivilized. Lord John Rus- 
sell's attention was called to the stone blockade by the Liver- 
pool Ship-owners' Association, and replied that: 

" Lord Lyons was told that such a cruel plan would seem to imply 
despair of the restoration of the Union, the professed object of the war ; 
for it never could be the wish of the United States Cxovernment to destroy 
cities from which their own country was to derive a portion of its riches 
and prosperity. Such a plan could only be adopted as a measure of re- 
venge, and of irremediable injury against an enemy. 

"Lord Lyons was further told that even as a scheme of embittered 
and sanguinary war, such a measure would not be justifiable. It would 

and urged to bloctkade the ports of such States neutral nations.granting to those who succeeded 

or any other State that shall join them (in seoes- in breaking or running the conteniijlated block- 

sion), and that this measure is demanded for de- ade, remission of all duties and charges: and 

fence in war. as also for protection to the com- also suggested the i^ropriety of a plan to jjur- 

merce of the United States versus those so-called chase ocean steamers, by some sort of assvirance 

privateers invited to eni-oU under the authority from Congress to the owners of those vessels, 

of such states." As a re])ly to that resolution, a suitable for war purposes — that upon their suc- 

public meeting in Marietta, Ga., recommended cessful entry into our poi-ts they would be pnr- 

the Confederate Congi-ess to throw open all Con- chased for our navy, after examination by a. 

federate j)orts to the shipping and commerce of commission, etc. 



THE CONFEDERATE STATES NAVY. 



435 



be a plot against the commerce of all maritime nations, and against the 
free intercourse of the Southern States of America with the civilized 
"world. Lord Lyons "was desired to speak in this sense to Mr. Seward, who 
it was hoped would disavow the illegal project. 

"Now, however, that the project seems to have been carried into ef- 
fect at Charleston, Lord Lyons will be instructed to make a further repre- 
sentation to Mr. Seward with a view to prevent similar acts of destruc- 
tion in other ports." 

And in January 1802, Lord Lyons, in response to his call for 
explanation, was told by Mr. Sev^ard that ''the Government 
of the United States had, last spring, with a navy very little 
prepared for so extensive an operation, undertaken to block- 
ade upwards of 3,000 miles of coast," and that the Secretary 
of the Navy had reported that he could ''stop up the Marge 
holes ' by means of his ships, but that he could not stop up 
the ' small ones.' It had been found necessary therefore, to 
close some of the numerous inlets by sinking vessels in the 
channel." An ambassador has been said to be a "man sent 
abroad to lie for his State," but the stricture, it appears, can 
as well be applied to the Federal Secretary of the Navy, for 
the main channel to Charleston Harbor was not a small inlet. 
Of that stone blockade, the London Times of December 17th, 
1861, voiced the universal condemnation and execration in 
which it was held by all enlightened nations.' After ridiculing 



1 Of that barbarous act the N. Y. Herald said : 
"There are twenty-five vessels, averaging 335 
tons each, and they will be so heavily loaded 
with stone that, when once sunk, it will be no 
easy matter to raise them. They will thus be- 
come the real blockading fleet, that no storm or 
fog can interfere with or no small craft pass by. 
The following are the names of the vessels 
purchased : 
Bate. 
1861. Karnes. Port. Tons. 

Oct. 16 — Ship Cerea New London . . 356 

" Bark Tenedos " ... 245 

" Ship Lewis " ...308 

" Bark Fortune " ...292 

" Ship Robin Hood... Mystic 395 

Oct. 17— Ship Archer New Bedford.. 322 

" Bark Cossack " .. 254 

" Bark Amazon Fairhaven 313 

" Bark Frs. Henrietta.New Bedford.. 407 

Oct. 18— Bark Garland " ..243 

Oct. 21— Bark Harvest Fairhaven 314 

Bark America Edgartown ... 329 

Ship Timor Sag Harbor.... 289 

Ship Meteor Mystic 324 

Oct. 22— Ship Rebecca Sims.. Fairhaven ... 400 
Oct. 23— Ship L. C. Richmond.New Bedford. 341 

Ship Courier " 381 

Ship Maria Theresa... " 330 

Ship Kensington " 357 

Ship Herald " 274 

Oct. 28— ship Potomac. ..Nantucket.!... 350 
Bark Peter Demill . . .New York ... 300 

•' Ship Phoenix New London.. 400 

Nov. 1 — Bark Leonidas .. .New Bedford. 231 
■' Bark South America. •' 606 



25Vessels Total tons 8,376 

Average tonnage 335 

On the day of sailing (the 20tli Inst.) the 
captains of the different vessels received sealed 



orders respecting the destination of the fleet, 
with injunctions not to open the same until 
they were out at sea and the pilots had taken 
their departure. The following is a copy in 
blank of one of these orders : 



To Captain 



SECBET ORDERS. 

:— Sir— The 



under your command, having been purchased 
by the Navy Department for service on the 
Southern coast of the United States, the follow- 
ing are your orders for yourijroposed voyage : — 

You will proceed from this port on the 

inst., or with the tir.st fair wind, and when 

clear of the land make a direct passage to the 

port of , and there deliver your shiiD to the 

commanding officer of the blockading fleet otf 
said port, taking his receiijt for her to return to 
me. After the delivery of your vessel, yourself 
and crew will be provided with passages to the 
port of New York by the Navy Department, and 

on arrival there you will call on , who will 

furnish you funds to return to this port. 

On the voyage down it would be well, as far 
as practicable, to keep in company of your 
consorts, to exhibit lights by night and sound 
horns or bells in case of fog near the coast. 

You will also examine daily the pipe in the 
quarter of your ship under water, to see that it 
remains safe. 

The only service required of you is the 
safe delivery of your vessel ; and as she is old 
and heavily laden, you will use special care that 
she sustains no damage from unskillful seaman- 
ship or want of prudence and care. 

On a close approach to your port of destination, 
begin to put between-decks cargo into lower hold, 
and before anchoring permanently, have your 
second anchor and chain (if you have one), 
secured on deck. On leaving your vessel, unless 
otherwise ordered, you will bring away papers, 
chronometer, charts, compasses, spyglass and 



436 THE CONFEDERATE STATES NAVY. 

with pungent severity the naval operations of the United 
States during 1861, the Times said : 

'•'• The hlockade has heen so notoriously a failure that nothing hut the 
extraordinary scrupulousness of the European powers has allowed it to 
continue. Ships have passed in and out at all times just as they pleased, 
and.so far as the harbors are concerned, there has nerer been any diffi- 
. culty in getting into them or in getting out of them. The Federal govern- 
ment has itself emphatically admitted the failure of their naval block- 
ade by an act of barbarity which is unparalleled in the history of national 
wars. They have actually endeavored to undo what Columbus had done — 
to shut up from all mankind forever the ports which the great discoverer 
opened to the human race, and to destroy by artificial impediments the 
gates by which men of all nations enter and pass out of some millions of 
square miles of fertile and productive lands. This is a crime against all 
human kind. If it does not call down universal opposition, it is only be- 
cause the enterprise is believed to be as impossible as its design is 
execrable." 

The blockade announced by the proclamation of April 19th 
was extended by that of May 37th to Virginia and North Car- 
olina, and embraced the whole Atlantic coast from the capes 
of Virginia to the mouth of the Rio Grande. 

Tlie terms of the proclamations were that " a competent 
force will be posted so as to prevent entrance and exit of ves- 
sels," and it further provided that "if with a view to violate 
such blockade, a vessel shall approach or sliall attempt to leave 
any of the said ports, she will be duly warned by the commander 
of one of the blockading vessels, who will endorse on her re- 
gister the fact of such warning, and if the same vessel shall 
again attempt to enter or leave the blockaded port, she will be 
captured and sent to the nearest convenient port for such pro- 
ceedings against her, and her cargo as prize, as may be deemed 
advisable." 

The blockade thus proclaimed, was referred to by Mr. 
Welles as "necessary to interdict commerce at those ports 
where duties could not be collected " — but that " in perform- 
ing this domestic municipal duty, the property and interests 
of foreigners" would be guarded by a fifteen days' notice of 
blockade and a warning before seizure. A blockade carries 
with it, under the law of nations, the right of visitation and 
search, which a " domestic municipal duty " did not embrace. 
If the proclamation of Blockade was mevtlj domestic municipal 
duty, it could not be so exercised as to hinder and embarrass 

any other valuable portable articles not required diameter, with a valve attached, so that <he 

by the commander of the blockading fleet there, watiT can be let in with a velocity calculated to 

and return them safely to me. sink any of the ships in tlie space of fifteen or 

In case of disaster to preclude going on, you twenty minutes. In case the valves should 

can call at Fortress Monroe, Hampton Roads, not work as well as expected each vessel is 

to repair damages, reporting to the flag-officer furnished with large augers, so that there will 

there. be no difficulty whatever on ihe score of sinking. 

Wishing you a safe and speedy passage, I am. The crews — wliicU consist of six men to each 

yours respectfully, . ' vessel, will be returned to this city by the meu- 

By an examination of the list of vessels com- of-war who assist in the work of sinking. It 

prising tlie fleet it will be seen that most of them is intended that the stone vessels shall be 

hail from the New England States. In the anchored broadside in the channel and then 

bottom of each vessel a hole is bored, into which sunk, and that the crews shall not leave them 

is fitted a piece of lead pipe, five inches in until the work has been securely performed." 



THE CONFEDERATE STATES NAVY, 437 

the commerce of foreign nations. Thus, both Mr. Seward 
and Mr. Welles blundered in the early days of the war, A 
blockade may begin by public announcement or proclamation, 
or by merely stationing a naval force before the port intended 
to be blockaded. But proclamation without the naval force 
would not be tolerated — for blockade by mere notification 
would have been a paper blockade which all nations would 
have resisted, and a blockade by actual present force could 
only apply to the particular harbor where the force was sta- 
tioned. The proclamations, while announcing a blockade by 
notijicdtion, also included a de facto blockade. By the latter a 
breach of blockade could only be considered as attempted after 
notification on the register of the ship and a subsequent at- 
tempt to enter. At the date of the two proclamations of in- 
tended blockade, there was no naval force at the disposal of 
Mr. Welles to make a de facto blockade, hence it was not until 
late in the summer of 1861 that the entire coast witnessed the 
presence of an actual blockading force. Prof. Soley points 
out the defects of the proclamations : 

"In the statement about warning, therefore, the President's proc- 
lamation said eitlier to much or too little. If it was intended, as the 
language might seem to imply, that during the continuance of the block- 
ade — which as it turned out, was the same thing as during the continu- 
ance of the war — all neutral vessels might approach the coast and receive 
individual warning, and that only upon such warning would they be 
liable to capture, it conceded far more than usage required. If it meant 
simply that the warning would be given at each point for such time after 
the force was posted as would enable neutrals generally to become aware 
of the fact, it conveyed its meaning imperfectly." 

And the author might have added that if the proclama- 
tion meant both, and was so drawn as to cover any contin- 
gency that might arise, it was most likely that Mr. Seward in- 
tended this last interpretation. That the proclamation fixed 
no time for warning to cease, that it permitted such errors as 
that of Pendegrast, the comprehensiveness of which included 
ports of North Carolina, ' where no force was stationed, and 
that at Charleston, where vessels where warned off the whole 
coast, though no ship of war was at Savannah, were errors 
which subsequently involved the United States in difficulties 
which resulted in the payment of "a round sum to their 
owners in damages for the loss of a market, which was caused 
by the official warning." 

The British consul at Mobile was on May 8th advised by 
Lord Lyons, that : 

"The best advice you can give British ships is to get off as fast as 
possible, without seifious inconvenience. After the effective blockade 

I The following is a copy of the iiotice of the ship Quaker City, of United States blockading 

blockade of Southern ports endorsed on the squadron, and warned not to enter any port of 

registers of all vessels, foreign and domestic, Virginia, nor any other port of the United States 

bound into the Chesapeake : to the south of it. 

" Pnissian bark Edward tronx Bremen bound •'H.y^.M.KTH'E.n, Acting Ma/ster Zf. S. Navy. 

to Baltimore, boarded by United States steam- " Off Cape Henry, 18th May, 1861." 



438 THE CONFEDERATE STATES NAVY. 

has commenced they will be allowed fifteen days to take their departure, 
but they will not be allowed to carry out any cargo, or part of a cargo, 
taken on board after the effective blockade was actually begun. Indeed, 
according to the rules of blockade, I believe they will be liable to confisca- 
tion for attempting to go out with a cargo shipped after the commence- 
ment of a blockade. But the effective blockade does not begin until the 
blockading squadron actually appears off the port. The President's proc- 
lamation is only the declaration of an intention to blockade,'' 

111 the latter part of May, before the arrival off Charleston, 
S. C, of any blockading vessels, the British schooner Eliza and 
Catharine entered that port, discharged her cargo and loaded 
immediately, and was proceeding to sea when she was brought 
to by a shot from the Minnesota, and her captain compelled to 
go on board the man-of-war. After examination the schooner 
was ordered back to Charleston to discharge her cargo and 
leave in ballast. Robert Bunch, her Britannic Majesty's con- 
sul at Charleston, immediately visited the Minnesota, and con- 
vinced her commanding officer that, considering the real facts 
of the blockade at Charleston, it would be best for him to per- 
mit the English schooner to depart with her cargo. This per- 
mit was immediately given, but the Norwegian bark, Admiral 
Zendensl'jord, which entered Charleston under the very same 
circumstances as the British schooner, was compelled by the 
blockading officers to leave in ballast. It was impossible for 
such partiality not to be suspected of proceeding from the 
very great difference between the English navy and that 
of Norway and Sweden, and to conclude, at that early day, 
that the favors of the blockading squadron were confined to 
the ships that could command the protection of the heaviest 
squadrons. 

The general result of inquiries made by Lord Lyons and 
other foreign ministers, was communicated under date of May 
11th by Lord Lyons to Admiral Milne, and may be summarisecl 
as follows : 

1. " That the date of the commencement of the blockade in each 
locality will be fixed by the issue of a notice by the commanding officer 
of the squadron appointed to blockade it. It does not, however, appear 
to be intended that such notice shall be officially communicated to the 
governments of neutral nations, or to their representatives in this 
country. 

2. " That fifteen days from the beginning of the effective blockade 
will be allowed in every case for neutral vessels already in port to put 
to sea. 

3. " That until the fifteen days have expired neutral vessels will be 
allowed to come out with or without cargoes, and whether their cargoes 
were shipped before or after the commencement of the blockade. 

4. " That except in the last mentioned particular, the ordinary rules 
of blockade will be strictly enforced. 

5. " The armed vessels of neutral States will have the right to enter 
and depart from the blockaded ports. 

'''■ I continue to he of o2nnio7i that, provided the blockade he effective, 
and he carried on in conformity with the law of nations, we haverio other 
course, in the absence of positive instructions from her Majesty's govern- 
7ne/it, than to recognize «1" 



THE CONFEDERATE STATES NAVY. 439 

In October following Lord Lyons addressed to her Majes- 
ty's consuls in the Confederate ports the following instruc- 
tions for their government, and the letter of Mr. Seward as to 
the commencement of the blockade : 

Washington, Oct. 16th, 1861. 

" Sir : On the 11th of May last I madeto^er Majesty's consuls in the 
Southern States the following announcement : 

" ' JSeutral vessels will be allowed fifteen days to leave port after the 
actual commencement of the blockade, whether such vessels are with or 
-without cargoes, and whether the cargoes were shipped before or after 
the commencement of the blockade.' 

" I enclose herewith a copy of a note which I have received to-day 
from the Secretary of State of the United States, and in which he informs 
me that the law of blockade, which does not permit a vessel in a block- 
aded port to take on board cargo after the commencement of the blockade, 
will be. expected to be strictly observed by aU vessels in ports blockaded 
by the naval forces of the United States. 

" You will take note of this communication of the Secretary of State 
for your own guidance and that of the masters of British vessels ; and 
you will mark carefully, and report to me, the exact date at which the 
present dispatch and its enclosure reach you. 

"You will, without delay, send copies of this dispatch and its en- 
closure to your vice-consuls, for their information and guidance. 

" I am, sir, your most obedient, humble servant, Lyons. 

" To Her Majesty's Consul at " 

"Department op State, | 
"WASmNGTON, Oct. 16th, 1861. ) 

"MtLord: The Judge of the Court of the United States for the 
Southern district of New York having recently decided, after elaborate 
argument of counsel, that the law of blockade does not permit a vessel, 
in a blockaded port, to take on board cargo after the commencement of 
the blockade, with a view to avoid any future misunderstanding upon 
this subject you are informed that the law, as thus interpreted by the 
judge, will be expected to be strictly observed by all vessels in ports of 
insurgent States during their blockade by the naval forces of the United 
States. I avail myself, etc., William H. Seward. 

" The Right Honorable Lord Lyons." 

The great interest taken by foreign nations in the blockade 
of the ports of the Confederate States will be appreciated from 
the facts that, in 1860, shipments of tobacco alone amounted 
to twenty millions of dollars annually, upon which the gov- 
ernments of Europe collected as follows : England, duty on 
tobacco $21,000,000; Holland, duty on tobacco $20,000,000; re- 
venue in France $18,000,000, revenue in Spain $5,000,000— 
making a total of $64,000,000 of revenue. When to that sum 
is added the support derived by thousands of operatives in the 
manufacture of tobacco, as well as the profits arising from 
its sale, the hardships of a blockade which could prevent 
tobacco from reaching Europe would rise into national im- 
portance. The cotton exportation of $150,000,000 was the 
chief support of over five millions of people engaged in its 
manufacture. The consideration of the effects which a stop- 
page of exportation of the chief products of the Confederate 



440 THE CONFEDERATE STATES NAVY. 

States would have upon European nations, created expecta- 
tions both in the United States and in the Confederate States 
which were never realized. In the United States the hopes 
and expectations were stated by the New York Herald of 
May 28th, 1861, that -as the blockade bars a;ll outlets in every 
direction — 

"England, France and the other European powers will see the neces- 
sity of rendering the war as short as possible; and, therefore, they will 
not acknowledge the Southern Confederacy, or give it any aid or comfort; 
but, on the contrary, knowing that it is the only way in which a very 
speedy termination can be put to the conflict, they will give all the assist- 
ance possible to the United States government. Otherwise they cannot 
get tobacco, or cotton, or turpentine, and they cannot sell their manufac- 
tured goods in the markets of the South. They are completely in our 
power. A short war is manifestly the interest of the European nations, 
and as soon as they understand that any recognition of the Southern Con- 
federacy is likely to prolong the war, they will consult their interest by 
adopting that course which will put a speedy end to it.'' 

And in the Confederate States the power and resources of 
" King Cotton " to lift the blockade, admit Confederate cruis- 
ers to the Admiralty Courts of foreign nations, and to a 
speedy recognition of the independence and nationality of the 
government, was a hope and a belief that never entirely de- 
parted from either the government or the people. 

Her Majesty's Secretary of State for Foreign Affairs, 
speaking of the blockade, represented the necessity that ex- 
isted in England for a supply of cotton, and said : "Thou- 
sands are now obliged to resort to the poor - rates for 
subsistence, owing to this blockade, yet her Majesty's govern- 
ment have not sought to take advantage of the obvious im- 
perfection of this blockade, in order to declare it ineffective. 
They have, to the loss and detriment of the British nation, 
scrupulously observed the duties of Great Britain to friendly 
States." The London Post (Lord Palmerston's organ), of July 
24th, denying the effectiveness of the blockade, asserted that 
Charleston had been left for some time without any blockad- 
ing force, and Admiral Milne, in obedience to orders from 
home, issued instructions to a frigate under his command that 
"no port is to be considered efficiently blockaded if any ves- 
sel can enter or depart from it unknown to or in spite of the 
blockading squadron — that an efficient blockade necessitates 
the complete cutting off of all maritime ingress or egress, and 
the escape of the third vessel from the blockading squadron 
signifies the invalidity of the blockade." 

By that test there was no effective blockade at any Con- 
federate port, and yet England respected a block^^de which 
produced such distresses at home, rather than aid a Confeder- 
acy whose-corner stone was to be slavery. The " invalidity 
of the blockade " by the standard test of Admiral Milne was 
. demonstrated in one day at Charleston. A correspondent of 
the New York Times, on board the U. S. steamer RoanokSy 



THE CONFEDERATE STATES NAVY. 441 

fla^ - ship Blockading Squadron off Charleston, Saturday,. 
August 17th, 1861— writes : 

" About 8:30 o'clock in the evening of the next day lights were seen 
crawling along close in shore, in the direction of the harbor, one of whirli 
was made out to be quite a large sail, but she passed in safely. Since 
that event other sails have been duly reported. It is but proper to state y 
that the blockading squadron, composed at present of the Roanoke, the ^ 
gunboats Seminole and Iroquois, and the sloop-of-war Vandalia, lay at 
least twelve miles from the entrance of the harbor. 

"Bat if this should occasion surprise, what will your readers think 
when they are told that on theOthinst.a Secession steamer ran the block- 
ade ? She was first seen puffing away toward the coast, on our starboard 
bow. After spending much valuable time in staring through glasses, 
hoisting signals, and examining signal books, the Vandalia was finally 
ordered in pursuit, but having only a quarter wind, you may judge the 
result. After the steamer had made good her retreat, the Seminole made 
chase. Hardly had the excitement of this event subsided, when another 
steamer, emboldened by the success of the former, accomplished the same 
exploit." 

At Wilmington, Sept. 30th, the steamer Kate and two 
schooners successfully ran the blockade, and though one of 
the latter grounded on the bar, yet she succeeded in landing 
her cargo, and was subsequently brought into port. In furtlier 
evidence of the ineffectiveness of the blockade, and of the 
strange conduct of England in sustaining its pretended effect- 
iveness, the Evening Express, of Halifax, N. C, in August 
published the following : 

" The two principal ports of North Carolina, Wilmington and Beaufort, 
we learn, have not been and are not now under blockade, and an active 
trade is carried on in the export of naval stores and the import of provi- 
sions. Recent accounts state that six vessels were loading in Beaufort 
and four in Wilmington, which would shortly sail for Nassau, N. P., and 
other British poi'ts. The reason the blockade has not been made effect- 
ive at these two ports is said to be that the government is poorly pro- 
vided with vessels of draft sufficiently light to enable them to lay off 
these harbors. Taking advantage of this fact, the rebels are profiting in 
the exportation of the principal product of the State — naval stores — 
and weekly receive cargoes of provisions from vessels of light draft, from 
Nassau, N. P. As a proof of this two vessels have arrived at this port 
lately from North Carolina, one on Sunday and another yesterday after- 
noon, both laden with naval stores. It is stated that they had not the 
slightest difficulty in leaving. Both vessels, we understand, belong to 
the same person, and we have no doubt that he will make a handsome 
thing out of the transaction. There have been three arrivals at this port 
from the same place a few weeks ago. " 

Nova Scotian vessels continued " to do a good business at 
the South," and many were " making arrangements to receive 
a share of the profits to be realized by running the blockade." 
The sympathies of the people at St. John's, N. B.. were largely 
in favor of the Confederates, and the ship Alliance, which 
sailed from England with a cargo of munitions of war, upon 
being ordered off from Charleston by the blockading squad- 
ron, proceeded to St. John's, N. B., where she added to her_ 
contraband list "$1,100 worth of tin plate, $1,200 worth of 



443 THE CONFEDERATE STATES NAVY. 

block tin, $950 worth of quicksilver, etc., etc., all of which was 
landed along-side of the Alliance; and a correspondent of the 
Merchants' Exchange states that Mr. Lafitte (the owner) and 
the captain (both citizens of Charleston) have been pur- 
chasing, from time to time, such further supplies as would in- 
dicate a ' forward movement ' to Palmettodom. The Alliance 
has kept the 'Confederate flag' flying since her arrival, not- 
withstanding the protests of the American sea captains and 
other citizens of St. John." 

These, together with many other illustrations and examples 
of an ineffective blockade, caused the dispatch of the British 
Admiral Milne with a squadron of '• thirty -five men-of-war" 
to the Gulf of Mexico, The arrival of the British fleet in 
Southern waters encouraged the hopes of the Confederate peo- 
ple of an early rupture between England and the United States, 
the consequence of which would be the recognition of the Con- 
federate States. 

The Mobile Advertiser and Register of August 4th thus 
expressed the hope that was entertained by all classes of peo- 
ple in the Confederacy : 

" Perhaps everybody does not know what a formidable fleet of British 
ships-of-war are now occupying our Gulf waters, lying right within striking 
distance of Lincoln's blockaders, whom they are watcliing with sleepless 
vigilance and ' evident anxiety to pick a quarrel with on this blockade 
question.' We have good authority for stating that the British fleet of 
the Gulf, under Admiral Milne, numbers no less than thirty-five men-of- 
war, each carrying heavy metal and equipjied on a war footing. We 
know, of course, that this armada is not here to operate against the Con- 
federacy. AVe know this, without the avowal of the British government 
and every other authority, that its object is to oversee and investigate the 
doings of Lincohi's blockaders. 

" Being opposed to the operations of our enemies the British fleet is 
necessarily in quasi, but as yet inactive, alliance with us. It is in our 
waters as a naval ' corps of observation,' and in force which gives it power 
at any time to become ' a corps of operation.' Here in our waters will it 
stay, awaiting a possible, perhaps probable, moment of action, when the 
British government may deem it necessary to raise the blockade. Should 
the war not be sooner concluded, we may expect that during the latter 
part of next fall Great Britain, and perhaps France, will ofl'er to mediate. 
If the infatuated Noi'th rejects propositions we may expect to hear from 
the British fleet of the Gulf. The way it will run off the Lincolnite ships 
and open our ports will be a caution to tyrants. 

" The tone of Admiral Milne's report to the British government, the 
substance of which we have published, indicates more fully than any- 
thing has done heretofore the i^osition of Great Britain with regard to 
the blockade." 

That the possession of the cotton in the Confederate States 
was as much a motive with the Washington authorities for 
the blockade, as for tiie restoration of the Union, will appear 
very plainly by considering the legislation that followed sharp 
upon the proclamation of blockade. By the Act of the United 
States Congress July 13th, 1861, " to provide for the collection of 
duties on imports, and for other purposes,''^ a forfeiture was 



THE CONFEDERATE STATES NAVY. 443 

declared of all goods coming from the States of the Confeder- 
acy into the United States, with a convenient proviso, which 
authorized the President '*to license and permit commercial 
intercourse " with any part of any State in the Confederacy, 
"in such articles, and for such time, and by such persons," 
as he may " think conducive to the public interest ; " and he 
was authorized to establish rules and regulations for the gov- 
ernment of such "commercial intercourse," and to do any 
other thing that would conduce to the early acquisition of 
" all goods and chattels, wares and merchandise" of the people 
of the South. While foreign nations were shut out by the 
blockade, the President of the United States, having declared 
war against the Confederate States by his proclamation of 
blockade, was authorized to open up commercial intercourse 
with the States, from dealing with whom all other nations were 
interdicted. This law authorized the President to proclaim 
"an insurrection," whereupon all "commercial intercourse" 
was to cease, and all property be confiscated to the United 
States. According to the Republican theory the Southern States 
were in the Union, but in rebellion to its authority ; and if so, 
what part of the Constitution authorized Congress to confis- 
cate property and to declare the forfeiture of all goods in 
transitu ? As between independent nations at war, all com- 
mercial intercourse ceases ; but to apply that principle to the 
war between the States would have been to recognize their 
independence. It was necessary, therefore, to force the Con- 
stitution beyond any interpretation yet given to it, and declare 
the people to be insurrective, but not at war — to be liable to 
blockade, but open to commercial intercourse under the Presi- 
dent's permit — to shut out from Europe the cotton and tobacco 
of those States, but to open the back door of the United States 
to all that could be gotten under license and permit. A book 
of "rules and regulations, prescribed by the Secretary of the 
Treasury with the approval of the President, concerning com- 
mercial intercourse with and in States and parts of States in 
insurrection," etc. , etc.— was issued to legalize an illegal traffic, 
if there existed war between independent States, and uncon- 
stitutional if there was merely an insurrection or rebellion to 
be suppressed. The law was pronounced unconstitutional, 
null and void by Chief Justice Taney in the Carpenter case; 
but that made little difference with men and a party which 
were running the war on fictions of law and constitution, and 
regardless of all the restraints which were declared by the 
plainest provisions and principles of American liberty. The 
rulings of Chief Justice Taney were of little avail, until supple- 
mented by the orders of General Grant on March ] 0th, 1865, sus- 
pending all these permits; but even he was compelled to revoke 
that order on the 11th of April; but on April 29th these regula- 
tions ceased by notice of the conquest and subjugation of the 
Southern States. ■• 



444 THE CONFEDERATE STATES NAVY. 

That the administration at Washington forecasted, as early 
as July, ISGl, the effect upon European public sentiment which 
a stoppage of the cotton supply would create, is hardly to be 
accepted. These laws and regulations were more likely the 
results of national and individual cupidity than instrument- 
alities for securing a supply of cotton to palliate the anger of 
European public sentiment. But whether these measures 
proceeded from consummate forecast or from the greed of 
gain, they preceded by a year the hints of the governments of 
Great Britain and France, "informally expressed" to Mr. 
Seward, " for some further relaxation of the blockade in favor 
of that trade." ^ 

The "relaxation," which the laws and regulations above 
mentioned had given to the scarcity of cotton, was not enough, 
for the English market, and "further" relaxation was sug- 
gested. These hints were "not rejected, but are held under 
consideration, with a view to ascertain more satisfactorily 
whether they are really necessary, and whether they can be 
adopted without such serious detriment to our military opera- 
tions as would render them injurious to the interest of all con- 
cerned," and to appease the British sentiment. Mr. Seward 
added : "We shall speedily open all the channels of commerce 
and free them from military embarrassments, and cotton, so 
much desired by all nations, will flow as freely as heretofore. 
We have ascertained that there are three and a half millions 
of bales yet remaining in the regions where it was produced, 
though large quantities of it are yet unginned and otherwise 
unprepared for market. We have instructed the military 
authorities to favor, as far as they can consistently with the 
public safety, its preparation for and dispatch to the markets 
where it is so much wanted." 

From these extracts it is evident that England and France 
had made some demands on Mr. Seward, with which he was 
endeavoring to comply, and yet not yield entirely to the pres- 
sure from abroad. The contemporaneous expression of New 
York newspapers are not without light upon those hints which 
Mr. Seward had received. By the New York Herald it was said: 

"That the British fleet have not already broken it [the blockade] 
is owing to an unwillingness to have an open rupture with the United 
States, and the policy of waiting to see what might turn up — 
whether our government would defeat the rebels in a decisive battle 
and thus get cotton for England, or whether the rebels would defeat 
our government and thus impose on England the necessity of get- 
ting cotton for herself. It is now less than two months till the cot- 
ton crop will V)e ready for shipment, and of course it will be necessary for 
the English government to give previous notice to British merchants and 
ship-owners that the blockade will not be respected by England, and that 
they can safely send their vessels for the Southern staple. We may, there- 
fore, at any moment hear of a royal proclamation in Great Britain and 
Ireland declaring the blockade inetBcient, invalid and»void." 

1 Mr. Seward to Mr. Adams, July 28th, 1862. 



THE CONFEDERATE STATES NAVY. 445 

The "relaxation" suggested by Lord Lyons to Mr. Seward 
came in a very limited and unsatisfactory degree from the 
instruction to collectors of revenue, at the captured ports of 
Eeaufort, Port Royal and New Orleans, issued May 2od, 18G2. ' 

These "instructions," which were regarded as orders to 
open certain cotton ports to European trade, were received 
in England with hope, which was soon disappointed. The 
London Times, of May 17th, before the issue of those in- 
structions, pointed out what might be done from New Orleans: 

" Since thd beginning of the war both North and South have had a 
common idea, which has filled the one with anxiety and tlie other with 
hope. The Americans have not been able to free themselves from the 
suspicion that cotton is really king, and that England would go to any 
extremity to show her allegiance to the sovereign lord of her manu- 
factures. The attitude of the French Emperor and the murmuring of 
the French operatives have also given the North serious fears. We are 
almost justified in saying that the expeditions to various points of the 
Atlantic coast, such as Beaufort, Hatteras, and Newberne, and the oc- 
cupation of these places, without the hope of producing the smallest 
effect on the war, have been measures really prompted by the desire to 
open a cotton port, and thus take away the pretext of European powers 
for intervening in the affairs of the war. 

" The capture of New Orleans makes that easy which before would 
have hardly been possible. It would have been but a mockery to 
ask Lancashire to send ships to Beaufort for cotton ; but now that 
the great emporium of the Mississippi and the access to millions of 
acres of cotton-growing land are now in the power of the Federals, 
it is their obvious policy to declare the trade with New Orleans open, 
and to let the refusal to supply cotton for the wants of Europe lie 
on the planters who still assert their allegiance to the Southern Republic.'''' 

1 Washington, May 23d.— The following is a States, or that there is imminent danger that the 

copy of the instructions transmitted to various goods, wares, or merchandise, of whatever 

Collectors of Customs : description laden, or such vessels, will fall into 

" Treasury Department, May 23d, 1862. the possession or under the control of insurt;ents; 

"Sir: In pursuance of the provisions of the and in all cases where, in your judgment, there 

Proclamation of the President modifying the is ground for apxirehension that any gnods, wares, 

hlockade of the ports of Beaufort, Port Hoyal or merchandise shipped to your port will be 

and New Orleans, and of the regulations used in any way for the aid of insurgents or the 

of the Secretary of the Treasury relating to insurrection, you will require substantial se- 

trade with those ports, no articles contraband curity to be given that such goods, wares or 

of war wiU be permitted to enter at either of the merchandise shall not be transpcuted to any 

said ports, and you wUl accordingly refuse place under insurrectionary control, and shall 

clearance to vessels bound for these ports not in any way be used to give aid or comfort to 

or either of them with any such articles on such insurgents. 

hoard. Until further instructed you will "You will be especially careful,- upon appli- 

regard as contraband of war the following cations for clearances, to require bonds with 

articles, viz: sutficient sureties, conditioned for fulfilling 

" Cannon, mortars, firearms, pistols, bombs, faithfully all the conditions imposed by law or 

grenades, firelocks, flints, matches, powder, departmental regulations, from shippers of the 

saltpetre, bales, bullets, pikes, swords, sulphur, following articles to the ports opened, or to any 

helmets or boarding caps, sword belts, saddles other ports from which they may easily be, 

and bridles (always excej)ting the quantity of and are probably Intended to be, reshipped in 

the said articles which may be necessary tor the aid of the existing insurrection, viz : — Liquors 

defence of the ship, and of those who compose of all kinds, coal, iron, lead, copper, tin, brass, 

the crew), cartridge bag materiithjiercussion and telegraphic instruments, wire, porous cups, 

other caps, clothing adajjted for uniforms, resin, platina, sulphuric acid, zinc, and all other 

sail cloth of all kinds, hemp and cordage, masts, telegraphic materials, marine engines, screw 

ship timber, tar and pitch, ardent spirits, projiellers, paddle wheels, cylinders, cranks, 

military persons in the service of the enemy, shafts, boilers, tubes for boilers, fire bars, and 

dispatches of the enemy, and articles of like every article, or any other component part of 

character, with these specially enumeiated. an engine or boiler, or any article whatever, 

"You will also refuse clearances to all vessels which is, can or may become applicable to the 

■which, whatever the ostensible destination, are manufacture of marine machinery, or for the 

believed by you on satisfactory grounds to be armor of vessels. I am, very respectfully, 

intended for ports or places in possession or "S. P. Chase, 

under control of insurgents against the United " Secretary of the Treasury." 



446 THE CONFEDERATE STATES NAVY. 

The refusal to supply Europe with cotton through the cap- 
tured ports followed from the patriotic action of the planters 
withholding their cotton from markets held by the Federal 
forces. The press throughout the Confederacy, public senti- 
ment in every State, and the best interest of society and indi- 
viduals, united in urging the planters not to send their cotton 
to either the interior towns or ports — that the farmer and plant- 
er should keep his cotton at home, avoid the cost of storage 
and transportation, the certainty of confiscation and seizure 
at ports held by Federal authority, and lastly that the torch ' 
was his more patriotic weapon than even the price which his 
cotton might bring through intermediary agency of his coun- 
try's enemy. While these considerations did not prevent some 
cotton from going forward to market, yet the amount was so 
small that the demand in Europe did not experience much 
more relief after the fall of Beaufort, Port Royal and New Or- 
leans than before the sailing of the expeditions which were set 
on foot, with the double purpose of blockade and of opening 
cotton ports ; the former to prevent cotton from going forward 
to Europe, the latter for the purpose of sending cotton forward 
to Northern markets without the Confederates realizing upon 
its value. 

Another part of this scheme for getting hold of the cotton 
and other staple products of the States of the Confederacy 
were the Acts of March l^th, 1863, and July 2d, 18G4: '' Concern- 
ing commercial intercourse between loyal and insurrectionary 
States, and to provide for the collection of captured and aban- 
doned property, and the j^i'eveut ion of frauds in States declared 
in insurrection ;" and the Act of July 17th, 1862 : " To suppress 
insurrection, to punish treason and rebellion, to seize and con- 
fiscate the property of rebels, and for other purposes." That 
each and all of these acts had an "eye to business" as well as 
to patriotism, a purpose to '* turn a penny " while restoring the 
Union, is apparent from even their titles. The scheme over- 
reached the purpose of its inventors, and while it made money 
for the " baser sort" it impeded military operations to such an 
extent that Gen. Grant wrote, July 21st, 1863 • 

" My experience in West Tennessee has convinced me that any trade 
whatever with the rebelhous States is weakening to us at least thirty 
per cent, of our force. No matter what restrictions are thrown around 

I " In 18f)2, all the planters on the water the breaking of the Levee. One gentleman 

courses opposed to invasion, had burnt their boated his cotton, 550 bales, from his gin-house 

cotton. This was done in obedience to orders to an Indian mound, the only spot upon his 

cheerfully obeyed by the people, who were place that was dry, and burnt it there, on that 

perfectly willing to sacrifice their wealth as tumulus of a buried race. This all seems very 

well as their lives to attain, or rather to Vf- strange now, but we were desperately in earnest 

tain, as they supposed, their liberties. In 1862 at that time. This cotton -burning was then 

I stood on the balcony of my then pleasant the policy of the Confederate Cxovernment." — 

home, and saw the volumes of smoke ascend- Recollections of Henry IVatkins Allen, by Sarah A, 

iiig on every side, for miles and miles, which Vorsey, p. 281. 

iiiHvked the spots where the planters were In the winter of 1864 the intention of de- 

b\irning their crops of cotton, in obedience to stroying all the cotton in the State of Louisiana. 

Beauregard's orders in the face of the gun- exposed to Federal capture and invasion, was 

boats ascending the Mississippi River. Many seriously entertained by Gen. E. Kirby Smith, 

ol the plantations were nearly submerged by C. S. A. 



THE CONFEDERATE STATES NAVY. 447 

trade, if any whatever is allowed, it will be made the means of supplying- 
to the enemy what they want. Restriction, if lived up to, makes trade un- 
profitable, and hence none but dishonest men go into it. I will venture 
to say, that no honest man has made money in West Tennessee, in the 
last year, while many fortunes have been made there during the time. 
The people in the Mississippi Valley are now nearly subjugated. Keep 
trade out for a few months, and I doubt not but that the work of sub- 
jugation will be so complete that trade can be opened freely with the 
States of Arkansas, Louisiana and Mississippi.'' 

The traders were too strong in influence at Washington 
for Gen. Grant, and the trade under the license system con- 
tinued until an end was put to it by a return of peace. 

Intimately connected with and growing out of the right to 
blockade an enemy's port, is the belligerent's right of visita- 
tion and search of neutral vessels to prevent a breach of block- 
ade. No nation has more strenuously opposed the exercise of 
this right than the United States; to enforce ''free trade and 
sailors' rights " the United States went to war with Great 
Britain in 1812-15, and up to 1861 the United States had cham- 
pioned the rights of neutrals, maintaining the perfect right of 
a neutral to trade with either belligerent, without restraint 
as to contraband of war or restrictions of any kind upon the 
citizens, whether as fillibusters, privateers or sympathizers. 
No sooner was the war between the States over than the United 
States Congress returned to its ''first love" and asserted the 
very doctrines of which it complained when practiced by Eng- 
land. The Banks' bill, No. 806, in the Thirty-ninth Congress, 
first session, enacted in its tenth section "that nothing in this 
act shall be so construed as to prohibit citizens of the United 
States from selling vessels, ships or steamers built within the 
limits thereof, or materials or munitions of war, the growth or 
product of the same, to inhabitants of other countries, or to 
governments not at war with the United States." 

That England made no objection to the severest exercise 
of the right of search was because, as expressed by the Lon- 
don Times : 

''''It is certainly not for our interest as a nation to impeach the bel- 
ligerent right of search^ and, if the Federals have not actually exceeded 
their privileges, it tvould be impolitic as toell as unjust to interfere with 
their proceedings. They cannot be allowed to presume, or to encroach ; 
nor can they reasonably complain if we look with more than ordinary 
suspicion on the movements of an oflBeer so notorious as Commodore 
Wilkes. Within these limits, however, they are free to exert that power 
which their maritime ascendancy gives them, and we must say that, with 
the exception of the case of the Gladiator, they do not appear to have 
materially overstepped their rights. That they have gone to the very 
verge of illegality is by no means improbable, but neither is it improb- 
able that they have had sound reasons for their eagerness. They as- 
sumed, and perhaps with suflScient warrant, that in the Bermuda waters 
were lying ships consigned to their enemies, which would be lawful prize at 
sea, but which would be likely enough to elude them if they got clear 
away. They, therefore, lingered about the harbor and hung about the 
offing as long as they could justifiably do so, and perhaps a little longer. 



448 THE CONFEDERATE STATES NAVY. 

They watched the port so closely as almost to blockade it, and they 
.sto[)ped vessels that might have been reasonably allowed to pass with- 
out challenge. 

" In these proceedings there may have been something extravagant, 
as well as much that was provoking ; but, on the other side, there was 
probably the pi-actical provocation of successful smuggling. The popu- 
lation of the islands, we may be pretty sure, is Southern in its sym- 
pathies, and many a cargo has doubtless been run through the aid to the 
venture which tht 36 harbors have furnished. The Federals know this, 
and it is but natural that they should strive, by all the means in their 
power, to break up the trade. Whether in these proceedings they have 
transgressed the rules of international law, or whether they have limited 
their operations to the sharp practice of a baffled and vindictive bel- 
ligerent, is more than we can precisely say at present. In the former 
case they must be brought to reason ; and they may well indeed be con- 
tent to observe a law which is operating so decidedly in their own favor. 
But if, as we should be disposed to surmise, they have done little more 
than press their privileges as rigorously as possible under the provocation 
given them by a brisk contraband traffic, we think we may as well make 
allowance for their temptations, and put ourselves in their place before we 
pronounce upon their conduct."' 

The remark that Bermuda was watched so closely "as to 
almost blockade it" was confirmed in literal truth by the re- 
port of the master of the British schooner Albert, of Liverpool, 
that his ship had been stopped and searched by an officer from 
the Mercedita in English waters, and who added: 

" Now, in all this there is nothing to complain of if the Bahama Is- 
lands and the passages are under blockade by the United States naval 
force, since all the customary forms prescribed for such a case were com- 
plied with ; but up to the time of my sailing from Nassau no notice of such 
blockade had been made public, and I have been unable to find any such 
notice in the newspapers since my return to England. 

"The United States vessels now on duty off Abaco are the Mercedita, 
Quaker City and Albatross, and their vigilance and attention to the busi- 
ness in hand are such that no vessel bound to or from Nassau can pass 
either way without being overhauled and searched, except by a rare and 
fortunate accident. Such vessels as the commander of the cruiser Sancies 
he seizes ; others he permits to escape. 1 consider myself fortunate in 
being among the latter on the present occasion. "^ 

Tlie considerations which, apart from the law of nations, 
induced England to put a construction so lenient upon the 
practices of Federal cruisers arose from her own national in- 
terests. The part then being played by the Federal cruisers 
on the ocean against the commerce of the Confederate States, 
was exactly that part which England had played very fre- 
quently, and which she meant to play again, whenever occa- 
sion and opportunity offered. It was as a belligerent and not 
as a neutral, that she appealed to the doctrines of public law, 
and it was not to her interest to depreciate or curtail those 

1"! am ignorant, I confess, of the laws of send to New York, for adjudication, vessels on the 

blockade, or indeed if a law there be that allows mere suspicion of their being intended blockiide- 

its enforcement and penalties to be enacted, live runners, and to chase and tin^ into real l)lockaile- 

hundred miles away from the ports blockaded. runners so near to the shore that on one ociMsion 

But it did seem strange tliat the men-of-war of a the sliot and sliell fell into a fishing village, and 

nation at peace with Eti^^land should bo allowed that witliiu sight of an English man-of-w:ii- lying 

to cruise off her ports, to stop and examine trad- at anchor in the harbor at Nassau." — Sketches 

ing vessels of all descriptions, to capture and from, my life, by ike late Admiral Hohart Pasha. 



THE CONFEDERATE STATES NAVY. 



449 



rights which the law of nations placed in her hand, and which 
her powerful nav}^ could enforce in future against the United 
States, and plead the precedents of the Federal cruisers 
against the Confederate commerce. 

"It may be our own lot," continued the Times, "any day to receive 
complaints about unjustifiable captures, and to be put upon our defence 
for acts committed in the course of war. Both interest and equity, there- 
fore, should dispose us to scan the proceedings of the blockading squadron 
with reasonable indulgence ; but, unhappily, there are not wanting con- 
siderations on the other side, also. We cannot overlook the appointment 
of such an officer as Admiral Wilkes^ to so peculiar a command, nor can we 
conceal from ourselves that what is now actually charged against the 
Federals was imputed to them as a deliberate and concerted policy long 
ago. Already has Mr. Seward been under the necessity of 'instructing' 
the oflScers of the Federal navy to observe the dictates of ordinary law, 
and thovighthe ' instructions' may be quoted to the credit of the Wash- 
ington government, they are evidence of the previous lawlessness which 
rendered them necessary. We must wait, however, for the decisions of the 
American Prize Coiirts before we can come to any practical conclusion. If 
the Adela, Peterhoffsind the BoIpJiin are on sufficient evidence fairly con- 
demned, the question is at an end." 

The judicial determination in Prize Courts of the United 
States, of the vessels mentioned by the Times, presented occa- 
sions where the established doctrines of international law, as 
applied to blockade, contraband of war and the right of visita- 
tion and search, were carried far beyond the extremest rulings 
of either English or continental prize courts. In the cases of the 

for he must have known in what a defenceless 
state we were in, and secondly to capture or 
destroy the vessels in that port-six steamers— 
that are engaged, either directly or indirectly, 
with the Confederate ports, and to destroy the 
powder, of which there is said to be a large 
quantity' stored on one of the small islands in 
Castle Harbor. The Admiral and one of his 
steamers have gone out of sight of land, but the 
other one, having coaled and repaired, is 
cruising outside of St. George. 

" During this rebellion the Americans have 
taken many liberties with the British, but I do 
not think any of them equals this. 

"The poor Confederates were sadly frightened,- 
for. knowing the character of the Admiral, they 
knew he would do anything, however illegal, to 
destroy them ; and the inhabitants of St. George 
were under great apprehension lest some turn 
might take place which would result in a row, 
when they would suffer materially. 

" Monday Morning.— Two of the Admiral's gun- 
boats still close in with the harbor of St. George." 

The Halifax Reporter of the same date says: 

"Considerable excitement was caused this 
afternoon by a rumor extensively circulated on 
the authority of several gentlemen who professed 
to have inquired into the facts of the case, that 
the Royal mail steamer Merlin, on leaving 
Bermuda, suffered an indignity somewhat 
similar to that which the Trent experienced on 
a previous occasion, and at the hands of the 
same valiant individual. The statement is. that 
Capt. Wilkes, smarting under the affliction of 
some slights received at Bermuda, stood off the 
port until the Merlin made her appearance, when 
she was brought to bv the hring of a gun across 
her bows, and detained tmtil she underwent a 
close examination of her papers, etc." 



1 The conduct of Admiral Wilkes, to which the 
Times takes excejition, was not so much that of 
the " Trent afl'air " as the following behavior 
in the harbor of Bermuda, which is to be found 
in the Acadian Recorder of Oct., Hth. 

" We have been sadly insulted by the three 
shijjs of the Union navy, under command of the 
notorious Wilkes. Three ships arrived here, 
direct from New York, in four days, on the 25th 
ult., said to be in want of coal. The Admiral, 
with one of his fleet, after being presented with 
a copy of the Queen's proclamation relative to the 
twenty-four hours' limit, entered the p)ort of St. 
George for coal, with the understanding that she 
was to leave at the latest on Monday morning. 
Monday came — the diver represented that the 
Admiral's ship required some repairs to her 
bottom- but no repairs were attempted. On 
Tuesday, the ships were .still in port. Our 
Governor and the commandant of the troops 
went on board, to expostulate wth Admiral 
Wilkes, and he promised to leave on Wednesday. 
Wednesday came — still the obnoxious vessels 
were in the limited water of the port, and no 
symptom of their intention to move. On 
Thursday morning, however, the Admiral and 
t^ie gunboats he l)ro\ight in with him left, and 
the one that was blockading the port was moved 
in to take coal and undergo repairs. 

" The Admiral was induced to leave at length, 
it seems, by a communication from the Gover- 
nor, telling him that if he did not he would 
compel him. The Admiral, after he got to sea, 
wrote a very offensive letter to the Governor, 
accusing him of many things — tilings, indeed, 
as such men only as Wilkes could and were 
guilty of in the port of St. George. It would 
seem that Wilkes had a double object in com- 
ing to Bermuda— first, to insult the authorities, 
29 



450 THE CONFEDERATE STATES NAVY. 

Peterlioff, the Bermuda and the Springbok, the Prize Courts of 
the United States and the Supreme Court, in its final judgment, 
announced doctrines of prize law against which almost every 
writer on international law has since vigorously protested. 

The facts in the case of the Peterlioff were that she was 
one of a line of steamers owned by Pile, Spence & Co., of 
London, and trading between England and Matamoras, Mexico; 
that she was dispatched from London January 7th, 1863, with a 
general cargo, containing nothing contraband, and having a 
regular British and Mexican clearance, and conveying her 
Majesty's mails, as well as dispatches for the Mexican con- 
sul ; that she was boarded on the 21st of February, when within 
three miles of St. Thomas, by an officer from the U. S. S. 
Alabama, who. after examining the ship's papers, permitted 
her to proceed on her voyage ; that just after leaving St. 
Thomas, and when within sight of that port, the U. S. S. 
Vanderbilf hove in sight, and, having communicated with 
Admiral Wilkes, went in chase of and stopped the Peterhoff, 
and putting an armed crew on board sent her to the United 
States as a prize. 

The facts of seizure were communicated to Earl Russell by 
the owners of the Peter^hoff as early as March 26th, 1863, who, 
after considering all the papers of the vessel and the state- 
ments of her owners, replied that : 

"The government of the United States has clearly no right to seize 
British vessels honafide bound from this country or fi'om any other British 
possession to the ports of Vera Cruz and Matamoras, or either of them, or 
vice versa, unless such vessels attempt to touch at or have an intermediate 
or contingent destination to some blockaded port or place, or are carriers 
of contraband of war destined for the Confederate Stat^ ; and, in any 
admitted case of such unlawful capture, her Majesty's government would 
feel it their duty promptly to interfere, with a view to obtain the imme- 
diate restitution of the ship and cargo, with full compensation and with- 
out the delay of proceedings in a prize court. 

"Her Majesty's government, however, cannot, without violating the 
rules of international law, claim for British vessels, navigating between 
Great Britain and these places, any general exemption from the belligerent 
right of visitation by the cruisers of the United States, nor can they pro- 
ceed upon any general assumption that such vessels may not so act as to 
render their capture lawful and justifiable. 

"Nothing is more common than for those who contemplate a breach 
of blockade, for the carriage of contraband, to disgixise their purpose bj^ a 
simulated destination and by deceptive papers; and the situation of the 
ports on the coast of Mexico, with reference to the Confederate States, is 
such as to make it not only xDossible, but in many cases probable, that an 
ostensible Mexican destination would be resorted to as a cover for objects 
which would really justify capture. It has already happened, in many 
cases, that British vessels have been seized while engaged in voyages 
apparently lawful, which vessels have been afterwards proved in the 
prize courts to have been really guilty of endeavoring to brtak the block- 
ade, or of carrying contraband to the Confederates. 

" It is the right of the belligerent to capture all vessels reasonably 
suspected of either of these transgressions of international law, and when- 
ever any cause of capture is alleged the case cannot be withdrawn from, 
the consideration of the prize court of the captor. 



THE CONFEDERATE STATES NAVY. 451 

" After the case has undergone investigation it is the duty of the 
prize court to restore any such prizes, unlawfully made, with costs and 
damages ; and the proper time for the interference of her Majesty's govern- 
me7it is in general when the prize courts have refused redress for a 
capture which the evidence shows to have been unjustifiable. 

"• Her Majesty's government cannot, upon ex parte statements, deny 
the belligerents in this war the exercise of those rights which, in all wars 
in which Great Britain has been concerned, she has claimed herself to 
exercise. 

"As regards the allusion which has been made to the case of the 
Adela^ before her Majesty's government can form any opinion as to the 
judgment stated to have been given in that case, they must have before 
them a correct report of that judgment, it being impossible to rely upon 
the general representation of its effect contained in a newspaper para- 
graph, founded on printed letters, especially as none of the other judg- 
ments of the United States prize courts, which have been repoited to her 
Majesty's government dui-ing the present war, evince any disregard of 
the established principles of international law. 

"As regards, however, the particular case of the Peterhoff, in which 
you are more directly interested, her Majesty's government having taken 
into consideration the papers transmitted by you, and being satisfied that 
those papers disclose no prima facie ground of capture, and that there is 
every reason to believe the voyage to have been lawful and hona fide and 
the seizure of the vessel wholly unjustifiable, they will instruct Lord 
Lyons to make an immediate representation of the circumstances of that 
ease to the government at Washington, and if no legal ground of capture 
should be alleged, then to press for the release of the vessel and her cargo, 
with compensation and without the delay of proceedings in the prize 
court. But if any legal grounds of capture should be alleged by the govern- 
ment of the United States, this case, like all others, must unavoidably fol- 
low the ordinary course. I am, sir, your most obedient humble servant."' 

The British Foreign Office was too fully committed to the 
extremest doctrine of visitation and search to enter any pro- 
test against its exercise, in any apparently legal manner, by 
the United States, which of all the great nations has been the 
firmest opponent of its exercise. The cargo of the Peterhoff was 
found upon examination by the prize commissioner to be an as- 
sorted one, and if not intended for the Confederates to contain 
just what they stood very much in need of, there being a very 
large quantity of quinine and other drugs on board, but noth- 
ing contraband of war. Nevertheless, the U. S. District Court, 
Judge Betts, adjudged the Peterhoff a legal prize — because : 

" First — That the said ship Peterhoff, in the premises mentioned, was 
knowingly, on the voyage aforesaid, laded in whole or in part with articles 
contraband of war, and had them in the act of transportation at sea. 
Second — That her voyage with the said cargo was not truly destined to 
the port of Matamoras, a neutral port, and for purposes of trade and 
commerce, within the authority and intendment of public law, but, on 
the contrary, was destined for some other port or place, and in aid and 
for the use of the enemy, and in violation of the law of nations. Third — 
That the ship's papers were simulated and false as to her real destination. 
Wherefore, it is considered by the Court that the said vessel and her cargo 
are subject to condemnation and forfeiture, and it is ordered that a decree 
therefor be entered accordingly." 

Four 3'ears afterwards the Supreme Court overruled the 
District Court, and the United States compensated the owners. 



452 THE CONFEDERATE STATES NAVY, 

Upon the Peterhoff there were large quantities of mail matter 
in sealed packages — which were seized upon by Sec. Welles, 
and their return positively refused. Mr. Seward and Lord 
Lyons had, previously to the capture of the Peterhoff, agreed 
that mail bags of any captured vessel shall be forwarded un- 
opened to the governments to which they belonged, or 
whose seals they bore. The refusal of Sec. Welles to deliver 
up the mails was brought to the attention of the English 
Parliament, where it was announced that the mails would be 
forwarded at once. ' 

But it was not known that the delivery of the mails had 
been made, only after the interchange of notes between Mr. 
Seward and Mr. Wells and the active interposition of Presi- 
dent Lincoln.^ 

The evidence upon which Judge Betts found the cargo of the 
Peterhoff io be contraband of war, throws some light upon the 
character and description of goods which were being imported 
into the Confederacy through the blockade, as well as illustrates 
how the U. S. Courts stretched the doctrine of contraband. 

The report filed by the Prize Commissioner contains the 
following language : 

" That a very large portion of the said cargo will be found, on examina- 
tion of the inventory aforesaid, to be particularly adapted to army use; that 
a large number of cases contain Blucher boots, which are known as army 
shoes; a number of cases contain 'cavalry boots,' and are so labelled, 
samples of said labels being hereto annexed ; that one hundred and ninety- 
two bales of the said cargo consists of gray blankets, adapted to the use 
of an army, and are believed to be such as are used in the United States 
army ; ninety-five cases contain horse-shoes, of a large size ; thirty-six 
cases, of a large size, contain artillery harness, in sets for four horses, with 
two riding saddles attached to each set ; there are also on board two 
hydraulic presses, in pieces, adapted to cotton. That a considerable por- 
tion of said cargo consists of drugs, directed to ' Burchard & Co., succes- 
sors, Matamoras, Mexico, in which, among an assorted cargo of drugs, 
quinine, calomel, morphine and chloroform form an important portion. 
The inventory also showed coiled rope, l>oxes of tin, of sheet zinc, of hoop 
and of bar iron, anvils and bellows, and ' other articles of a contraband 
character.'" 

As there are but very few articles of commerce which, in 
a direct or indirect manner, are not " adapted to army use," 

1 lu tlie House of Commons, on the 5th of May, government. It appeared that a difficulty had 

Lord R. Cecil wished to put a question to the arisen in the prize court as to what was to be 

XJuder Secretary for Foreign Affairs. "Some days done with the mail bags, which was referred to 

since the honorable gentleman told the House Mr. Seward, and he informed Lord Lyons that 

tliat Earl Russell had received a letter stating he had sent orders to New York that the mail 

that Mr. Seward had promised that the mails bags should be forwarded at once to their desti- 

on board the Peterhoff should be forwarded nations without being opened. At the same time 

unopened to their destinations. In the news- —as had been stated by Earl Russell in another 

papers of yesterday, however, it was stated that place— Mr. Seward informed Lord Lyons that a 

the captors — that was. Admiral Wilkes — declined gentleman was coming to this country to settle 

to allow the course to be taken. He wished to with the British government the principles upon 

know whether the Foreign Office had received which the question of mails found on board 

any information upon that point, and, if so, what captured vessels should be treated. No further 

course had been determined upon." information had since been received." 

"Mr. Layard said that what he had stated to the 

House on a former day was strictly in accord- 2 History of the United States Navy, by C. B. 

ance with the information then received by the Boynton, Vol. II., p. 117. 



THE CONFEDERATE STATES NAVY. 453 

that criterion of contraband, if recognized by all nations, 
would prohibit all commerce on the part of neutrals in time of 
war between any two nations. But the court held that a 
breach of blockade was intended by a voyage from London to 
Matamoras, Mexico, and that ruling was made in New York, 
from which port regular clearances to American vessels were 
given for Matamoras. But, notwithstanding Americans might 
trade with Mexico, English vessels were liable to seizure going 
to the same port, because of the known sympathy of that peo- 
ple with the Confederate cause. It was a fact, admitted on 
the trial, that the Rio Grande "was not blockaded with any 
declared or actual design to impair the legitimate commerce of 
any Mexican port." 

That the final destination of the trade between England 
and Matamoras was Texas and the Confederacy, was too plain 
to deceive ; the abnormal growth of the number of ships that 
sought the mouth of the Rio Grande, " from two or three to as 
many hundreds," was a part of the evidence introduced at the 
trial to prove a "simulated and false destination." But that 
the trade was legal, that the destination in the ship's papers 
was the true destination of the ship, was clearly established 
on the trial. The cargoes for Matamoras were landed and be- 
came a part of the goods of the merchants of that port, and 
were afterwards sold and delivered at Brownsville, Texas, and 
entered the Confederacy without breach of the blockade, real 
or technical. The immediate destination of the goods was 
Matamoras, but their ulterior destination was the Confederacy; 
and though it is a rule of international law that "the ulterior 
destination of the goods determine the character of the trade, 
no matter how circuitous the route by which they are to reach 
their destination;" yet, if in that "circuitous route" the 
goods intermingle with the stock of neutrals, and are sold as 
part of that stock, the trade of the neutral is legitimate and 
not liable to interruption by a belligerent. 

The aid and comfort derived by the Confederate States 
from the successful evasion of the blockade, the sympathy 
and assistance extended by a very large part of the English 
people, and the derogation from the dignity of the United 
States which the neutrality of England and. France was thought 
to have effected by recognizing the Confederate States as bel- 
ligerents, of equal right and consideration with the United 
States, produced, even among the judges of the highest courts, a 
condition of mind and temper that unfitted them to administer 
justice where a subject of Great Britain was a party litigant. ^ 

1 That the minds of the Judges of the Supreme strong against England, aud the judges, as 

Court were influenced by patriotic feelings has individual citizens, were no exception to that 

been avowed by one of its most distinguished feeling. Besides, the court was not familiar 

members— the late Associate Justice Samuel with the law of blockade." This avowal was 

Nelson, who in a letter to the Hon. W. Beach made with reference to the condemnation of 

Lavfrence, dated 4th August, 1873, and since the CiVcassiow, shortly after Chief Justice Chase 

made public, wrote as follows : — " The truth is had passed from the Department of State to the 

that the feeling of the country was deep and Chief Justiceship. 



454 THE CONFEDERATE STATES NAVY. 

The Hon. Wm. M. Evarts seems to have recognized the 
warp and twist of the judicial mind, in the condemnation by 
the Supreme Court of the Springbok, since he quoted, by way 
of censure, from the charge of Count Portahs to the prize 
courts of France, that: " Courts of law deserve the severest 
censure when, instead of proceeding on the principle of inter- 
national law, applied with equity, and in a manner favorable to 
neutrals, they take for their point of departure the interests of 
belligerents. State policy may have its plans and mysteries, 
but on the bench reason should ever maintain its empire and 
its dignity. When arbitrary pretexts, founded on fear or self- 
ishness, direct the judgment seat, all is lost." lb was be- 
fore the Mixed Commission on English and American Claims, 
in the case of the Springbok, to which Mr. Evarts administered 
that rebuke; and when the extreme limits to which the U. S. 
Supreme Court carried the law of blockade and contraband, 
in that and other cases, are considered in connection with the 
previous ruling of that court and of English prize courts, it 
will become apparent that unfamiliarity with the law of 
blockade is not the only reason that will be assigned for rul- 
ings which the future interest of the United States will impera- 
tively demand shall be reversed and departed from. To fully 
comprehend this wide departure from American rulings on 
international law it is necessary to take a cursory review of 
the efforts to modify the laws of seizure in the interests of 
neutral commerce. 

The object of the Declaration of the Treaty of Paris, in 
1856, was to mitigate the restrictions which the occurrence of 
war between two or more nations imposes on the commerce 
of neutrals. The object of the treaty, which the government 
of the United States urged, was that the treaty did not go far 
enough in its protection of the commerce of neutrals ; and 
Mr. Marcy proposed, on the part of the United States, to ex- 
em'pt from belligerent capture on the high seas all private pro- 
perty whicli is not in the nature of contraband. And while 
objecting to the abolishment of privateering, unless private 
property at sea was exempt from capture, the United States 
readily agreed to accept the declarations that the neutral flag 
covers enemy's goods, with the exception of contraband of war; 
that neutral goods, with the same exception, are not liable to 
capture under enemy's flag; and that blockades in order to be 
binding must be effective, that is to say, maintained by a force 
sufficient really to prevent access to. the coast of the enemy. 
The Confederate States were informally invited by the cabinets 
of Great Britain and France to accede to the Treaty of Paris, 
and assented by Resolution of Congress of August 13th, 1861. ^ 

1 Whereas, the Plenipotentiaries of Great as uniform rules for their guidance, in all 

Britain, Austria, France, Prussia, Russia, Sar- cases arising under the principles thus pro- 

dinia, and Turkey, in a conference held at claimed: And, whereas, it heing desirable, not 

Paris on the 16th of April, 1856, made certain only to attain certainty and uniformity, as far 

declarations respecting maritime law, to serve as may be practicable in maritime war, but also 



THE CONFEDERATE STATES NAVY. 455 

The invitation by England and France to the Confederate 
States to accept the Treaty of Paris, and their formal accept- 
ance of every provision except that against privateering — 
which had been reserved by the United States — implied a duty 
on the part of England and France, to enforce the provisions 
of that treaty in favor of all parties to it. Having invited the 
Confederate States to guarantee the rights of England, France 
and all other neutral nations, and the " informal proposals " 
having been accepted, the faith of treaties was implied that 
the reciprocal benefits to the Confederate States, as a party 
to the Treaty of Paris, would be guaranteed by England and 
J'rance. It was worse than bad faith to make the Confederate 
States parties, however " informal," to the treaty, and deny 
to them its benefits. Yet Great Britain, after submitting for 
one year to an ineffective blockade,^ went still further and by 
dispatch on February 11th, 18G2, declared that : 

" Her Majesty's Government, however, are of the opinion that, assum- 
ing that the blockades was duly notified, and also that a number of 
ships are stationed and remain at the entrance of a port sufficient really 
to prevent access to it, or to create an evident danger of entering or 
leaving it, and that these ships do not voluntarily permit ingress or 
egress, the fact that various ships may have successfully escaped through 
it (as in the particular instance here referred to, ) will not of itself prevent 
the blockade from being an effectual one by international law." 

This extract serves well to illustrate how completely 
Lord Russell and the English Foreign Office overreached 
Mr. Seward in the diplomac}^ of blockade; and succeeded in 
inveigling the United States into acquiesence and compliance 
with England's ruling in the law of blockade. 

From the seventeenth century, and all through the wars of 
the eighteenth century, the primary and essential condition of 
a violation of blockade has been held to be the existence of a port 
"in a state of blockade" in the legal sense. The Fourth Article 
of the Declaration of Armed Neutrality in 1780, was: "Que 
pour determiner ce que characterise un port bloque on n'accorde 
cette denomination qu' a celui on il y a, par la disposition de la 
puissance, que I'attaque avec des vaisseaux arretes et suf- 
fisament proches un danger evident d'entrer." (That in order to 
determine what characterises a blockaded port, that term shall 

to maintain whatever is just and proper in the must be eflfectual, that is to say, maintained by 

•established usages of nations, the Confederate a force sufficient really to prevent access to the 

States of America deem it important to declare coast of the enemy, 
the principles by which they will be governed 

ill their intercourse with the rest of mankind. i Lord Russell's dispatch of May 6th, 1862, 

Now therefore — recites: " This blockade, kept up irregularly. 

Be it anacied by the Congress of the Covfedtrate but when enforced, enforced severely, has 

Slates of America, 1. That we maintain the right seriously injured the trade and manufactures 

of privateering, as it has been long estab- of the United Kiugdon. * * * Yet, her 

lished by the practice and recognized by the Majesty's Government have never sought to 

law of nations. take advantage of the obvious imperfections of 

2. That the neutral flag covers enemy's goods, this blockade, in order to declare it iuefl'ective." 
with the exception of contraband of war. — and May 11th, that the blockade might, no 

3. That neutral goods, with the exception of doxiht, be made eSectiwe. considering the small 
contraband of war, are not liable to capture, numberof harbors on the Southern coasts, even 
under enemy's flag. though the extent of three thousand miles were 

4. That blockades, in order to be binding, comprehended in the terms of that blockade." 



456 THE CONFEDERATE STATES NAVY. 

only be applied to a port where, from the arrangement made 
by the attacking power with vessels stationed off the port, 
and sufficiently near, there is evident danger in entering 
the port.) 

In the Second Armed Neutrality in 1800, the same principle 
was laid down. " Un port ne peut-etre comme bloque que se 
non entree est evidemment dangereux par suite des dispositions 
prises par une des puissances belligerantes, par le moyen des 
a vaisseux places a proximite." (A port shall not be understood 
as blockaded unless it is evidently hazardous to attempt to 
enter it, in consequence of the measures adopted by one of the 
belligerent powers, by vessels of war stationed in its proximity. ) 

England violated these articles in the grossest manner, 
and arrogated to herself the right to declare, by Royal 
Order in Council, ports to be in a state of blockade al- 
though there was no blockade stationed off such ports 
in their proximity. Her cruisers captured neutral vessels 
bound for such ports, and her courts condemned vessels and 
cargoes. These "paper blockades," were defended only as 
" defensive retaliation " justified by necessity. But in the 
treaty of June 17th, 1801, with Russia, England introduced 
surreptitiously this novel doctrine, in defining blockade in that 
treaty, while using the phraseology of the armed neutrality 
of 1780. a material change was introduced. The words in the 
Armed Neutrality of 1780, were : " Avec des vaisseux arretes 
et suffisamment proches;" this language was deftly changed 
into ''avec des vaisseux arretes on sufiisamment proches." 
This same change was made by Lord Russell in sustaining the 
blockade of Confederate ports; and instead of adhering to the 
language of the Treaty of Paris — that a blockade is effective 
only when " maintained by a force sufficient really to prevent 
access to the coast of the enemy," he added, "or to create an 
evident danger of entering or leaving " the port. This was 
reviving the blockade " parcroisieme," (by cruising squadrons) 
sometimes near and sometimes at a distance from the so-called 
blockaded port. Mr. Seward did not see the position to which 
he was committing the United States by accepting Lord 
Russell's addenda. And the United States now stands com- 
mitted to a doctrine of blockade similar to that which England 
maintained against all the principles of international law, and 
which at some future day will return to plague the commerce 
of neutral America in the wars of European belligerents. 

The solemn protest of the Confederate States against the 
modification of the provisions of the Treaty of Paris which 
Lord Russell made in that dispatch, did not avail to correct 
its great injustice. By the treaty of Paris England engaged 
to observe blockades only " when maintained by a force suffic- 
ient really to prevent access to the coast of the enemy." It is 
difficult to see from what principle of public faith or_ interna- 
tional law Lord Russell drew the right to interject into that 



THE CONFEDERATE STATES NAVY. 457 

treaty the important modification, that effectiveness of block- 
ade was complied with where the force at the entrance of a 
port, not on " the coast of an enemy, ^^ was sufficient " to create 
an evident danger of entering it or leaving it " ! These incon- 
sistencies and vacillations were made by the political branches 
of the governments of Great Britain and the United States, 
and whether excusable or not should have found no sanction 
or support from the highest judicial tribunal of the United 
States. 

International law ought to be more perfect common-sense 
than any other law, since there is no supreme power to enforce 
it, and its varying problems can never be solved but by an 
appeal to the judgments and sentiments of mankind. It is 
accordingly one of the first duties of courts of justice, called 
upon to administer international law, to repudiate fictions of 
all kinds, as they are as distasteful to common-sense as a 
vacuum is repugnant to nature. The Supreme Court, instead 
of rising with the occasion that was presented, to liberalize 
and modify the harsher doctrines of international law intro- 
duced by British prize courts to protect a colonial trade, em- 
braced the opportunity to enlarge and extend the obsolete 
" Rule of the War of 1756," and engrafted on Lord Stowell's old 
stock of "continuous voyages," a twig that may yet bear the 
most noxious fruit to American commerce. Prior to the war 
of 1756, between European States and their transmarine colo- 
nies, trade with those colonies was not permitted to other 
nations. When, under the stress of war, any one of those States 
threw open their interdicted colonial trade to neutrals, the 
hostile power refused to recognize this as lawful neutral com- 
merce ; but it was treated as aid to the enemy, in relief of his 
trade which the w^ar had strangled, and the adverse belligerent 
captured and condemned the ships and cargoes of the neutral 
as of an enemy. "As trade, however, in subsequent times," 
said Mr. Evarts, ' '"'between the colonies and the neutral State 
and the neutral and European States was incontestably open 
to the neutral, a trade was attempted of a colorable im- 
portation from Cuba, for instance, into Boston and from 
Boston to Spain, and so of return voyages, through the inter- 
position of a neutral port. This scheme was denounced and 
this commerce was attacked by the belligerent. The question 
for the prize court was whether the importation into and the 
exportation from the intermediate neutral port were really 
transactions of the neutral's own and of course legitimate 
commerce, or whether it was really a trade between the colony 
and the parent State, and the interposition of the neutral port 
was only colorable." It was to meet this novel form of neu- 
tral adventure, in aid of an enemy's trade, and to prevent the 
produce of an enemy's colony from being imported into the 

1 Brief in the Springbok case. 



458 THE CONFEDERATE STATES NAVY. 

mother country, or vice versa, through an apparently legiti- 
mate channel, that Lord Stowell took upon himself to invent 
the doctrine, as it has been termed, of "continuous voyages," 
and clotlied it in language which has enabled the Supreme 
Court of the United States to apply it with plausibility to a 
very different class of cases. Lord Stowell's " rule of the war 
of 1756 " was applied only to captures made on the ulterior 
voyage, that is the voyage from the neutral port, and it was 
never applied to captures made on the immediate voyage, that 
is the voyage to the neutral port. Under the rule, as laid 
down by Lord Stowell, condemnation never followed capture 
made on tlie voyage de facto from one neutral port to another ; 
but under the application of the rule, or rather its unjustifiable 
extension by the Supreme Court, captures were condemned by 
the court on its presumption that the first voyage was but a 
part of the second ; and while, in the cases before Lord Sto- 
well. tlie corpus delicti was incontestable ; in the case of the 
Springbok, before the Supreme Court, the corpus delicti was 
only a matter of argument, presumption and inference. 

The Springbok was a sailing vessel of draft too great to 
enter any Confederate port, and was upon a voyage from Lon- 
don to Nassau when she was intercepted and seized by a 
United States cruiser and sent into New York, under a prize 
crew, and there condemned. ' 

Upon appeal to the Supreme Court the decree of the U. S. 
District Court, condemning the vessel, was reversed ; the 
Supreme Court holding that the ship was improperly con- 
demned ;'"* but while releasing the ship the Supreme Court 
affirmed the condemnation of the cargo, because the voyage 
was one and the same whether broken or not at Nassau.^ 
Upon that ruling Mr. Evarts remarked: "'Thus it appears 
condeiTination passed finally upon the cargo, not as taken in 
delicto during a voyage in which the vessel carrying it was to 
be an agent of transportation with intent to violate the block- 
ade, but simply as 'set in progress (by and through an innocent 

1 " The United States vs. the Bark Springbok and tured, was from London to Nassau, both neu- 
Cargo. — This suit having been heard by the tral ports within the definition of neuti'ality, 
Court upon the pleadings, ijroofs and allegations f varnished by international law. The papers 
of the parties, and evidence legally invoked too, were all genuine, and there was no conceal- 
therein from other cases, and the premises ment of any of them, and no spoliation. Her 
being fully considered ; and it being found by owners were neutral, and do not ajijiear to have 
the court therefrom that the said vessel, at the had any interest in the cargo; and there is 
time of her capture at sea, was knowingly laden insufficient proof that they had any knowledge 
in whole or part with articles contraband of of its alleged unlawful destination." — 5. Wal- 
war, with intent to deliver such articles to the lace p. 21. 

aid and use of the enemy ; that the true desti- „ ^^ ^, , , ^ i , ^ i,. ^ i... 

nation of the .said ship and cargo was not to "'Upon the whole, we cannot doubt that the 

Nassau, a neutral port, and for trade and com- cargo was originaUy shipped with intent to 

merce. but to soiue port lawfullv blockaded by violate the blockade ; that the^ owners of the 

the forces of the United States, knd with intent "argo intended that it should be trans-shipped at 

to violate such blockade. And further, that Nassau m some vessel more likely to succeed 

the papers of said vessel were simulated and "> reaching safe y a blockaded port than the 

false. Wherefore, the condemnation and for- Springbok ; that the voyage from London to the 

feiture of the vessel and cargo is declared. blockaded port was, both in law and in intent of 

Ordered, that a decree be entered accordingly." *''" Parties, one voyage ; and that the liabibty 

to condemnnation, if captui-ed during any part 

2 " Her papers were regular and they all of that voyage, attached to the cargo from the 
showed that the voyage, on which she was cap- time of sailing."— 5. Wallace, p. 27. 



THE CONFEDERATE STATES NAVY. 459 

voyage by an innocent vessel to a lawful port) toivards a pur- 
pose of thereafter obtaining transportation by a voyage yet to 
be commenced, by some unknown and unnamed vessel, to 
some unknown and unnamed blockaded port." The antiquated 
and obsolete " rule of the war of 1756" was revived, enlarged 
and applied by the Supreme Court to the war of 1801, in order 
to hamper and hinder the Confederate States in obtaining 
from England the same kind of supplies which the United 
States obtained by violation of English laws and against the 
protests of the English Foreign Office. ' 

Surprise is increased that England and France should 
have continued to respect and observe a blockade which was 
not only ineffective, according to the rule of the Treaty of 
Paris, but which was converted into a pajjer blockade by the 
rulings of the prize courts. European jurists were taken by 
surprise at the novel doctrine announced in the SpiHngbok 
case ; the learned Dr. Bluntschli, of Heidelberg, observing : 
" Si cette maniere de voir venait a I'emporter dans la pratique, 
le commerce neutre sera bien plus menace que par le blocus 
sur papier."'^ 

Whatever effectiveness the blockade had was as much the 
result of the rulings of the courts, in prize cases, as of the 
ships that watched the mouths of harbors. The former ex- 
tended the blockade in reality, if not in avowal, to the Eng- 
lish ports in Bermuda, Nassau, St. John, and to the Spanish 
ports in Cuba. And it was not the stopping of large or " small 
holes" by ships, but by traps along the paths to the "holes" 
that the United States cruisers reaped their largest and most 
profitable prize harvest. Even Lord Russell's interpolation of 
the law of blockade would not have made that at Wilmington 
respectable, if he had not permitted the new rulings of the 

1 Lord Russell to Mr. Adama, December 19th, cannot be ignorant. Her Majesty's government, 
1862: " It is right, however, to observe that therefore, has just ground for complaint against 
the party which has profited by far the most both of the belligerent parties, but most es- 
by these unjwstifiable practices, has been the pecially against the government of the United 
government of the United States, because that States, for having systematically, and in dis- 
governmeut, having a sui5triority of force by regard of the comity of nations which it was 
sea, and having blockaded most of the Con- their duty to observe, induced subjects of her 
federate ports, has been able on the one hand. Majesty to violate those orders, which, in con- 
safely to receive all the warlike supplies which forruity with her neutral position, she has 
it has induced British manufacturers and mer- enjoined all her subjects to obey." 
chants to send to the United States in violation 

of the Queen's proclamation ; and on the other 2 << Le Droit Internationale Codifle, 2me 

hand, to intercept and capture a great part of Editione, Paris, S. 835. Dr. Louis Gessuer, 

the supplies of the same kind which were Imperial Councillor of the Legation at Berlin, 

destined from this country to the Confederate concurred in the same opinion. The United 

States. If it be sought to make her Majesty's States authority on international law, Wm. 

government responsible to that of the United Beach Lawrence, wrote to M. Rolin-Jacquemyns, 

States because arms and munitions of war have Sept. 3(lth, 1878, that : " the recent adjudications 

left this country on account of the Confederate of our Supreme Court have even gone beyond 

government, the Confederate government, as the cases arising out of •' the Rule of Fifty-si.'c. 

the other belligerent, may very well maintain Dr. Heffter, of Berlin; Mr. Carlos Calvo, of Baris; 

that it has a just cause of complaint against Mr. Westlake, Q. C, of London ; M. G . Rolin- 

the British government because the United Jacquemyns, of Gaud ; Professor Goldsmidt, 

States arsenals have been replenished from of Leyden ; Sir Robert Phillimore, Sir W. 

British sources. Nor would it be possible to Atherton, Sir Eoundell Palmer, Lord Sel- 

deny that, in defiance of the Queen's procla- borne, Mr. George Mellish, Sir W. Vernon- 

mation, many subjects of her Majesty, owing Harcourt— all concur in holding that there was 

allegiance to her crown, have enlisted in the a miscarriage of justice in the condemnation of 

armies of the United States. Of this fact you the cargo of the Springbok." 



460 THE CONFEDERATE STATES NAVY. 

U. S, Supreme Court to extend the blockade back to the Eng- 
lish colonial ports. 

The Springbok case was reviewed before the Mixed Com- 
mission on British and American Claims, under the Treaty of 
Washington, in 1871. That Mixed Commission held, as to ques- 
tions arising under the blockade, very nearly the same rela- 
tion that the Geneva Conference held to those questions 
which grew up out of the action of Confederate cruisers. But 
the Commission that sat at Washington was a very different 
affair from that at Geneva. It was composed, on the part of 
Great Britain, of Mr. Russell Gurney, a mere criminal lawyer, 
'* Recorder" of the city of London, the arbitrator ; on the part 
of the United States was Judge James S. Frazer ; and Count 
Corti, the Italian Minister at Washington, was named as 
umpire by both governments. The Commission was provided 
for in Article XII of the Treaty of Washington, ratified May 
8th, 1871, and was limited in duration by Article XIV to two 
years. Its session began at Washington on the 26th of Sep- 
tember, 1871. and its final award was made at Newport, R. I., 
on the 25th of September, 1873. By April 2;3d, 1872, it had 
decided eleven cases, and from that date to the 2d of October 
following it transacted no business whatever, in consequence 
of the American Commission having refused to adjudicate 
any British claims while the tribunal at Geneva was at a 
deadlock. The Washington Commission refused to hear oi^al 
argument, gave no reasons for its awards, but curtly an- 
nounced in stereotyped formula that "this claim is dis- 
allowed." It sat with closed doors, and departed most glar- 
ingly from the precedent of the similar Anglo-American 
Claims Commission, which sat in London in 1853. The Pro- 
tocol XXXVI, of April Uth, 1871, provided: "That the Con- 
vention of 1853 should be followed as a precedent." The Con- 
vention of 1853 required both commissioners, as well as the 
umpire or arbitrator, to state in writing the grounds of their 
respective opinions or awards, and a full report of those opin- 
ions was published by both governments ; the sittings were 
open, and special counsel were "heard" on behalf of the 
claimants. Of these flagrant departures from the precedents 
of the Commission of 1853, Mr. Beach Lawrence remarked : 
"Of the Mixed Commission, established by the treaties be- 
tween the United States and Great Britain of 1794 and 1853, 
for adjusting the claims of citizens or subjects of the one 
country or the government of the other, we have reports more 
or less complete. Moreover, the discussions connected with 
the arbitrament of the so-called ' Alabama Claims ' by the 
tribunal, created under Article I of the treaty of 1871, whose 
sittings were held at Geneva, fill many volumes. But the 
Mixed Commission, appointed under Article XII of that 
Treaty, did 7iot, save in a few of the early cases, state the 
reasons on which its adjudications were based. In the absence 



THE CONFEDERATE STATES NAVY. 461 

of any announcement by the Commissioners of their mode of 
arriving at their conclusions, we have no means by which to 
interpret the motives of the decrees. The decisions of arbi- 
ters, for the adjustment of international claims, should in 
every case be furnished in writing to the respective govern- 
ments."' 

The number of British claims presented to the Commission 
was 478, of which 181 were allowed ; eight were withdrawn, 
one was dismissed, and 200 were disallowed. The amount 
claimed aggregated $90,000,000, exclusive of ten years' in- 
terest, and the amount awarded was $1,929,819 in gold, or a 
trifle over two per cent, on the entire claims. Eighty-seven 
of the claims were for wrongful seizure of British ships and 
cargoes ; of these four were allowed, but without interest ; 
thirteen were partly allowed, and seventy were disallowed or 
rejected in toto. The aggregate amount of these eighty-seven 
ship claims was $9,832,080, of which the Commission allowed 
only $725,030 in gold. Article XVI provided five per cent, on 
the sums awarded for the expenses of the Commission, and 
this deduction from the final award amounted to $90,491, 
which was apportioned to "the two governments in equal 
moieties." The $45,245 received by the United States the offi- 
cial report of Mr. Hale, the agent and counsel of the United 
States, shows to have been far short of the amount actually 
expended, which reached $300,000 ; which, in contrast with 
the whole expenses of the Commission of 1853, which sat in 
London, $12,940, was suggestive of the inquiry: "How the 
$300,000 had been employed ?" Without attempting to solve 
that riddle it would be interesting and useful to know the 
grounds upon which the conclusions of the Commission were 
based. But a far more interesting inquiry is why the British 
Commissioner concurred in rulings so variant from established 
international law and so wrongful to British subjects, and 
which was done in spite of the strong opinion of the law 
officers of the crown. Dr. Phillimore (Queen's Advocate), Sir 
William Atherton (Attorney General), and Sir Roundell Pal- 
mer (Solicitor General), as well as of Mr. George Mellish 
(afterwards a Lord Justice of the Court of Chancery), and 
William Vernon Harcourt, the famous "Historicus" of the 
Times, and Solicitor General under Mr. Gladstone's administra- 
tion. Were those wrongful awards consented to in the hope 
and expectation that they would become precedents, profit- 
able to Great Britain against neutrals at some future day, 
and conclusive against the neutral commerce of the United 
States when Great Britain should again be at war? If so, 
the Mixed Commission has sown seeds from which the com- 
merce of the United States may gather fruits more injuri- 
ous even than those of the war between the States in 1801-05. 

1 Mr. Beach Lawrence's Letter to M. Rolin-Jacquemyus, September 30tli, 1873. 



462 THE CONFEDERATE STATES NAVY. 

The ease with which the blockade at Wilmington was 
run, and the success with which the blockading fleet was 
avoided, is explained in that very interesting work of Captain 
John Wilkinson, C. S. N.,' "The Narrative of a Blockade 
Runner. " 

" The natural advantages of Wilmington for blockade-running were 
very great, chiefly owing to the fact that there are two separate and dis- 
tinct approaches to Cape Fear River, i.e., either by "^'New Inlet" to 
the north of Smith's Island, or by the "western bar" to the south of it. 
This Island is ten or eleven miles in length ; but the Frying Pan Shoals 
extend ten or twelve miles further south, making the distance by sea be- 
tween the two bars thirty miles or more, although the direct distance 
between them is only six or seven miles. From Smithville, a little village 
nearly equidistant from either bar, both blockading fleets could be dis- 
tinctly seen, and the outward bound blockade-runners could take their 
choice through which of them to run the gauntlet. The inward bound 
blockade-runners, too, were guided by circumstances of wind and weather; 
selecting that bar over which they would cross after they had passed the 
Gulf Stream, and shaping their course accordingly. The approaches to 
both bars were clear of danger, with the single exception of the " Lump "^ 
before mentioned ; and so regular are the soundings that the shore can be 
coasted for miles within a stone's throw of the breakers. 

" These facts explain why the United States fleet were unable wholly 
to stop blockade-running. It was, indeed, impossible to do so ; the result 
to the very close of the war proves this assertion, for, in spite of the vigi- 
lance of the fleet, many blockade-runners were afloat when Fort Fisher 
was captured. In truth the passage through the fleet was little dreaded ; 
for although the blockade-runner might receive a shot or two, she was 
rarely disabled ; and in proportion to the increase of the fleet the greater 
would be the danger (we knew) of their firing into each other. As the 
boys before the deluge used to say, they would be very apt "to miss the 
cow and kill the calf." The chief danger was upon the open sea ; many of 
the light cruisers having great speed. As soon as one of them discovered 

1 Capt. John Wilkinson was born in Norfolk, position towards the government as other classes 

Va., in 1821, and was the eldest son of the late of citizens. But this charge was never brought 

Commodore Jesse Wilkinson of the U. S. navy. against them till the war was ended. The re- 

Capt. John Wilkinson entered the U. S. navy as signation of their commissions was accepted 

a midshipman in 1837, served in the Mexican when their purpose was well known. As to the 

War on board of the Saratoga ; and after more charge of ingratitude, they reply, their re- 

than the average amount of sea service, was in spective States had contributed their full share 

command of the steamer Corwin, on coast towards the expenses of the gener.il government, 

survey service when his native State seceded. acting as their disbursing agent ; and when 

He then resigned his commission, and offered these States withdrew from the Union, their 

his services to the State of his birth. Like citizens belonging to the two branches of the 

many of his brother officers, Cajitain Wilkinson public service did not, and do not, consider 

up to that time had meddled so little with themselves amenable to this charge for abandon- 

poUtics as never even to have cast a vote ; but ing their official positions to cast their lot with 

having been educated in the belief that his their kindred and friends. But yielding as they 

allegiance was due to his state, he did not did to necessity, it was nevertheless a painful 

hesitate to act as honor and patriotism seemed act to separate themselves from companions 

to demand. Speaking of those citizens of with whom they had been long and intimately 

Virginia who resigned their commissions, in associated, and from the flag under which they 

his interesting Narrative of a Blockade Runner, had been proud to serve." 

he says: "They were compelled to choose During the brief interval which elapsed be- 

whether they would aid in subjugating their tween the act of secession and the admission ol 

State, or in defending it against invasion ; for the State into the Confederacy, the Virginia 

it via» already evident that coercion would be army and navy were organized ; and all of the 

used by the genei'al government, and that war naval officers who had tendered their services 

was inevitable. In reply to the accusation of received commissions in the Virginia na^'y. 

iserjury in breaking their oath of allegiance, Captain Wilkinson's first service was at Fort 

since brought against the officers of the army Powhatan, an earthwork situated on James 

and navy who resigned their commissions to River, a short distance below City Point, and 

render aid to the South, it need only be stated carrying six or eight guns mounted on ships' 

that, in their belief, the resignation of their carriages. From thence he was transferred to 

commissions absolved them from any special the command of a battery on Acquia Creek. On 

obligation. They then occupied the same June loth, 1861, he entered into the service of 



THE CONFEDERATE STATES NAVY. 463 

a blockade-runner, during daylight, she would attract other cruisers in 
the vicinity by sending up a dense column of smoke, visible for many 
miles in clear weather. A cordon of fast steamers stationed ten or fifteen 
miles apart, inside the Griilf Stream, and in the course from Nassau and 
Bermuda to Wilmington and Charleston, would have been more effectual 
in stopping blockade-running than the whole United States navy concen- 
trated off those ports ; and it was unaccountable to us why such a plan 
did not occur to good Mr. WeUes ; but it was not our place to suggest it. 
I have no doubt, however, that the fraternity to which I then belonged 
would have unanimously voted thanks and a service of plate to the Hon. 
Secretary of the United States Navy for this oversight. I say inside the 
Gulf Stream, because every experienced captain of a blockade-runner 
made a point to cross " the stream " early enough in the afternoon, if pos- 
sible, to establish the ship's position by chronometer, so as to escape the 
influence of that current upon his dead reckoning. The lead always gave 
indication of our distance from the land, but not, of course, of our posi- 
tion; and the numerous saltworks along the coast, where evaporation 
was produced by fire, and which were at work night and day, were vis- 
ible long before the low coast could be seen. Occasionally, the whole 
inward voyage would be made under adverse conditions. Cloudy, thick 
weather and heavy gales would prevail so as to pi-event any solar or lunar 
observations, and reduce the dead reckoning to mere guess-work. In 
these cases the naiitical knowledge and judgment of the captain would 
be taxed to the utmost. The current of the Gulf Stream varies in velocity 
and (within certain limits) in direction; and the stream, itself almost as 
well defined as a river within its banks under ordinary circumstances, is 
impelled by a strong gale toward the direction in which the wind is blow- 
ing, overflowing its banks as it were. The counter current, too, inside of 
the Gulf Stream is much influenced by the prevailing winds. Upon one 
occasion, while in command of the R. E. Lee, formerly the Clyde-built 
iron steamer Giraffe, we had experienced very heavy and thick weather, 
and had crossed the Stream and struck soundings about midday. The 
weather then clearing, so that we could obtain an altitude near meridian, 
we found ourselves at least forty miles north of our supposed position, 
and near the shoals which extend in a southerly direction off Cape Look- 
out. It would be more perilous to run out to sea than to continue on our 

the Confederate States navy, and when the subsequently relieved, and the naval portion of 
line of the Potomac was abandoned, he was it was placed under the command of Capt. John 
ordered to duty on the Mississippi below Taylor Wood, C. S. N., and one of the President's 
New Orleans, first in command of the Con- aides. It is hardly necessary to add, that this 
federate States steamer J^acfeore, and afterwards expedition also failed, owing to the fact that, 
as executive officer of the iron-clad Louisiana, secretly as all the preparations had l>een made, 
carrying the flag of Commodore John K. information of it was speedily conveyed to 
Mitchell. He succeeded to the command of the Washington, and prom^jt measures taken to 
Louisiana, after the mortal wounding of Captain prevent its success. Captain Wilkinson was then 
C. F. Mcintosh, who fell in the action during the placed in charge of the office of " Orders and 
passage of the U. S. fleet under Admiral E'ar- Detail, " which was charged with lighting the 
ragut. After the destruction of the Z-OMisiana, approachesto Wilmington and of detailing pilots 
to prevent her from falling into the hands of the and signal officers to the blockade nmners. In 
enemy, most of the officers (and Lieut. Wilkin- the later part of September, 1864, he was ordered 
son among them) were captured and imprisoned to the command of the Chickamauga, a. double 
at Fort Warren. screw steamer converted into a man-of-war, and 
After an exchange he was sent to Europe made in her a succes.«ful cruise along the At- 
under orders from the War Department, to pur- lantic coast. After his return he was put in 
chase a steamer. Besides commanding the command of the Tallahassee, which under the 
GirajgTe, afterwards named the /?. S. iee, he also name of the Chameleon proceeded with all 
commanded the secret expedition to attempt the despatch to Bermuda for a cargo of provisions 
releaseof the prisoners at Johnson's Island. It for General Lee's starving army. Procuringher 
is believed the plot was betrayed through the return cargo the Cianicifw made several attempts 
indiscretions of an agent of the C. S. government to enter a Confederate port but failed. Captain 
then residing in Canada. Keturning to Bermuda Wilkinson returned to Liverpool, and with the 
Captain Wilkinson assumed command of the public funds turned her over to Captain Bulloch 
blockade runner Whisper, and arrived safely in without appropriating any of the spoils of the 
Wilmington. He waa then ordered to the iron- perishing ship of state. Capt. Wilkinson witli 
clad Roanoke, and after a few weeks to Rich- his opportimities could have accumulated a 
mond, where he was given command of the large fortune during the war, but being a gentle- 
naval portion of the expedition to attempt the man of the purest integrity he returned to his 
relea.se of the Point Lookout prisoners. He was family " dead broke," with a clear conscience. 



464 THE CONFEDERATE STATES NAVY. 

course, for we had passed through the off-shore hne of blockaders, and 
the sky had become pei'fectly clear. I determined to personate a trans- 
port bound to Beaufort, which was in tlie possession of the U. S. forces, 
and the coaUng station of the fleet blockading Wilmington. The risk of 
detection was not very great, for many of the captured blockade-runners 
were used as transports and dispatch-vessels. Shaping our course for 
Beaufort, and slowing down, as if we were in no haste to get there, we 
passed several vessels, showing United States colors to them all. Just as 
we were crossing through the ripple of shallow water off the ' tail ' of the 
shoals, we dipped our colors to a sloop-of-war which passed three or four 
miles to the south of us. The courtesy was promptly responded to; but 
I have no doubt her captain thought me a lubberly and careless seaman 
to shave the shoals so closely. We stopped the engines when no vessel 
was in sight, and I was relieved from a heavy burden of anxiety as the 
sun sank below the horizon, and the course was shaped at full speed for 
Masonboro' Inlet. 

"The staid old town of Wilmington was turned 'topsy turvy during 
the war. Here resorted the speculators from all parts of the South, to 
attend the weekly auctions of imported cargoes ; and the town was in- 
fested with rogues and desperadoes, who made a livelihood by robbery 
and murder. It was unsafe to venture into the suburbs at night, and 
even in daylight there were frequent conflicts in the public streets, be- 
tween the crews of the steamers in port and the soldiers stationed in the 
town, in which knives and pistols would be freely used; and not unfre- 
quently a dead body would rise to the surface of the water in one of the 
docks with marks of violence upon it. The civil authorities were power- 
less to prevent crime. 'Inter arma silent leges!' The agents and em- 
ployees of different blockade-running companies lived in magnificent style, 
paying a king's ransom (in Confederate money) for their household ex- 
penses, and nearly monopolizing the supplies in the country market. 
Towards the end of the war, indeed, fresh provisions were almost beyond the 
reach of every one. Our family servant, newly arrived from the country 
in Virginia, would sometimes return from market with an empty basket, 
having flatly refused to pay what he called ' such nonsense prices' for a 
bit of fresh beef, or a handful of vegetables. A quarter of lamb, at the 
time of which I now write, sold for $100, a pound of tea for $500. Con- 
federate money which in September, 1861, was nearly equal to specie in 
value, had declined in September 1863 to 235 ; in the same month, in 1863, 
to 400, and before September, 1864, to 2,000 ! 

" Many of the permanent residents of the town had gone into the 
country, letting their houses at enormous prices ; those who were com- 
pelled to remain kept themselves much secluded ; the ladies rarely being 
seen upon the more public streets. Many of the fast young officers be- 
longing to the army would get an occasional leave to come to Wilming- 
ton ; and would live at free quarters on board the blockade runners, or at 
one of the numerous bachelor halls ashore. 

"The convalescent soldiers from the Virginia hospitals were sent by 
the route through Wilmington to their homes in the South. The ladies 
of the town were organized by Mrs. De R. into a society for the purpose 
of ministering to the wants of these poor sufferers ; the trains which 
carried them stopping an hour or two at the depot, that their wounds 
might be dressed and food and medicine supplied to them. These self- 
sacrificing, heroic women patiently and faithfully performed the offices 
of hospital nurses. 

"Liberal contributions were made by companies and individuals to 
this society, and the long tables at the depot were spread with delicacies 
for the sick, to be found nowhere else in the Confederacy. The remains 
of the meals were carried by the ladies to a camp of mere boys — home- 
guards outside of the town. Some of these children were scarcely able to 
carry a musket, and were altogether unable to endure the exposure and 
fatigues of field service; and they suffered fearfully from measles, and 




LIEUTENANT COMMANDER JOHN WILKINSON, C. 8. N. 



THE CONFEDERATE STATES NAVY. 405 

typhoid fever. Gren. Grant used a strong figure of speech, when he asserted, 
that "the cradle and the grave were robbed, to recruit the Confederate 
armies." The fact of a fearful drain upon the population was scarcely ex- 
aggerated, but with this difference in the metaphor, that those who were 
verging upon both the cradle and the grave, shared the hardships and 
dangers of war, with equal self-devotion to the cause. It is true that a 
class of heartless speculators infested the country, who profited by the 
scarcity of all sorts of supplies, but it makes the self-sacrifice of the mass 
of the Southern people more conspicuous, and no State made more liberal 
voluntary contrilautions to the armies, or furnished better soldiers, than 
North Carolina. 

" On the opposite side of the river from Wilmington, on a low, marshy 
flat, were erected the steam cotton presses, and there the blockade-run- 
ners took in their cargoes. Sentries were posted on the wharves, day and 
night, to prevent deserters from getting on board, and stowing themselves 
away; and the additional precaution of fumigating the outward bound 
steamers at Smithville was adopted ; but in spite of this vigilance, many 
persons succeeded in getting a free passage abroad. These deserters, or 
'stowaways,' were in most instances sheltered by one or more of the 
crew; in which event they kept their places of concealment until the 
steamer had arrived at her port of destination, when they would profit 
by the first opportunity to leave the vessel undiscovered. A small bribe 
would tempt the average blockade-running sailor to connive at this means 
of escape. The 'impecunious' deserter fared more hardly; and would 
usually be forced by hunger and thirst to emerge from his hiding place 
while the steamer was on the outward voyage. A cruel device, employed 
by one of the captains, effectually put a stop, I believe, certainly a check 
to the escape of this class of 'stowaways.' He turned three or four of 
them adrift in the Gulf Stream, in an open boat, with a pair of oars, and 
a few days' allowance of bread and water." 

At the beginning of the war, nearly all the lights along 
the Southern coast had been discontinued; the apparatus be- 
ing removed to places of safety. In 1864, it was deemed ex- 
pedient to re-establish the light on Smith's Island, which had 
been discontinued ever since the beginning of hostilities, and 
to erect a structure for a light on the " Mound."' 

Under special instructions from the Navy Department, 
Capt. Wilkinson was charged with the duties of relighting 
the approaches to the Cape Fear River, and of detailing pilots 
and signal officers to the blockade-runners. To provide the 
means of light, every blockade-runner was required to bring in 
a barrel of sperm oil. In addition to these aids to navigation, 

1 The "Mound " was an artificial one, erected along this monotonous coast.but one of the range 

l)y Col. Lamb, who commanded Fort Fisher. lights for crossing New Inlet bar was placed on 

Oapt. Wilkinson says: "Two heavy guns were it. Seamen will appreciate at its full value this 

mounted upon it, and it eventually became a advantage; but it may be stated, for the benefit 

sight for a light, and very .serviceable to block- of the unprofessional reader, that wliile the 

ade runners; but even at this period it was an compass bearing of an object does not enable a 

excellent landmark. Joined by a long, low pilot to steer a vessel with sufficient accuracy 

isthmus of sand with the higher mainland, its through a narrow channel, range lights answer 

regular conical shape enabled the blockade-run- the purpose completely. These lights were only 

ners easily to identify it from the offing; and in set after signals had been exchanged between 

clear weather, it showed plain and distinct the blockade-runner and the shore station, and 

against the sky at night. I believe the military were removed immediately after the vessel had 

men used to laugh slyly at the colonel for under- entered the river. The range lights were 

taking its erection, predicting that it would not changed as circumstances required; for the 

stand; but the result showed the contrary; and New Inlet cliannel, itself, was and is constantly 

whatever difference of opinion may have existed changing, being materially affected both in 

with regard to its value as a military position, depth of water and in its course by a heavy 

there can be but one as to its utility to the block- gale of wind or a severe freshet in Cape Fear 

-ade-runners, for it was not a landmark, alone, Kiver." 
30 



466 THE CONFEDERATE STATES NAVY. 

the signal stations were extended farther along the coast, and 
compulsory service was required of the pilots. Owing to the 
constantly increasing vigilance of the blockading fleet, and 
the accession to the United States navy of fast cruisers, many 
prizes were captured about this time. Their pilots were, of 
course, held as prisoners of war ; and the demand for those 
available for service increasing in proportion to their dimin- 
ished number, there was much competition between the rival 
companies, to the great detriment of the public service. It 
was considered necessary, therefore, to establish an office of 
"Orders and Detail" at Wilmington, in charge of Captain 
Wilkinson, whence should proceed all orders and assignments 
in relation to pilots and signal officers. In a short time, the 
benefit of these arrangements was very perceptible. The 
blockade-runners were never delayed for want of a pilot, and 
the casualties were much diminished. 

Some of the blockade-runners were constructed regardless 
of any good quality but speed, consequently their scantling 
was light and their sea-going qualities very inferior. Many 
of them came to grief; several were swamped at sea, and 
others, after being out a few days, struggled back to Queens- 
town without making a voyage. 

The distance from Bermuda to Wilmington is 720 miles, 
and the in-and-out-voyage, including the time in unloading at 
the latter port, generally occupied sixteen days. Before 
making the trip the blockade-runner was prepared for the 
work by reducing her spars to a light pair of lower masts, 
without any yards across them; the only break in their sharp 
outline being a small crow's-nest on the foremast, to be used 
as a look-out place. The liull, which showed about eight feet 
above water, was painted a dull, grey color, to render her as 
nearly as possible invisible in the night. The boats were 
lowered square with the gunwales. Coal of a smokeless nature 
(anthracite) was taken on board. The funnel, being what 
is called " telescope," was lowered close down to the deck. In 
order that no noise might be made, steam was blown off under 
water. In fact, every ruse was resorted to, to enable the 
vessel to evade the vigilance of the Federal cruisers, who 
were scattered about in great numbers all the way between 
Bermuda and Wilmington. Among the fowls taken on board 
as provisions no cocks were allowed, for fear of their proclaim- 
ing the whereabouts of the blockade-runner. 

The in-shore squadron off Wilmington consisted of about 
thirty vessels, and lay in the form of a crescent facing the 
entrance to Cape Fear River, the centre being just out of 
range of the heavy guns mounted on Fort Fisher, the horns, 
as it were, gradually approaching the shore on each side; the 
whole line or curve covered about ten miles. 

When the blockade-runner arrived at Wilmington the 
cargo was landed as quickly as possible and a cargo of cotton 



THE CONFEDERATE STATES NAVV. 467 

immediately sliipped. In the first place, the hold was stored 
by expert stevedores, the cotton bales being so closely packed 
that a mouse could hardly find room to hide itself among 
them. The hatches were put on, and a tier of bales put fore 
and aft in every available spot on the deck, leaving openings 
for the approaches to the cabins, engine-room, and the men's 
forecastle: then another somewhat thinner tier on the top of 
that, after which a few bales for the captain and officers. 
Loaded in this way. the vessel, with only her foremast up, 
with her low funnel and grey-painted sides, looked like a 
huge bale of cotton with a stick placed upright at one end 
of it, 

A^ter the blockade-runner left the quay at Wilmington 
she steamed down the river, where she was boarded to be 
searched and smoked; the object of the latter proceeding being 
to search for runawavs, deserters, spies, etc. 

On September 1st, 18G.3, Major-Gen. W. H. C, Whiting 
issued the following regulations in regard to steamers run- 
ning the blockade, from and to the port of Wilmington, and 
they were enforced after that date : 

" 1. Yankee floods must not be imported, upon penalty of confiscation 
of the goods, except munitions of war and medicines, 

" 2. Improper or suspicious persons must not be taken as passengers 
to this port. They must be properly vouched for, and permission given 
to embark, hy Major L. Heyligei\ at Nassau, or Major Norman Walker, at 
Bermuda. Any passenger brought to this port without proper creden- 
tials will be sent back by the same steamer. 

"3. Steamers will not be permitted to bring in seamen, or other em- 
ployees of the vessel, to be discharged upon arrival here. In ail such 
cases special permission must be obtained from these headquarters, 

"4. Passengers outward bound must obtain permits from headquar- 
ters. The officers in charge of boarding vessels will take out such persons 
as have no permits, and detain the vessel until further orders, if the party 
is on board by permission of the officers of the vessel. 

"5, All vessels, after obtaining proper clearances, must apply to head- 
quarters for permission to sail, and without such permission will be stop- 
ped at the forts and sent back. 

"6, Letters upon outward and inward bound vessels must be sent to 
headquarters for inspection and approval. Failure to comply with this 
rule will involve the offending parties in considerable penalties, 

" 7, Lists of the officers and crews of all vessels arriving, must be made 
out for the inspecting officer. As spies can more readily ship as seamen 
or firemen, care must be taken by captains in selecting tlieir crews. 

"8. Copies of manifests of cargoes of vessels arriving will be sent to 
headquarters, 

"9, All vessels from Nassau will remain at quarantine until permis- 
sion is given to come to the city, 

"10. Persons, other than officers of vessels, must be on board by nine 
o'clock p, M., every night, unless by special permission from headquarters. 
Such persons violating this order will be arrested and lodged in guard- 
house, 

"11, Official business at these headquarters in relation to steamers 
will be attended to by Col. Duncan, A, D. C," 

Under Capt. Wilkinson, the Lee continued to make her 
regular trips, either to Nassau or Bermuda, as circumstances 



468 



THE CONFEDERATE STATES NAVY. 



required, ' carrying abroad cotton and naval stores and 
bringing in "hardware," as munitions of war were then in- 
voiced, until the Lee had run the blockade twenty-one times 
while under his command, and had carried abroad between 
six and seven thousand bales of cotton, worth at that time 
about two millions in gold, and had carried into the Confeder- 
acy equally valuable cargoes. 

The Charleston, S. C, Meixu7^y, of November 7th, 1862, in 
reply to some complaints against the character of the im- 
portations through tlie blockade, explains quite fully the 
manner in wliich the Confederate government and cause ben-' 
efited by blockade-running. It said: 

" A single firm in Charleston, John Frasier & Co., have shippedabout 
seven-eighths of the cotton that has gone from the ports of the Con- 




TffE C. S. BLOCKADE-RUNNEE " EOBEET E. LEE." 

federate States for some time past. Not one pound of cotton shipped by 
that house has gone to the United States, either by sale or capture. 
Every particle of it has gone to Europe. So much for ' the Yankees 
getting our cotton.' 

"It is broadly asserted that 'scarcely a single article applicable to 
the immediate purposes of the war is brought in by the adventures which 
'run the blockade' so constantly.' We affirm, on the contrary, that, in 
making up the retui'n cargoes, each steam.er is first loaded with as much 



1 Lieut. Com. John Wilkinson says that the Lee, 
before she was purchased by the Confederate 
government for £32,0U0, plied as a packet be- 
tween Glasgow and Belfast. She was a very 
long and narrow side-wheel steamer, of light 
draft, very strongly built, with a speed of 
about thirteen and a half knots. She had two 
short masts on which fore and aft sails could 
be set and which were only serviceable to keep 
her steady in a sea abeam. Her beautiful 
saloon and cabins were dismantled, and Inilk- 
heads constnicted to separate the quarters tor 
officers and men from the space used for stow- 
age of her cargo. She sailed from Glasgow for 
Nassau, and arrived there in good time. On 
December 26th, 1862, she sailed from the 
latter port, and a little before midnight of the 



29th, passed over the Wilmington bar and an- 
chored otf Smithville. After having run the 
blockade twenty-one times, by the culpable 
mismanagement of the commander who suc- 
ceeded Lieut. Wilkinson, the R. E. Lee fell an 
easy prey to one of the U. S cruisers oflf the 
coast of North Carolina. 

Among those seized on board of the Lee was 
Lieut. Rooks, a British officer. 

The following extracts from his diary give 
an account of the last cruise of the famous 
blockade-runner : 

" Thuesday, Nov. 5th, 1863.— Start from St, 
George's in the Confederate steamer Robert E. 
Lee, Capt. Knox, for Wilmington, North Caro- 
lina; have fine weather the first three days; 
third day out (Sunday, 8th) fell in with a Yankee 



THE CONFEDERATE STATES NAVY. 



469 



heavy freight for the government as she can with safety carry, and that 
then packages of hghter goods are put in to complete the cargo. Most of 
the latter are al^o goods of the most importance to the government and 
the troops, such as shoes, clothes, medicines, etc., etc. The invoices of 
Messrs. John Frasier & Co. are handed to the agents of the government, 
and they are allowed to take whatever the government desires, fixing the 
prices themselves. The balance, which the government does not want, 
is advertised and sold at auction. Take, for example, the last steamer 
that run the blockade— the Minho. She has brought in of heavy freight 
for the government, 367 cases of rifles, containing 7,340 ; thirty -five cases 
of swords, containing 2,100; eighty-seven cases ammunition; eighty cases 
of caps. This was her heavy freight, and as much as she could safely 
take. Besides this she had aboai'd salt and cases of shoes, goods, etc., to 
complete her cargo. It is not customary to tell the public what the 
government takes. This is but a sample of these adventures. Almost all 
the goods brought in her are British goods. Some shoes, some cotton 
cards, some thread, some cases of calicoes, etc., have been bought at 
Nassau, and brought to Charleston and sold at auction. But they were 
not paid for in cotton, nor was any cotton sold at Nassau to buy them. 
The cotton has all gone to Europe. They were paid for by exchange 
drawn on Liverpool or London. They have genei-ally been articles greatly 
needed, which we could afford to purchase at Nassau, whether they came 
from Yankeedom or elsewhere. The Southern people and soldiers need 
the cloth on which the objectionable ' Herculean Zouave ' is stamped, and 



cniiser (the ), Who does not see ns; steer 

away from her: Monday mornrng at three 
o'clock, make the land breakers ahead six or 
seven miles north of Wilmington; the pilot, not 
knowing where he is, refuses to take the ship 
in; hiiving rim foul of three Yankees, the cap- 
t;iin could not put her head out to sea and had 
to steer north; when the morning breaks a 
large Yankee cruiser api^ears about five miles 
to tiie southward, bearing down upon us under 
sail and steam; the first thing I heard on waking 
was a passenger coming down the steps, saying: 
' By Jove! there's a sail to the south; if she's a 
cruiser she will be down upon us in five minutes.' 

" I dressed and went on deck; saw two ves- 
sels — the Yankee and the Cornubia — a prize, 
looming in the distance. We steamed away 
from her, but could not escape, as we were 
jammed up in a bay, the light-house on Cape 
Lookout to the east of us. Seeing she was gain- 
ing rapidly, I went down and packed up all my 
small traps, brought them on deck, and by that 
time she was less than a mile from us, when 
bang went the first shot. It fell at least three 
hundred yards short; the second about fifty, and 
on the starboard side; the third was better, go- 
ing straight over, very close to the rigging; the 
filth shot, as we afterwards found out, was a 
shell from a nine-inch Parrott gun. Luckily for 
us, the fuse was blind, as the line was spleudid; 
it fell about eighty yards astern and ricochetted 
close over us. Bang, bang, bang, went more 
guns, until they had fired twelve, and they were 
within eight hundred yards of us when they 
fired the last. The captain then stopped her. 
as the firemen, who had been working indiffer- 
ently the whole time, struck work. As soon as 
they came alongside, they sent ott" a boat with a 
prize crew, and took possession of her. 

■■As soon as she was captured, it was most 
amusing to see the snowstorm of paper going 
overboard — Confederate dispatches, letters, etc. 
— Webber was seen coming up the stern hold 
with a bottle of brandy in one liand and a few 
in his pockets, the rest of the crew following his 
example. However, on going on board the 
Yankee (the James Adgtr, as she proved to be). 



we were compelled in the most mortifying man- 
ner to disgorge our stock. I had one in each 
great coat pocket. On taking it out I was going 
to throw it overboard myself; but I told the 
captain it was excellent brandy, so he put it in 
his cabin, and I had one drink of it next after- 
noon. All the otficers of the ship were most 
civil; but we couldn't get over their cold water 
system. We were only allowed to drink water; 
it was awful cold, and our stomachs were 
frozen. Webber and I longed to be on the 
News' steps at Bermuda calling for drinks. 

"Next day I managed to get hold of some 
smuggled brandy, which was very acceptable. 
At night six of us were slung up in hammocks 
in a row in the cockpits, where we had to make 
shift with the bare hammock as best we could. 
It was next to imijossible to sleep, thanks to tlie 
cold and the snoring of the liilot, one of the 
party. In the morning we had one basin and 
one towel between us to wash with. At fotir 
o'clock in the afternoon the crew were sent on 
board. The boatswain of the Lee (an ex-man- 
of-war boatswain) tickled my fancy immensely. 
He came on deck gnawing a huge iDiece of 
leather, and when he was asked what he was 
about, he said he was so hungry. Webber, Mr. 
Servant and myself went ofl" with the captain, 
who was very civil throughout; and at thirty-five 
minutes past five we saw the last of the James 
Adijer, and were under way for Fortress Monroe 
in the United States steamer Newbeni, 156 in all. 
She is very uncomfortable, and we were dread- 
fully crowded. 

"The captain very kindly gave us the cabin 
to sleep in, where I managed to rig up some 
sort of a bed on the floor with great coats, etc. 
I slept very liltle, and in the morning I was ach- 
ing all over and felt very dirty, as I did not 
have my clothes off for four days. We arrived 
at Fortress Mcmroe at half -past seven. November 
11th. Admiral Lee telegraphed to Washington, 
and we start for New York at three o'clock iu 
the morning. Arrive at New York at five o'clock, 
November 13th ; got to Provost Marshal's office at 
four o'clock ; were released, and went to the 
New York Hotel." 



470 THE COXFEDEKATE STATES NAVY. 

can afford to wear it. They are not ashamed to wear Yankee suits and 
shoes when captured in battle, nor to sleep in Yankee blankets when they 
can get them. If the Confederate States had twenty mercantile houses 
with the enterprise and patriotic liberality of John Frasier & Co., we 
would not want for arms and ordnance, our army would not now be in 
rags, and our people would not want many of the comforts of life. If 
other Southern cities had done as much for the purposes of war as 
Charleston, tlie South would be in a much better condition. Without 
Charleston as an emporium of trade the South would be badly off to-day." 

An interesting and instructive contemporary account of 
the blockade auction sales in Charleston, explains the manner 
in which such portions of the imported cargoes, as the govern- 
ment did not need, made their way into the hands of the 
people. 

" On King and East Bay streets at least four-fifths of the stores are 
closed, and on Meeting street the only oasis one sees in the great desert of 
suspension is at the houses where the piles of goods which so constantly 
run the blockade are auctioneered off. Here, when an auction is to take 
place, merchants, professional characters and men of leisure, all eager for 
the accumulation of dollars, congregate in vast numbers, and the store- 
rooms present a scene of busy life which contrasts strongly with the re- 
maining portions of the city. 

" I have, by dint of extraordinary perseverance, worked my way into 
one of these densely-packed auction rooms, and found the scene presented 
one of sufHcient interest to describe. A burly man, of about 240 pounds 
avoirdupois, mounts a chair and announces that the sale is about to com- 
mence, continuing with the remarks that the conditions are cash, and 
that no issue of the Hoyer & Ludwig Confederate plate will be taken. 
The crier, who possesses a strength of lung of which ' Stentor' himself 
would have been proud, and a rapidity of articulation that has never been 
surpassed by human tongue, is accompanied by a little, grey-headed man, 
who wears a woollen cap of richly variegated hues, the crown of which 
displays the Confederate flag, 

"This little man's chief occupation is to exalt the merits of the goods 
on sale, throw in occasional witticisms, and catch the ' winks and blinks ' 
of bidders which the crier overlooks. A wink is as good as a nod with the 
little man, and he bawls it out as lustily as if he were giving an alarm of 
fire, or crying ' stop thief.' The great majority of the crowd who attend 
these cargo sales are German Jews, and one is as much surprised at their 
numbers as at their unpronounceable and strangely sounding cognomens, 
which, at the knock down of every article, grate harshly upon the ear of 
a stranger. For the amusement of your uninitiated i*eaders, I give a few 
which it was my privilege to hear, viz. : Litchtenstein, Mittledorfer, Stein- 
lein, Doorflinger, Rosenbaum, Gretzgraw, Zinnlouf, Retscrating, Slinglow, 
Ungrauphit, etc. 

" Many of the merchants here complain that although these immense 
cargoes are sold at their very doors, yet by means of combinations made 
among buyers from abroad, they are unable to purchase articles sufficient 
to justify them in keeping open their stores. For example, three, four, 
five, or six buyers may combine and purchase a lot of articles amounting 
in the aggregate to $100,000, or more, and then divide the lot. This is fre- 
quently done, as the auctioneers, who have a most extensive catalogue to 
dispose of, go upon the principle of condensing all they can, the buyer of 
more limited purse has no means of replenishing his exhausted stock. 
The magnitude of these sales is reallv surprising, and the last one made 
by R. A. Pringle & Co., I understand, footed up over $2,500,000. The par- 
ties for whose benefit they are chieflv made, viz. : John Frasier & Co., have 
already realized $20,000,000. Of the amount $6,000,000 have been invested 
i ']) Confederate bonds. " 

latter ^ 



THE CONFEDERATE STATES NAVY 



471 



Like the Lee, the steamer Kate became a '' regular pack- 
et" — sailing on moons — with a regularity of dispatch which 
the New York Times commended to the officers of the block- 
ading squadron: 

" Can we not extract a similar good from the successes of our Southern 
rebels in running the national blockade? Here, for instance, we find in 
the Richmond Dispatch, of September 30th, the following item: 'The 
steamer Kate, from Nassau, successfully ran the blockade into Wilmington 
on Thursday.' This steamer Kate ran into Savannah early in July. In 
the beginning of August she ran out of Savannah and went to Wilming- 
ton. From Wilmington she started for Nassau about the middle of Au- 
gust, and now she comes back to Wilmington, of course, with an ' assorted 
cargo ' of arms and ammunition. In other words, the Kate is a regular 
rebel packet, performing her trips with 'regularity and dispatch,' and, 
no doubt, to the serious advantage of owners, shippers, and consignees. 
Her successful voyages do not indeed tend to exalt our estimate of the 
officers of our blockading squadron. Let us console ourselves, therefore, 
like Mr. Disraeli, by allowing them to ' increase our respect for the energy 
of human nature.' 

The cargoes of the Kate, in two trips were : 



1,100 kegs of powder 

400 cases rifles. 
1,405 boxes ammunition. 
144 bales of blankets, grey cloth, 

etc. 
218 cases mess-tins, boots, pouches, 
knapsacks, horse-gear, medi- 
cines, etc, 
15 cases medicines. 

4 cases instruments. 
2 cases lint. 

5 packages tarpaulins 
4 cases tarpaulins, 

1 case. 

Total, 



1 box samples. 
1 barrel. 
600 kegs powder. 
780 boxes cartridges. 
21 boxes caps. 
124 casks containing 
boots, horse-gear, 
knapsacks, etc. 
100 cases rifles. 
112 bales blankets. 
5 packages tarpaulins. 
4 cases tarpaulins. 
1 case luggage. 
1 box samples. 
5,048. 



mess-tins, 
medicines, 



The Kate made over forty trips. 

At Havana, the blockade runners were more frequent call- 
ers than the regular packets between that city and New York. 
A correspondent of the Herald says: 

" Our friends south of Mason and Dixon's line have kept us pretty well 
posted through the following named vessels, which I give, with the date 
of arrival. 

" April 18— Steamer W. Gr. Howes, 760 tons. New Orleans. 

" April 18 — Steamer Arizona, 670 tons, New Orleans. 

" April 20 — Steamer Atlantic, 660 tons, New Orleans. 

" April 21 — Steamer Matagorda, 650 tons. New Orleans. 

" April 22 — Schooner Wide Awake, 85 tons. New Orleans. 

" April 22— Schooner General Garibaldi, 85 tons, New Orleans. 

"April 23— Steamer Victoria, 487 tons, New Orleans. 

" April 27 — Schooner Cora, 63 tons. New Orleans. 

" April 27— Schooner G. Burrows (Eng.), 57 tons. Mobile. 

"April 28 — Schooner Thomas C. Acton, 130 tons. Mobile. 

" All these vessels brought cotton, of which there must be not less 
than 10,000 bales here at present. Last Monday or Tuesday a few hun- 
dred bales were sold at twenty- four and a half cents— a pretty good price." 



472 THE CONFEDERATE STATES NAVY. 

And the arrivals and clearances at Nassau, N. P., for parts 
of the preceding months were as follows: 

" ARRIVED. 

"March 16 -Steamer Granite City, McEwan, Wilmington, cotton, to 
H. Adderley & Co. 

"March 17 — Steamer Eagle, Capper, Wilmington, cotton, to H. Ad- 
derley & Co. 

"March 21— Steamer Stonewall Jackson, Black, Havana, ballast, to 
H. Adderley & Co. 

" March 27— Steamer Gertrude, Raison, Charleston, cotton, to H. Ad- 
derley & Co. 

"March 28— Steamer Charleston, Robinson, Charleston, cotton to 
Sawyer & Menendez. 

" March 28 — Schooner Convoy, Roberts, Wilmington, cotton and tur- 
pentine, to Saunders «& Son. 

" March 30— Sloop Express, Carey, Charleston, cotton, to H. Adderley 
&Co. 

" April 2 — Schooner James R. Pr ingle, Hecklinberg, Charleston, cot- 
ton, to H. Adderley & Co. 

" April 3 — Steamer Elite and Annie, Carlin, Havana, assorted cargo, 
to H. Adderley & Co. 

" April 3 — Sloop Richard, Mooney, Charleston, cotton, to Saunders & 
Son. 

" April 6— Steamer Eagle, Capper, Charleston, cotton, to H. Adderley 
&Co. 

" April 9— Schooner Victoria, Wickland, Matamoras, cotton, to T. 
Darling & Co. 

" April 10 -Steamer Margaret and Jessie, Wilson, Charleston, cotton, 
to H. Adderley & Co. 

" " April 10— Schooner Julia Gordon, Wilmington, cotton, to Saunders 
& Son. 

"cleared. 

" March 16— Sloop Alfred Haywood, Wark, Port Royal, S. C, via 
Abaca, coffee, by Sawyer & Menendez; schooner &ue^ Erickson, Beaufort, 
N. C, assorted cargo, H. Adderley & Co. 

"March 19— Schooner /we^", Edgett, Beaufort, N. C, salt, by the mas- 
ter; steamer Eagle, Capper, St. John, N. B., assorted merchandise, by 
H. Adderley & Co. 

" March 20— Steamer Granite City, McEwan, St. John, N. B., assorted 
merchandise, by H. Adderley & Co. 

" March 21— Schooner William D. S. Hyer, Marsden, Matamoras, in- 
ward cargo, by H. Adderley & Co.; Steamer Margaret and Jessie, Wilson, 
St. John, N. B., assorted merchandise, by H. Adderley & Co. 

"April 7— Bark Nelson, Irving, England, cotton, by Saunders & Son; 
brig San Juan, Berretiago, Matamoras, assorted cargo, by the R. W. H. 
Weech. 

" April 9— Bai'k Earl of Mar, Still, Liverpool, cotton, by A. Johnson; 
sloop Maria Biggs, Port Royal, S. C, salt, by the master." 

As letters from Northern men in Nassau to newspapers 
at home are not likely to misrepresent affairs unfavorably to 
the Confederates, the following correspondence of the Buffalo 
Commercial Advertiser may be accepted as giving a fair and 
truthful account of the effectiveness of the Federal blockade, 
as well as furnishing some data froni which the amount and 
value of the commerce carried oh in blockade-running bottoms: 



THE CONFEDERATE STATES NAVY. 473 

" The steamers which run to Charleston are all painted a light lead 
color, "which renders them almost undistinguishable from the horizon. 
They leave here at such a time that a common run will bring them off 
Charleston about midnight the third day from here, then as they can eas- 
ily see our fleet, they steer quietly between the blockaders, and being of 
this dull lead color, and with their single mast, and smoke-pipe lowered, 
and withal being wonderfully long, low, and swift, they are almost cer- 
tain of getting in. 

" Coming out is still more a certainty, for at sunset they take from 
Fort Sumter very precise compass observations of our fleet at anchor, and 
then, as our vessels do not change their positions after dark, it is a per- 
fectly simple matter to steer solely by the compass out into the open sea. 
Once out there is no danger, for they can show a clean pair of heels to any 
of our gunboats. Comujunieation is truly more frequent with Charleston 
than New York, and we have New York dates six and seven days later this 
way than direct. Since I have been here, now six days, one steamer, the 
Calypso, has arrived from Charleston laden with cotton, and five, the 
Ruby, Giraffe, Antonicn, Nicholas I., and Leopard, have sailed for the 
same place, besides several sail vessels which have cleared for Northern 
ports, but with cargoes that make it certain they will see Charleston or 
Wilmington if possible. 

" It is a great matter of wonder here to Union men, and Southerners 
too, that our government has not put forth every exertion to capture 
Charleston, for it has been by that port and from this place, that their 
immense supplies of arms have been drawn. Now, if it is captured, it will 
be shutting the barn door too late, for their supplies are so ample that 
large quantities of gun-carriages and guns are lying in this place, and not 
sent across because there is no call for them. These successful affairs, and 
particularly the naval affair of Charleston (of which we heard befoi-e you 
did, have made the Secessionists very jubilant, of course, and had a con- 
trary effect upon us of the North. We can feel it the more because there 
was no necessity for it. As long ago as Jtine last, our Consul here, Mr. 
Whiting (formerly, by the way, a lake captain, running out of Buffalo, 
officially informed our government that the machinery and iron plates 
for a ram were here, and being sent to Charleston as fast as opportunity 
offered. Later, he wrote that, from information he gathered, the ram was 
about finished, and would be at work very soon. 

" Every cargo of cotton is worth from a quarter to a million of dollars, 
and as the Antonica has made six round trips and the Leopard the same, 
they may well put their fingers to their noses, and laugh about their 
packet and their ferry to Charleston. The authorities here are of course 
not ignorant of all this. The clearances are taken to Halifax or St. John, 
but they know perfectly well the real destination. Nearly every white 
person is in sympathy with the South, and all are more or less engaged 
in these blockade ventures, which are a perfect game of chance, with 
chances on the side of the risk. Large quantities of cotton are piled up, 
waiting shipment to England. Storekeepers put their stocks on ship- 
board and take their pay in cotton, on the return trip. Cotton sells for 
sixty cents per pound, specie, and Mr. Storekeeper gets rich." 

From July, 1862, to June, 1863, fifty-seven steamers and 
ninety-one sailing vessels left Nassau for Confederate ports, 
of which fifty-one of the former and fifty-five of the latter 
landed their cargoes, and forty-four steamers and forty-five 
sailing vessels reached Nassau from the Confederacy during 
the same period; and on the 23d of April there were seventy- 
three ships, chiefly British, loading with cotton at Matamoras. 

As freights were enormous, ranging from $300 to $1,000 
per ton, some idea may be formed of the profits of a business. 



474 THE CONFEDERATE STATES NAVY. 

in which a party could afford to lose a vessel after two suc- 
cessful trips. ' 

The following letter illustrates, in a measure, the difficulties 
and embarrassments which, towards the end of the year 18G2, 
began to affect the Confederate government in obtaining cer- 
tain kinds of supplies: 

"RiCHMOXD, Dec. 15th, 1S62. 
'■'•Hon. J. A. Seddox, Seer eta rij of War: 

" Sir— I beg leave to refer to my conimiinieation relative to the trans- 
fer of the General Clinch to us. She is chartered at, I believe, $175 or $200 
per day, and valued at §40,000. 1 would here suggest that, in order to save 
the charter money, she be purchased by the government, and we will pay 
for her when she returns with the cargo proposed, if not damaged, her valu- 
ation, etc., should the government desire to discontinue the adventure. 

" Pevmit me to say that there is very little prospect of the governiuent 
receiving on private enterprise certain class of goods, owing to their weight 
and price, and dangers of capture. These goods are as follows, and are 
very much needed by all ordnance, engineer, and navy departments, and 
also by private parties under government contracts, ^^z. : steel, iron, pig- 
iron, copper, zinc, ordnance of all kinds, munitions of wax*, chemicals and 
acids in particular, boiler u"on, engines, etc., etc. 

" The freight per ton in Nassau, pai/ahle in advance, is $500 to a Con- 
federate port. This is equal to $1,500 here: therefore it is self-evident that 
such classes of goods as above cannot be imported on private account; 
because many other articles pay much betterand take up less room. Forin- 
stance, we take the article salt, worth #7.50 per ton in Nassau, and will bring 
$1,700 liere; coffee is worth §240 per ton in Nassau and here §5.500, etc., etc. 

"By the arrangement we propose the government will eret seventy-five 
tons in weight or measurement of this class of goods for a risk of §40,000 — 
the usual freight being §;^7,500 in Nassau, equal to at least §100,000 here, 
and at the same time we will receive facilities which will enable us to im- 
port in other ships the necessary goods contracted for. 

"We will pay all expenses of the outward and inward trips, except 
the officers, which the Honorable Secretary of the Navy has promised to 
detail, /. e. an engineer and some other men. 

" If we can leave Chai'ieston on the 1st of January, we can return 
about the loth. Our other ship will be here about the same time with 
'army supplies,' etc., etc. 

"I hope that my proposition will meet your approval, and that an 
order be given accordingly, and that the importance of the subject will be 
a sufficient apology for so long a letter. 

"I have the honor to remain, your obedient servant, 

"J. M. Ver^'OX, of Vernon & Co., 

"■'Government Contractors, etc. 

" P. S. — I desire to leave for Charleston as soon as possible." 

iXew York Hfrald, June 13Ui, 1863. Oct. 21. Kelpie Limerick. .Oct.21. Nassau. 

The following is a partial list of blockade run- Dee. 10..\ntona Liverpool. Dec. 16. Havana. 

ners that coaled at and passed through St. Dec. 13 Thistle Liverpool Dec 27. Nassau. 

Thomas from March, 1862. to March, 1803: Dec. 15. Nicholas I. ..Liverpool. Dec. 23 Nassau. 

ENGLISH STE.i.M BLOCKADE RUNNER-S. 1863. 

Dec. 26.Havelock . . Glasgow... Jan.30. Nassau. 



Arrtrtd Vestsels Nime. trhere from. Cleared. IVhtre bouwi. 1863. 

Mch IS.AdamKana- Jan. 1. Pearl Glasgow.. Jan. 13 Nassau. 

ris London... Mch 22. Berm'da .Jan. T.Flora London... Jan. 7 Nassau. 

Ap'l 2.i.Circassian...Bordeaux..\p'l 26. Havana. Jan. 23 Wave Queen. London... Feb. 6. Nassau. 

Ap'l 25 Minho Liverpool Ap'l 26. Havana. Jan. 23.Kuby Glasgow. . Jan. 24 V. Cruz. 

May :o Patras London. .. May 10. Havana. .Jan. 31. Eagle Glasgow. . Feb. 2 Nassau. 

May 13. Pacific London A: Feb. 5 Granite City. Glasgow.. Feb. 5 Nassau. 

Falmouth May 18. Nassau. Feb. 20. Peterhoff. ...London . .Feb.24.Mata'm8 

May 19. Modem Feb. 24..\ries Naguabo...Mchl3.Havana. 

Greece Falmouth. Jime 2. Nassau. Mch 3. Pet Liverpool. Mch 4 Nassau. 

June 14 Ann London. . .June H.Havana. Mch 16. Neptune. . . .Glasgow .Mcbl7. Havana. 

Oct. S.Bonita Liverpool. Oct. 4. Nassau. Mch 18. Dolphin Liverpool. MchlS.Nassau. 



THE CONFEDERATE STATES NAVY. 475 

The cause of the Confederacy was beginning to experience 
the chilling influence of avarice, and men were becoming more 
disposed to amass wealth than to aid.the very cause by which 
they were able to accumulate immense fortunes. The real 
blockade capitalists were Englishmen and Xorthern mer- 
chants, ' rather than Confederates. The companies that 
owned the vessels were of London, Liverpool and other Eng- 
lish cities, and but comparatively few native Southern people 
were engaged in the business, except as officers and pilots. 
And notwithstanding the enormous number of captures, 
aggregating, according to the Report of Assistant Secretary 
of the Xavy, Mr. Fox, up to June, 1863, 855 vessels, the trade 
and business was at that date as brisk and pushed with as 
great energy as at any time in the war. The large class of 
steamers had been abandoned, and a new and different kind 
had been built expressly for the trade. ^ 

During the summer and fall of 1863 the blockade business 
was at its height, scarcely a dark night passed that one or 
more did not run into or out of Charleston. Xever before, in 
the annals of blockade, were those low, long and fast Clyde- 
built steamers so numerous. They came and went in droves. 
It was said at the time that: 

" Every one in London and Liverpool, who has capital enough to pur- 
chase a share in a steamer, invests in that way, and looks with composure 
upon the prospects of running a valuable cargo into some rebel port, and 
a return trip with the accompanying immense profits. Hence a cloud of 
steamers mottles the seas, bearing cargoes of valuables to the rebels, and 
we find them daily, or rather nightly, dashing through our thin shell 
of blockaders."' 

An oflScer from the blockading squadron off Wilmington, 
writing to the Boston Traveller of August 10th, says : 

"There ought to be ten blockade-runners caught where we now get 
one. We have fifteen miles to guard, and to do it we have sometimes four 
and sometimes only two vessels. Ten vessels is the least number we ought 

1 5Ir. Charles Cowley, Judge Advocate of the was shown in rmining the blockade of Mex- 

South Atlantic Blockading Squadron, in his very ico. but it is none the less true that in the Civil 

interesting work, entitled " Leaves from a Law- War as in the Mexican War, the munitions of 

yen's Life Afloat and Ashore," says: '• During war were furnished in very large quantities to 

the whole of Dupont's command, the Charleston the enemies of the United States by citizens of 

newspapers reported the arrival and departure the United States Good old Horace Greeley 

of vessels from that port as regularly and as used to say, not only in his desx^ondent hours, 

openly, but, of course, not as numerously, as but also in his more hopeful moods, that the 

before the war. Even after Dahlgren estab- ideas and vital aims of the South were ' more 

lished his iron-clad fleet inside the bar, and generally cherished' in New York than in 

posted his pickets every night in the throat of South Carolina or Louisiana."— pagie 112-113. 
the harbor, between Sumter and Moultrie, these 

arrivals and departures were from time to time 2 On Friday last a handsome looking paddle- 
announced, but more guardedly, except when wheel steamer of about five hundred tons 
the blockade-runner had been run aground, or measurement was launched by Messrs. Stevens, 
tadly shelled. of Kelvinhaugh. a sister to the Fergus, built by 

•' We have been accustomed to berate the the same firm, and now about to proceed to 

commercial classes of Great Britain for export- Nassau. On Saturday, Jlessrs. Laird & Co.. 

ing goods to the Confederate States, in viola- Greenock, launcbed a beautiful modelled paddle- 

tion of our blockade. But probably more goods wheel steamer of seven hundred and fifty tons, 

were carried into the Confederate States tlirough a sister to the City of PHershurg. launched by 

the instrumentality of merchants in the United Messrs. Laird and Co. lately. They are each to 

States than by all the merchants of Europe. be sui:)plied with powerful engines of two 

More secrecy was observed by those residing in hundred and fifty horse power. These two vessels 

New York, who engaged in this business, than were first ot all contracted for as steamers for 



476 THE CONFEDERATE STATES NAVY. 

to have. The blockade seems to be a farce to me, and I am ashamed and 
disgusted with the whole thing. The Nipho7i, the fastest vessel of the 
fleet, is stationed near Smith's Island, where there is nothing to catch. 
She was on the North Station a few days, and while there drove the 
Hebe ashore and destroyed her, but for some reason was sent back to 
Smith's Island. We have now one steamer less than formerly. 

" While we have fifteen miles to guard, we cannot see these blockade 
runners more than half a mile, and if dark not half that distance, so it is 
no easy thing to get one. If one is seen she is soon out of sight, under the 
guns of the fort. 

"The Niphon has been trying to destroy a steamer that one of the 
squadron turned back a few mornings since. She got on shore, and is 
tliere now, but is under the guns of Fort Fisher. The Niphon had a 
grand shooting niatcli with the fort yesterday, but it was of no use, as she 
only hit the steamer twice in two hours, tiring at two and a half miles. 
The guns of the fort had a longer range than those of the Niphon. " 

It was that manifest and acknow^ledged ineffectiveness of 
the blockade that, in the fall of 1863, revived the discussion by 
the English press, as to declaring its character and disregard- 
ing it altogether. The London Times of September 25th, said : 

" With such facility is this accomplished that a question is arising in 
connection with the blockade which is likely soon to take a shape seriously 
affecting ourselves. The number of ships that get into the Southern ports 
is so great and the difficulty of passing the Federal fleet so slight, that the 
Southern government intends formally to dispute the legality of the block- 
ade under the conditions of the fourth article of the Treaty of Paris. That 
article declares that a blockade is not binding unless it is 'efficient,' or 
maintained with such stringency as 'to prevent access to the coast of the 
enemy.' Now, in seven months forty-three steamers have carried cargoes 
into Charleston and forty-nine into Wilmington. The difficulty of getting 
• a ship into either harbor seems to have become only nominal. So great is 
the impunity that the Southern Ordnance Bureau actually imports mili- 
tary stores in vessels of its own, and these ships have made twenty -two 
voyages from Europe and back in perfect safety. ' No vessel belonging 
to the Confederate government has yet been captured by the Federals,' 
and, with rare exceptions, 'the government ships come in and go out 
without molestation.' ' In fact,' says our correspondent, ' the blockade of 
the Confederate ports is the veriest farce.' What has become of the im- 
mense Northern navy, how is it distributed or what it is doing, it is diffi- 
cult to say. But it appears not to be stopping Southern trade, which 
seems to be limited only by the Southern power of purchasing. Of safely 
receiving all it buys it has not the slightest apprehension. But on this 
very facility the Confederate govern^nent founds a demand that the block- 
ade shall be declared illegal and non-existent by the nations of Europe. 
President Davis contends that it has lapsed and become void by * ineffi- 
ciency.' This is not the first time the question has arisen, and, like every 
other, it has two sides. Against the list of vessels that have made the run 
in, the Federal government may produce a list of ships captured in the 
attempt; and if it is shown that there are enough cruisers on the coast, or 
that the commanders are sufficiently vigilant to ' create an evident danger 
in entering or leaving' a port, the escape of certain ships, either way, will 
not invalidate a blockade. The ' efficiency ' implied in the treaty is, w^e 
assume, to be decided by the circumstances. It must admit of a more or 
less absolute perfection being impossible. But the conviction is strong in 

the Glasgow and Belfast mail service, but were christened by the wife of Captain KoUins, a 

sold while being built. They are on the same thorough American sailor, who is nomiual 

model as the lamous Lord Clyde, now on her owner, and who will take command of this 

way to Nassau as a blockade-runner, and are ex- vessel when finished. [From the Scotsman, oi 

pected to be very fast sailors. The SS'ola was Edinburgh, Sept. ISth.] 



THE CONFEDERATE STATES NAVY. 477 

the South that the terms of the treaty are interpreted too rigidly against 
it; and if renewed representations of what it considers injustice should 
fail to obtain a hearing, there is a prospect of the Floridas and Alabamas 
enforcing the right of detention and seizure on English ships carrying 
' contraband of war ' to Northern ports. This would be a comjMcation of 
affairs that toas scarcely looked for and deserves consideration. But the 
very demand proves anything but the increasing weakness of the Con- 
federacy." 

The number of vessels that evaded the blockade at Wil- 
mington, between January and July, w^-ere forty-three, and 
forty-nine that sueceeded in running out. The number of 
round trips is not to be ascertained. For the same period 
of time the following was the statement of the receipts of 
<3otton : 

*' Total by steamers from Charleston, Wilmington, and Savannah, 28,704 
*' Received by sailing vessels from Atlantic ports, .... 667 
" Received from Matamoras, 2,704 



"Grand total of bales, 32,075 

The following is a statement of the exports of cotton from 
January 1st to June 24th, 1863: 

*' Exported to European ports 23,817 bales. 

*' Exported to ports in the United States, .... 2.695 bales. 

" Total exports 26,512 bales. 

*' On hand, 5,663 bales. 

The cotton from Matamoras was shipped in vessels having 
regular clearance from New York, and was as much an eva- 
sion of the United States blockade as any blockade-running 
from Nassau. It was the " return cargo" for goods exported 
from New York to Brownsville, Texas, stopping at Matamoras 
for lighterage to Brownsville. Notwithstanding the United 
States authorities regarded that evasion of the blockade as 
legitimate trade, the United States courts condemned the 
JPeterhoff and other vessels, trading between Liverpool and 
Matamoras, as engaged in illicit trade. During the year the 
loss of the cotton trade of the South began to touch a nerve 
more sensitive than those of patriotism, and we find the Fay- 
etteville, N. C, Obser-ver of July, 1863, noticing the arrival at 
''Wilmington of a steamer from New York, which merely 
touched at Nassau, with an unbroken cargo of Yankee goods, 
on joint account of parties in New York and Wilmington." 
Between the 11th of May and the 6th of June, 1863. eleven 
steamers and three sailing vessels arrived at Nassau, and four- 
teen steamers cleared from that port for the blockaded ports 
of the Confederacy " loaded with uniforms, blankets, cannon, 
small arms, percussion caps and other munitions of war to aid 
and comfort the rebels. If we could capture these vessels we 



478 THE CONFEDERATE STATES NAVY. 

should deprive the rebel armies of their supplies and be paid 
handsomely" for our trouble. Will not our blockading officers 
be a little more vigilant, active and energetic ? Here is a 
rich game slipping between their fingers every day of their 
lives."' 

A Queenstown correspondent of the London Daily Express 
of November 28th, 1863, says that: 

"Notwithstanding the season of the year, blockade-running seems to 
be on the increase. Queenstown is seldom without a vessel of this class 
among its shipping, and at present there are two anchored there. One of 
them, which had to put in during the gale of Friday, is of extraordinary 
length. The other, which came in on Monday night, is very large, and 
fitted with a double screw of superior workmanship. They can be easily 
recognized by their long, black, rakish-looking two-funnelled hulls, and 
by an ostentatious display of the British flag. The larger steamer is 
bound to Bermuda, the other to Nassau. By all accounts the trade is 
very profitable, as in case of capture the vessel is insured for far more 
than its value; and in case of success, the immense profit yielded can well 
afford the extraordinary premiums charged." 

In ten months of 1863, from January to October, ninety 
vessels ran into Wilmington. During August " one ran in 
every otlier day," making fifteen in that month; four on the 
11th July and five on the 19th of October. 

A dispatch at the Merchant's Exchange room, Boston, 
reported the following blockade-runners at Bermuda, 4th of 
August. 1863 : British steamers Gibraltar, Banshee, Har7^iet 
Pinckney, Mail, Ella, Gladiator and Spalding. Also the Con- 
federate steamers Lady Davis, Eugene and Advance. The 
Sumter was also in port. 

In the following month, a letter from an officer of the 
blockading squadron off Wilmington, N. C, stated that: 

" Two or thi'ee steamers had run into Wilmington each day for five 
days previous. One large steamer ran in at ten o'clock in the forenoon on 
the 17th inst. A few mornings since, a steamer of fifteen hundred tons 
ran in. She was pierced for six guns, in addition to two pivot guns, and 
probably would receive an armament and be ready to proceed to sea 
within a week. She is larger than the Alabama or Florida, and appeared 
to be very fast. The writer thinks she may be the.steamer known as the 
Southerner. The Niphon and the Minnesota were the only efficient ves- 
sels off the port, the Iroquois having left a week previous in chase of a 
blockade-runner. " 

The clearances from Nassau on the 7th and 9th of May.. 
were : steamers Britannia, Emma, Norseman. Pet, Antonica. 
Victory, Calypso, and Banshee. And the N. Y. Herald's 
letter from Nassau, May 20t]i, called attention to the Wave 
Queen, Granite City. Stoneivall Jackson, Victory. Flora, Have- 
lock, Emma. Ruby. Hero, St. John's, Margaret and Jesse, Mina. 
Eagle, Calypso, Nicholas L, Duoro, Antonica, Giraffe, This- 
tle, Gertrude, Georgiana, Britannia, Pet, Ella, Anne, Charles- 
ton, Dolphin and others — twenty-eight in all. 

1 New York Herald. 



THE CONFEDERATE STATES NAVY. 479 

Of these the following were captured : Granite Cifif, St. 
John's, Xicholas I., Gertrude. Thistle. Duoro, and Dolphin. 

A month later, June 29th, the same correspondence stated 
that: 

"Charleston or Savannah, in their palmiest days, were never so over- 
run with cotton as is the city of Nassau at the present time. Every avail- 
able place large enough to hold half a dozen bales is crammed full and 
running over. It is piled up six and eight bales deep on all the wharves, 
vacant lots and even on some of the lawns. It is literally ' laying around 
loose.' To judge by appearances, bagging must be rather a scarce article 
in Dixie's land, and it strikes me that some other thing will soon be rather 
scarce there if Uncle Sam sticks to the bonding business in regard to ship- 
ments to Nassau. Already numbers of those who have been coining 
money by sending western flour and eastern goods and notions to Dixie 
are beginning to howl. Well, let them; they will howl to a different tune 
Avhen the time comes for a settlement with England and Englishmen for 
all the wrong done to us in this war. Of course some innocent people must 
suffer with the guilty, and there are several firms here who do a legitimate 
retail business, who are put to considerable trouble and annoyance by this 
bonding business. The government contractors are among the sufferers. 
They are for the most part Americans and loyal to the Union. Their con- 
tracts were made on the strength of getting supplies from the States, and 
they have to pay heavy fines for the non-fulfilment of their contracts, 
and it really looks like a hard case. But it is to be hoped that their Yan- 
kee ingenuity will help them out of the scrape. 

" The blockade, reported to be so effective two weeks ago that it was 
impossible for a vessel to leave Charleston, would seem to be relaxed, 
judging by the arrivals here during the last ten days. The steamers 
Charleston, Lizzie, Fanny, Alice, Raccoon, Kate, Ella and Annie, Ban- 
shee, Antonica, Beauregard and one or two others, have all arrived dur- 
ing that time from Wilmington and Charleston, with full cargoes of cot- 
ton, and some have left again for Dixie." 

Nassau became an important point for the arrival and de- 
parture of the blockade-runners. All vessels from wherever 
they came, designed for entering the port of Charleston or en- 
gaged in trade with Matamoras, stopped at Nassau either on 
their way to or returning from these ports. From Nassau, 
the blockade-runners could watch the opportunities when the 
cruisers of the U. S. navy were not near to embarrass the 
movement, and the voyage became an easy one, either to the 
blockaded port, or to the cotton mart at the mouth of the Rio 
Grande. As a central point, Nassau became of great impor- 
tance in changing the character of the cargoes from con- 
traband to British goods. Equally with Nassau, Matamoras 
became a place of note as soon as the entrance to Charleston 
harbor became difficult. The cotton that was taken to the 
Bahamas paid no duty to the government, and the tonnage 
duty was only one shilling a ton. Notwithstanding this, the 
arrival of the blockade-runner made trade lively and brisk, 
and the goods imported from the Confederate States yielded 
some remuneration to the government. Many of the import- 
ations paid 15 per cent, ad valorem duty, and^ others a fixed 
duty of about the same amount. When these goods were 
bonded and exported again a drawback of ninety per cent. 



480 THE CONFEDERATE STATES NAVY. 

was allowed and half the tonnage duty was refunded if the 
vessel carried away products of the island as a return cargo. 
Nassau is described as — ^ 

" A busy place during the war ; the chief depot of supphes for the 
Confederacy, and the port to which most of the cotton was shipped. Its 
proximity to the ports of Charleston and Wihiiington gave it superior ad- 
vantages, while it was easily accessible to the swift, light-draft blockade- 
runners ; all of which carried Bahama bank pilots who knew every 
channel, while the United States cruisers having no bank pilots and draw- 
ing more water were compelled to keep the open sea. Occasionally one of 
the latter would heave to outside the harbor and send in a boat to com- 
municate with the American consul; but their usual cruising ground was 
off Abaco Light. Nassau is situated upon the island of New Providence, 
one of the Bahamas, and is the chief town and capital of the group. All 
of the islands are surrounded by coral reefs and shoals, through which are 
channels more or less intricate. That wonderful 'river in the sea' — the 
Gulf Stream— which flows between the Florida coast and the Bahama 
banks, is only forty miles broad between the nearest opposite points ; but 
there is no harbor on that jDart of the Florida coast. The distance from 
Charleston to Nassau is about five hundred miles, and from Wilmington 
about five hundred and fifty. Practically, however, they were equidis- 
tant, because blockade-runners bound fi-om either port, in order to evade 
the cruiseis lying in wait oif Abaco, were compelled to give that headland 
a wide berth, by keeping well to the eastward of it. But in avoiding 
Scylla they ran the risk of striking upon Charybdis; for the dangerous 
reefs of Eleuthera were fatal to many vessels. The chief industries of the 
islands before the war were the collection and exportation of sponges, 
corals, etc., and wi-ecking, to which was added during the war, the lucra- 
tive trade of picking and stealing. The inhabitants may be classed as 
'amphibious,' and are known among sailors by the generic name of 
'Conchs.' The wharves of Nassau, during the war, were always piled high 
with cotton, and huge warehouses were stored full of supplies for the Con- 
federacy. The harbor was crowded at times with lead-colored, short 
masted, rakish-looking steamers; the streets alive with bustle and activity 
during day-time and swarming with drunken revellers by night. Every 
nationality on earth, nearly, was represented there; the high wages ashore 
and afloat tempting adventurers of the baser sort; and the prospect of 
enormous profits offering equally strong inducements to capitalists of a 
speculative turn. The monthly wages of a sailor on board a blockade- 
runner was one hundred dollars in gold, and fifty dollars bounty at the 
end of a successful trip;- and this could be accomplished under favorable 
circumstances in seven days. The captains and pilots sometimes received 
as much as five thousand ^oUars besides perquisites. All of the cotton 
shipped on account of the Confederate government was landed and trans- 
ferred to a mercantile firm in Nassau, who received a commission for as- 
suming ownership. It Avas then shipped under the British or other neu- 
tral flag to Europe. The firm is reputed to have made many thousands 
of dollars by these commissions. But besides the cotton shipped by the 
Confederate government, many private companies and individuals were 
engaged in the trade; and it was computed (so large were the gains) that 
the owner could afford to lose a vessel and cargo after two successful voy- 
ages. Three or four steamers were wholly owned by the Confederate 
government; a few more were owned by it in part, and' the balance were 

1 Narrative of a Blockade Runner, p. 122. tain, three officers, three engineers and twenty- 

ei(»ht men (ten seamen and eighteen firemen). 

2 Capt. John Wilkinson, C. P. N., was offered They were generally all Englislimen The Eng- 
42,000 in gold a trip by merchants of Liverpool, lish men-of-war on the West India station fuund 
but preferred to remain loyal to his government it a difficult matter to prevent their crews from 
and receive a navy officer's salary. A blockade- deserting, so great was tl temptation offered 
runner's crew generally consisted ol one cap- by the blockade-runners. 



THE CONFEDERATE STATES NAVY. 



481 



private property; but these last were compelled to carry out, as portion 
of their cargo, cotton on government account, and to bring \n supplies. 
On board the government steamers, the crew which was shipped abroad, 
and under the articles regulating the ' merchant marine,' received the same 
wages as were paid on board the other bloclvade-runners; but the captains 
and subordinate officers of the government steamers who belonged to the 
Confederate States navy, and the pilots, who were detailed from the army 
for this service, received the pay in gold of their respective grades."^ 

There was one singular fact connected with the blockade- 
running vessels which speaks well for the C. S. naval officers. 
Down to August IGth, 1864, and perhaps later, only a single 
blockade-running vessel was lost while under the command 
of officers of the navy ! Officers in the navy, in the mean- 
while, commanded many of them and made many successful 
trips. The Coquette, which was one of the most indifferent 
of all blockade-vessels, and which was sold in the summer of 
1864, made nine round trips under the command of Lieut. 
Robert R. Carter, C. S. N., and saved them everyone, clearing 
for the Confederate government at least six hundred thousand 
dollars. The Robert E. Lee, the best ship the Confederates 
had, was successful in all her numerous trips as long as she 
was under the able command of Capt. John Wilkinson, 
C. S. N. As has been stated elsewhere, on the first trip she 
made after the command had been transferred to a person 
who was not an officer of the navy, she was captured. 



1 The following comparison of expenses in 
running a steamer before the war and those of 
a blockade-runner will illustrate the profits 
made in the hazardous trade: 

Disbursements of a Steamship before the War. 

One captain, per month $150 00 

One clerk, per month 100 00 

One first Officer 75 00 

One second officer 60 GO 

One third officer 45 00 

One boatswain 40 00 

One carpenter 60 00 

One steward and three assistants 110 00 

One cook and two assistants 90 00 

One engineer and three assistants 250 00 

Twelve firemen and coal passers 600 00 

Twelve deck hands 360 00 

240 tons of coal at $4 960 00 

Oil, tallow, packing, etc 100 00 

Stevedores out and home ,. 2,000 00 

Wharfage and boatage 400 00 

Pilotage, out and in 256 00 

Insurance, 2\i per cent, per month, 

on 1150,000 3,750 00 

Wear and tear, 2% per cent, per mouth, 4,250 00 

Incidental expenses 1,000 00 

Interest 875 00 

Rations for crew . . 405 00 

nations for passengers 3,000 00 



Disbursements of a Blockade Steamer. 

One captain, per month 

First officer, S60u, second do., $250 

thirddo, $170 1, 

One boatswain 

One carpenter 

One purser 1, 

One steward, $150; three assistants, 

$180 

One cook, $150; two assistants, $120.. 

One engineer and three assistants 3 

Twelve firemen and coal-heavers 2 

240 tons of coal at $20 4 

Rations for crew 2, 

Oil, tallow and packing 1, 

Stevedores 5, 

Pilotage, out and in 3, 

Sea Insurance 3, 

Wear and tear 4, 

Incidental expenses 1, 

Interest 

Risks, 25 per cent 37, 

Provisions for passengers 3, 



$5,000 00 

020 00 
160 00 
160 00 
000 00 



330 00 
270 00 
500 00 
,400 00 
800 00 
700 00 
000 (JO 
000 00 
.000 00 
500 00 
250 00 
,000 00 
875 00 
500 00 
000 00 



Earnings out and home : 
Freight, out and home, four 

trips $14,800 00 

38,000 00 



$19,136 00 



52,800 00 



Earnings, out and home : 

800 bales of cotton for gov- 
ernment $40,000,00 

800 bales of cotton for 

owners 40,000 00 

Return freight for Owners 40,000 00 

Return freight for govern- 
ment 40,000 00 

Passengers, out and home. 12,000 00 



$80,265 00 



-$172,000 00 



Profits made per month previous to 
war, by a first-class steamer on 

aspecie currency $33,664 00 

31 



Leaving a monthly profit (and if suc- 
cessful in five trips will clear the 
steamer) of $91,735 00 



483 THE CONFEDERATE STATES NAVY. 

While the officers of the navy were successful in all their 
many trips except one, every ship belonging to the Confeder- 
ate government, not commanded by an officer of the navy, 
was lost. These officers were skillful seamen, good navi- 
gators, gentlemen of standing and character; the cause was 
their cause, and the}'' were above all the suspicion that could 
be attached to others less favorably situated. 

Several British naval officers of high rank and character 
were engaged in the same exciting and lucrative occupation 
of blockade-running; amongthem the gallant Capt. Burgoyne, 
who commanded afterwards the unfortunate ship Captain, of 
H. B. M.'s navy, and who perished together with nearly the 
whole crew when she foundered at sea. The late Hon. Aug- 
ust Charles Hobart, Marshal of the Turkish Empire, and Vice- 
Admiral of the English Navy, was a daring navigator in the 
blockade-running business, under the name of Capt. Roberts. 
He made several successful trips. 

During the first two years of the war, blockade-running 
had been a matter of no very great difficulty. Sailing-vessels 
had time after time eluded the vigilance of the Federal cruis- 
ers, and with a steamer of very low pressure success was 
almost certain. Many that could steam no more than seven 
or eight knots at their highest speed had run in and out sev- 
eral times without a shot being fired, at a time, too, when 
cotton could be purchased in the Confederacy at eight cents a 
pound and sold for six times that sum in Nassau or Bermuda. 
Most of the captures of that period were made by cruisers 
falling in with the vessels on their passages from either port, 
and many that were not legally liable to forfeiture were seized 
'and destroyed by the Federal cruisers in their pursuit of the 
persevering evaders of their navy. But as the number of 
blockade-runners increased, the captures became more numer- 
ous and the cruisers gained experience. About this time, too, 
the United States having failed to fulfill their oft-repeated 
promise of bringing the Confederacy into subjection, Europe 
began to doubt the power and ability of the United States to 
accomplish their end, or, at all events, to look upon the fall of 
the Confederacy as an event far distant; and in the mean- 
time Confederate cruisers were making sad havoc among 
American merchantmen, and European merchants deemed it 
no longer safe to trust their goods in American bottoms. Thus 
hundreds of vessels were thrown out of employment, or were 
obliged to change their flag; many of their fastest steamers 
were armed, and employed as cruisers and coastguards. This 
addition to the U. S. naval power affected the interests and 
changed the character of the blockade-runner in two ways: 
first, by placing a larger number of much faster cruisers in 
the waters between the Confederate States and the British 
West Indies; and, second, by enabling the U. S. government 
to add to their blockading squadrons many more of their war 



THE CONFEDERATE STATES NAVY. 483 

steamers, thus rendering the attempts to run in and out a 
very precarious one indeed. But "the hour has never failed 
to bring forth the man," and the emergency was promptly met 
by companies formed for the purpose, with large capitals 
widely distributed, which immediately ordered vessels from 
the best English and Scotch builders and spared no expense 
on their fittings and machinery. These vessels were planned 
and built expressly for the hazardous trade, and were adapted 
to carry largely on a light draft of water, and were fitted 
with steam power to drive them at a rate of speed which even 
put capture from a fair chase out of the question. 

With the advent of these great English blockade-running 
companies, influenced by no Confederate sentiment or patri- 
otic motive, and inspired only by the greed of gain, the block- 
ade business began to develop influences as hurtful to the 
Confederate cause as its importations had been helpful to its 
armies. About the end of 1863, and the beginning of 1864, 
there began in many quarters of the Confederacy an outcry 
against a business which was fast degenerating into an illicit 
and unpatriotic traffic. Its moral effects upon the people 
were beginning to be most injurious, and to throw out tempta- 
tion to an extravagance which was ruinous to the finances 
and demoralizing to society. It was building up a class of 
influential monied men whose interests lay in a continuation 
and extension of a business which depleted the country with- 
out a corresponding return. It was becoming the agency by 
which the currency, never founded on any stable or sensible 
basis, was discredited and brought to an unjust and ruinous 
discount. The export of cotton, for anything beyond military 
supplies and for the payment of government indebtedness 
abroad, began to be regarded as an evil, and many consider- 
ate and thoughtful citizens urged upon the government not 
only a more stringent regulation, but a total control over the 
business of blockade-running. The Richmond (Va.) Enquirer 
urged that: 

" The State governments and the Confederate government should 
monopolize the entire hlockade business — controHing all the exportations 
and all the importations — the former acting for the people and the army, 
the latter for the army alone. A fleet of fifty steamers owned by the 
States and by the Confederate States, setting apart each trip a portion of 
the outgoing cargo as insurance, could be maintained at all times on the 
ocean, and render the importation and exportation of the country entirely 
subservient to the cause of national liberty. We would not forbid in- 
dividual and corporate enterprise, but only regulate it so that it should 
exist only by making the cause of the country its cause, and subordinating 
avarice to patriotism. If companies were not willing to run their steamers 
exclusively for the cause, receiving a liberal compensation, they should not 
he permitted to enter the ports, hut he treated as puhlic enemies, which they 
would be; for, in this war, every citizen that is not with lis is against us. 
The blockade does not require regulating, but controlling — not depart- 
ment rules, but official management. 

"By such control of the importations the exports would be made to 
contribute exclusively to the military defence of the country. By curbing 



484 THE CONFEDERATE STATES NAVY. 

the means of display in dress and on the table the unbecoming vanity 
of the people would be checked and habits of frugality and economy en- 
couraged. By closing the markets of the country to imported luxuries 
the disgraceful extravagance that now pervades all classes of the people 
would be checked, and if the currency was not appreciated it would not 
be depreciated by a daily comparison with articles of luxury. The block- 
ade regulations of the last Congress were a failure because they impeded 
individual enterprise, and did not provide that the government should 
supply the place of the companies that woiild not run the blockade under 
those regulations. Fair and liberal compensation should be paid to in- 
dividual enterprise; but the governments — State and Confederate — should 
own a fleet of steamers, and run the blockade under a system which, in- 
suring against capture, would supply losses as fast as they occurred. This 
is a gigantic war, and requires gigantic means and herculean efforts.'' 

The exorbitant prices obtained at the great auction sales 
of blockade goods, the combination between dealers to pur- 
chase all of certain lines of goods, and dividing up the lot 
prevent all competition, and the positive refusal of the im- 
porter to recognize Confederate money as currency, pointed 
prejudice at both the trade and the auctions. In addition to 
those evils, the character of much of the goods imported was 
not in the least contributive to the support of the army or to 
the necessities of the people. Expensive silks, cloths, brandies, 
rum, ales, whiskeys, sardines, the use of which cultivated 
tastes and catered to an extravagance hurtful to that self- 
denial so necessary to a people struggling for existence 
against enormous odds. The regulation of the blockade 
business, rather than its suppression, was demanded both by 
the sentiment of the people and by the necessities of the army. 
To have prohibited blockade-running, or to have so hampered 
it with restrictions as to deprive it of that profit necessary to 
induce capitalists to incur its risks, and the adventurous to 
share its dangers, would have been to institute, within Con- 
federate lines, the very system that the United States had at- 
tempted on the outside. The aid of the outside world was 
necessary to the army and people of the Confederate States, 
but that aid had become encrusted with an evil which it was 
very difficult to remove. 

In response to public sentiment the Confederate Congress 
enacted laws' to regulate foreign commerce, and to prohibit 
the introduction of " luxuries."' The first act prohibited 
the exportation of cotton, tobacco, military and naval stores, 
and forbid any vessel, vehicle, slave or animal engaged in 
loading or transporting such articles, to go beyond the limits 
of the Confederate States, or to any Confederate port actually 
within the enemy's lines. And by the law all persons con- 
cerned in such exportations were to be deemed guilty of high 
misdeameanor, unless authorized by special permits to be 
given under rules to be prescribed by the President, 

1 " An act to prohibit the importation of lux- impose regulations upon the foreign commerce 
uries, orof articles not necessaries or of common of the Confederate States to provide for the pub- 
use." Approved February 6th, 1861. " A bill to lie defence." Approved February 6th, 1864. 



THE CONFEDERATE STATES NAVY. 485 

The act prohibiting the introduction of " luxuries," after 
March 1st, 1864, contained a long list of prohibited articles, 
and limited the liberty of importation into the ports of the 
Confederate States to articles of prime necessity. It provided 
that the Secretary of the Treasury should prescribe the maxi- 
mum prices within which importations of articles partly or 
wholly of cotton, flax, wool or silk thread should be made, 
and provided that any article imported contrary to that law 
should be forfeited, and the owner be required to pay double 
the value thereof. 

The regulations of the Treasury and War Departments, 
under these laws, required of all vessels going out of Con- 
federate ports that one-half of the tonnage may be employed 
by the Confederate government for its own use, both on the 
outward and homeward voyage; and required the owners of 
vessels to execute a bond conditioned "that the vessel will 
pursue the voyage designated and that she will return with 
reasonable dispatch to a Confederate port after her outward 
cargo shall be discharged, with a cargo consisting of one-half 
of articles not prohibited by the laws of the Confederate 
States, and that the other half of such cargo shall be such as 
the government shall offer for shipment from such port." The 
regulations fixed the freight to be paid by the Confederate 
States, on all cotton and tobacco shipped from a Confederate 
port, at five pence sterling per pound, payable on delivery at 
the port of destination in coin or sterling exchange ; and the 
return freight was fixed at the rate of twenty-five pounds per 
ton in cotton, payable on its delivery at the Confederate port, 
at ten pence sterling per pound for middling uplands, and 
a proportionate price for cotton of other qualities. In cal- 
culating the ton of freight by weight, 2,240 pounds, and by 
measure forty cubic feet, were to be allowed. If the outward 
bound vessels should consent, at the request of the government, 
to take two-thirds of her cargo on account of the Confederate 
States, the outward freight was fixed at six pence sterling per 
pound ; and whenever the government was not prepared to fill 
up any portion of the tonnage reserved for its use, at the time 
of sailing, her owners were allowed to fill up the same on their 
own account; but no vessel was to be allowed to sail on her 
outward voyage, without the consent of the government, 
until one-third of her cargo was laden for the use of the 
government. 

The publication of these laws and regulations upon 
blockade-running created intense interest in Nassau and other 
ports, where the blockade-runners most congregated. The 
Nassau Herald intimated the probability of a withdrawal of 
many companies from the business, saying : 

" We must conclude that the responsible framers of this measure are 
fully aware that the agents here will shrink from incurring the responsi- 
bility of running the vessels of their principals, without first receiving 



486 THE CONFEDERATE STATES NAVY. 

positive instructions. What then could be the object of the framers of 
this startling measure, in launching it without even a preliminaiy an- 
nouncement, or without specifying a reasonably distant day when it 
Avould come into operation ? A surprise was clearly intended, and most 
assuredly has been effected — with what object we forbear to scrutinize 
too closely; but that less partial pens will probe the motives for so sud- 
denly announcing, and so suddenly carrying into effect, this new and 
sweeping change, we are quite prepared to expect. 

" We have in our former article stated that the sequel may show 
material advantages to the Confederacy, and those advantages may arise 
under the measures Ijeing adopted by Mr. Slidell, the Confederate Com- 
missioner at Paris. Mr. Slidell has issued instructions to the effect that 
persons holding cotton-loan bonds for which they wish to obtain cotton 
must transfer the bonds to his keeping, and on their doing so he will give 
a. certificate or delivery order for the amount of cotton which they re- 
present. If it be the aim of Mr. Slidell, acting of course under instruc- 
tions, to reissue these bonds at their enhanced value, the Confederate ex- 
chequer will be provided with funds, although such a course of procedure 
will probably meet with censure from the bankholders. 

" Large sums have been made and large sums have been lost in these 
ventures by English sympathizers and speculators, and the authorities at 
Richmond will find that all such persons will retire as soon as the pros- 
pect of gain adequate to the risk incurred ceases. It must not be for- 
gotten that the adventui'ous sphit of English merchants led the way at 
the outset in blockade-running, and it is much to be regretted that the 
Confederates themselves did not take the initiative in the matter, and 
that even at this date their enterprise (their patriotism is beyond question) 
has not been more concentrated on so vital an issue as the conveyance of 
munitions of war and necessary merchandise to the Confederacy. 

'' We have investigated the merits of the new law with an anxious 
desire to trace in it marked and decided advantages to Confederate in- 
terests, as distinct from all other interests; but we are not of those who 
consider the cause of the Confederacy will be best served by tacitly as- 
senting to all the measures which may emanate from the executive, and 
we consider it to be self-evident, that in examining such a measure as the 
one we are discussing, it is impossible to ignore the interests of the block- 
ade-runner. The Confederates have made great and noble sacrifices, but 
they cannot surmount the impossibilities, and an impossibility it cer- 
tainly would prove to be to carry on blockade-running on a comprehensive 
scale without a large margin of profit being allowed to meet inevitable 
contingencies.' 

On the other hand, it was rephed to the complaint of the 
blockade-runner, that the system as it had been conducted 
had not been beneficial to the Confederate government, nor 
helpful to the people; that it had depreciated the currency, 
created an exorbitant rate of prices, and established a wide- 
spread and unprincipled extortion; that the English block- 
ade-runners, by refusing to take Confederate money, and 
demanding gold or cotton, had drained the country of all 
specie, and greatly increased the price of exchange; that 
under the then existing system gold flowed out of the country 
and the supply of cotton was being reduced without a corre- 
sponding remuneration; that cotton was not bought with gold, 
but swapped for goods, and sometimes trinkets — not fit 
for consumption, but adapted only to vanity and display; 
that silks, satins, laces, broadcloths, liquors, and ladies' 
goods generally, had made up the bulk of the cargoes of the 



THE CONFEDERATE STATES NAVY. 487 

blockade-runner, and that while tliey carried a small propor- 
tion of army supplies, it was only because they were stowed in 
that part of the vessel reserved for the government; and that 
real and substantial aid and help to the army and people had 
never been the aim or purpose of the English blockade-runner; 
and, finally, that if the great English blockade-running com- 
panies withdrew from the business, the citizens, States, and 
government of the Confederate States would go back into and 
conduct it for the purpose of defence only, and not merely for 
the avarice and greed with which it had been prosecuted. 

Though the legislation for the regulation of blockade was 
adopted in the early part of 1864, there were more vessels, in 
January, 1865, engaged in blockade-running than when the 
regulations went into effect. 

Notwithstanding the use of swifter blockade vessels, 
many of them being captured blockade-runners, as well as 
the largely increased navy of the United States, and the 
stimulant to increased vigilance which many prizes had given 
to the officers of the blockading squadron, it was still recog- 
nized as impossible for the Federal government to stop block- 
ade-running, except by capturing with the army the ports 
from which the business was done. This impossibility, so far 
as the navy was concerned, resulted from physical causes, 
and not from any neglect, indifference, or absence of stimu- 
lating motives. The conformation of the Atlantic coast, and 
the direction and force of the winds, were the causes that 
aided blockade-running as well as hindered and embarrassed 
the blockading squadron. If the wind blew off the coast, it 
drove the squadron to sea, and enlarged the perimiter of the 
circle through which the blockade-runner could swiftly and 
safely steam. If the wind blew landward the blockading 
squadron were compelled to haul off to a greater distance to 
escape the consequences of the heavy seas which dashed with 
violence upon the coast. The shoals that lined the North 
Carolina coast extended for miles into the sea, and the whole 
coast is not surpassed in danger to navigation by any other 
when a strong easterly wind meets the ebb-tide. And yet it 
was an easy matter for a pilot experienced in the coast to run 
a swift-steaming light-draft vessel out to sea or into port, 
while the heavier and deeper draft vessels of the blockading 
squadron were buffeting the stormy winds and waves. 

The restrictions imposed upon foreign commerce by the 
above-mentioned Acts of the Confederate Congress had not, in 
January, 1865, materially reduced the number of vessels en- 
gaged in running the blockade. President Davis, in a mes- 
sage to Congress on this subject, said that the number of 
vessels arriving at only two ports — Charleston and Wilming- 
ton — from November 1st to December 6th, had been forty- 
three, and that only a very small portion of those outward- 
bound had been captured; that out of 11,796 bales of cotton 



488 THE CONFEDERATE STATES NAVY. 

shipped since July 1st, 1864, but 1,272 bales had been lost. 
And the special report of the Secretary of the Treasury in 
relation to the same matter stated, that there had been im- 
ported at the ports of Wilmington and Charleston since Octo- 
ber 26th, 1864, 8,632,000 pounds of meat, 1,507,000 pounds of 
lead, 1,933,000 pounds of saltpetre, 546,000 pairs of shoes, 
316,000 pairs of blankets, 520.000 pounds of coffee, 69,000 rifles, 
97 packages of revolvers, 2,639 packages of medicines, 43 can- 
non, with a very large quantity of other articles. In addition 
to these articles, many valuable stores and supplies had been 
brought in by way of the Northern lines, by way of Florida, 
and through the port of Galveston, and through Mexico, 
across the Rio Grande. From March 1st, 1864, to January 1st, 
1865, the value of the shipments of cotton on Confederate 
government account was shown by the Secretary's report to 
have been $5,296,000 in specie, of which $1,500,000 had been 
shipped out between July 1st and December 1st, 1864. 

A list of vessels which were running the blockade from 
Nassau and other ports, in the period intervening between 
November, 1861, and March, 1864, showed that 84 steamers 
were engaged; of these, 37 were captured by the enemy, 12 
were totally lost, 11 were lost and the cargoes partially saved, 
and 1 foundered at sea. They made 363 trips to Nassau and 
65 to other ports. Among the highest number of runs made 
were those of the Fanny, which ran 18 times, and the Mar- 
garet and Jessie, which performed the same feat, and was 
captured. Out of 425 runs from Nassau alone (including 100 
schooners), only 62 — about one in seven — were unsuccessful. 
A letter from Nassau, on the chances of blockade-running, 
published in June, 1864, said: 

"You will please observe that most of the boats here enumerated were 
wholly unfit for the purpose to which they had been hastily applied under 
the inducements of tlie larp:e profit, and are very different from tliose 
which have been more recently built, and expressly for blockade-running. 
Still, even now it is by no means an uncommon thing for a five or six knot 
boat to make several successful trips, while the better class pass the block- 
ading squadron almost as carelessly as if none such existed, frequently in 
open daylight. The average life of a boat, which from the subjoined ta- 
ble would appear to be about five runs, is tlaerefore in reality much higher, 
and may be safely estimated, with proper management, to be at least four 
round trips, or eight successful runs. Taking all the craft, good, bad, and 
indifferent together, you will find that out of eighty -four steamers, eleven 
only failed on the first run; thirty-seven have been captured, and twenty- 
five lost from various marine accidents; while twenty-two are still safe, 
after having paid themselves many times over." 

In confirmation of the ineffectiveness of the blockade, as 
well as of the fact that the restrictive legislation of the Con- 
federate Congress had not materially reduced blockade-run- 
ning, the New York Herald, commenting upon the above 
exhibit, remarked that: 

"Of the vessels which carried this, twenty-five cleared from Mata- 
moras, the quantity brought by them being about 5,0U0 bales. These 



THE CONFEDERATE STATES NAVY. 489 

figures will serve to give an idea of the immense activity that has prevailed 
in the traffic between the rebel States and England, despite all the efforts 
of our cruisers. The shutting up of the port of Wilmington, the principal 
channel for this trade, will, of course, cut off a large proportion of it. All 
the means of entry on the rebel line of coast will then be hermetically 
closed, and their supplies by direct sources cut off. There will remain 
only the line of supply through Texas ; but, as this is circuitous and tedi- 
ous, it will fail to satisfy the wants of the rebels as fast as needed. The 
possession by the French of Matamoras will, of course, continue to facili- 
tate the traffic to a certain extent by rendering the articles that pass that 
way secure from seizure. Had measures been taken by our government 
to permanently occiipy Brownsville and the line of the Rio Grande we 
should have been enabled to put an estoppal upon all traffic by that 
route. This, however, will, we presume, be done as soon as a sufficient 
force can be spared for that purpose; but by that time we should be in a 
condition to suppress it in another and more effective manner— namely, 
by clearing the French and their Austrian proteges out of Mexico." 

And in its issue of January 2Ist, 1865, its correspondent 
from the Bahamas stated that 

"The utmost activity prevailed in the Anglo-rebel blockade-running 
fleet plying between Wilmington, and Charleston and Nassau. Cotton 
valued at $3,500,000 had been landed at Nassau from the above-named 
Southern ports within ten days. A large number of British trading ves- 
sels had sailed from Liverpool, London, and the Clyde laden with supplies 
for the rebels. Their names and days of sailing are published in the Her- 
ald, so that our gallant sailors off Wilmington may have a fair chance of 
rewarding themselves liberally with the spoils of the common enemy. 
Two blockade-runners cleared for that port, at Nassau, on the 14th Inst. 
They have probably discovered before now, on arrival in New Inlet, that 
a change has taken place in the position of affairs there, and that they 
were just in time to fall into the hands of the national forces." 

The military and naval expeditions against Wilmington, 
in December, 1864, and January, 1865, resulted in the capture of 
the forts and the closing of the port. Eight vessels left the port 
of Nassau between the 12th and 16th of January, one of which 
took four one-hundred-pounder Armstrong guns; and at the 
time of their sailing there were over two and a half million 
pounds of bacon stored at Nassau awaiting transportation. 
The confidence reposed in the defence of Wilmington contin- 
ued unabated on the part of the blockade-runners, and the 
Charlotte, the Blenheim, and the Stag, all British steamers, 
ran in after the fall of Fort Fisher, and were captured by the 
Federal cruisers in the river. The blockade-runner Owl, 
Capt. John N. Maffitt, C S. N., in command, succeeded in 
passing over the bar near Fort Caswell and anchored at 
Smithville on the night the forts were evacuated, and imme- 
diately returned to Bermuda, arriving on the 21st, and carry- 
ing the news of the fall of Fort Fisher and the end of block- 
ade-running at Wilmington. Her arrival was timely, stopping 
the Maud Campbell, Old Dominion, Florence, Deer and Vir- 
ginia. Most, if not all, of these steamers now turned their prows 
toward Charleston, the last harbor remaining accessible; and 
though the fall of that city was impending, yet a cargo might 



490 THE CONFEDERATE STATES NAVY. 

be safely landed and transported along the interior line to the 
famishing armies of the Confederate States. To that end 
Capt. Wilkinson determined to make the effort: 

" But it was the part of prudence to ascertain, positively, before 
sailings, that Charleston was still in our possession. This intelligence 
was brought by the Chicora, which arrived at Nassau on the 30th of 
January; and on February 1st, the Owl, Carolina, Dream, Chicora, and 
Chameleon sailed within a few hours of each other for Charleston." 

The effort was a brave and gallant one, but was ineffec- 
tual — the U. S. S. Vanderhilt intercepted the Chameleon, and 
after an exciting chase was dodged by the fast-sailing vessel 
under the cool seamanship of the gallant Wilkinson. Turning 
on the Vanderhilt, the Chameleon again attempted to reach 
Cliarleston, but having lost a day in escaping from the Van- 
derhilt, and retarded by unfavorable weather, did not reach 
the coast near Charleston bar till the fifth night after leaving 
Nassau. The blockading fleet, reinforced from that off Wil- 
mington, now closed every practical entrance; but it was not 
until after assurances from the pilot that entrance was impos- 
sible that Capt. Wilkinson '' turned away from the land, our 
hearts sank within us, while conviction forced itself upon us 
that the cause for which so much blood had been shed, so 
many miseries bravely endured, and so many sacrifices cheer- 
fully made, was about to perish at last." The Chicora, more 
fortunate than the Chameleon, ran into Charleston, but find- 
ing that city evacuated, ran out, despite the effectiveness of 
the blockade, and reached Nassau on the 28th. Tlie Fox, less 
fortunate, ran into Charleston in ignorance of its capture, 
and was seized by the Federal cruisers. 

Capt. John N. Maffitt, C. S. N., in the Owl, left Havana 
about the middle of March, within " a quarter of an hour" 
after the U. S. S. Cherokee steamed out of the harbor. Passing 
Morro Castle, the Owl hugged the coast towards the west, 
followed by the Cherokee — the chase continued for an hour or 
more; the Owl had the speed, and Maffitt the seamanship, to 
throw ''dust into the eyes" of his pursuer by changing her 
coal from hard to soft, and clouding the air with dense black 
smoke, under cover of which the Owl turned on the Cherokee, 
and steaming away to the stern of the cruiser, disappeared 
in the darkness of night and storm. 

In the trans-Mississippi, blockade-running continued with 
some success until the 2d of June, when the terms of surrender 
in Galveston, by Gens. E. Kirby Smith and J. Bankhead 
Magruder with Gen. A. J. Smith brought the war to an effec- 
tual close. Charleston was evacuated on the 17th of February, 
and Fort Anderson, the last of the defences at Wilmington, fell 
on the lyth. 

With the termination of blockade-running the commercial 
importance of Matamoras. Nassau, Bermuda, and other West 



THE CONFEDERATE STATES NAVY. 491 

India ports, departed. On the 11th of March there were 
lying in Nassau thirty-five British blockade-runners, which 
were valued at $15,000,000 in greenbacks, and there were none 
to do them reverence. Their occupation was gone, their 
profits at an end, and some other service must be sought to 
give them employment. There exists no record, if any were 
kept, from which computation can be made of the amount 
and value of goods, arms, supplies and stores introduced into 
the Confederate States during the four years of blockade- 
running. But the Hon. Zebulon Vance, who was Governor 
of North Carolina during a large part of the war, has put on 
record the share, in part, of that State, in blockade-running, 
from which a general idea of the amount of values introduced 
may be approximated. In an address before the Association 
of the Maryland Line, delivered in Baltimore, February 23d, 
1885, he said: 

" By the general industry and thrift of our people, and by the use 
of a number of blockade-running steamers carrying out cotton and bring- 
ing in supplies from Europe, 1 had collected and distributed, from time to 
time, as near as can be gathered from the records of the Quartermaster's 
Department, the following stores: Large quantities of machinery supplies, 
60,000 pairs of handcards, 10,000 grain scythes, 200 barrels blue stone for 
the wheat growers, leather and shoes for 250,000 pairs, 50,000 blankets, 
grey-wooled cloth for at least 250,000 suits of uniforms, 12,000 overcoats 
(ready made), 2,000 best Enfield rifles (with 100 rounds of fixed ammuni- 
tion), 100,000 pounds of bacon, 500 sacks of coffee for hospital use, $50,000 
worth of medicines at gold prices, large quantities of lubricating oils, be- 
sides minor supplies of various kinds for the charitable institutions of the 
State. Not only was the supply of shoes, blankets, and clothing more 
than sufficient for the supply of the North Carolina troops, but large 
quantities were turned over to the Confederate government for the troops 
of other States. In the winter succeeding the battle of Chickamauga, I 
sent to Gen. Longstreet's corps 14,000 suits of clothing complete. At the 
surrender of Gen. Johnston, the State had on hand, ready made and in 
cloth, 92,000 suits of uniform, with great stores of blankets, leather, etc. 
To make good the warrants on which these purchases had been made 
abroad, the State purchased and had on hand in tmst for the holders 
11,000 bales of cotton and 100,000 barrels of rosin. The cotton was partly 
destroyed before the war closed, the remainder, amounting to several 
thousand bales, was captured after peace was declared, by certain oflQcers 
of the Federal army." 

The Proclamations of President Andrew Johnson, of the 
22d of May and of the 13th, 14th and 23d of June, and that of 
the 29th of August, 1865, removed all restriction on internal, 
domestic and coastwise intercourse and trade with the South- 
ern States, as well as all restrictions as to contraband of war; 
and dispersed the squadrons and put an end to the blockade 
of the Southern ports. Peace was coming, and, after years of 
reconstruction almost as hurtful and cruel as war itself, finally 
settled down to bless a reconstructed Union. 

During the whole period of the war, and despite the 
efforts of the government at Washington, and the vigilance 
of the generals commanding the armies, there existed a kind 



493 THE CONFEDERATE STATES NAVY. 

of blockade-running across the Potomac and along the whole 
lines of the armies, between the peoples on both sides, by 
which large amounts of supplies were introduced into the 
Confederate States. A kind of legality was thrown around 
this trade by permits given at Washington, and the whole 
spirit of the laws relating to trade in '"insurrectionary dis- 
tricts," as well as those in regard to ''captured and aban- 
doned property," were mere disguises to favor certain persons 
engaged in illicit traffic. The following letter was captured 
and published in the New York Times, and affords some evi- 
dence of how that traffic was conducted and who were en- 
gaged in it: 

"My Dear Sir — Allow me to suggest for your consideration a place 
for a most profitable adventure, which a little diplomacy can render 
perfectly safe and practicable. 

"To obtain the privilege, either tacit or written, so that it be reli- 
able to run the line of blockade with a cargo of staple articles from a 
foreign port, and to return with a cargo of Upland or Sea Island cotton. 

" Such a vessel coming in at Ocsabaw Inlet, under a discreet and reti- 
cent master, with vessel and cargo (when within Confederate lines) in 
my name, would be perfectly safe, and I would fui-nish her outward 
cargo — more than sufficient to pay for the inward— and send sterUng 
exchange for your half of the profits. 

" The profits would enable you to pay handsomely for the privilege, 
either by a pro rata division or by a direct bonus— to whomsoever you 
negotiate with. 

"If you negotiate for such an adventure in any way that is reliable, 
I will pay my half of all costs and expenses — including that for the pass 
in and out, and give my personal attention to the sale of the inward 
and outward purchase of the cargo, and guarantee the latter safely on 
board. The profits in and out could not fall short of 300 to 500 per cent, 
on the investment, which would be equally divided after deducting all 
expenses. 

" A reply, addressed to R. W. H. Welch or Alexander Johnson, Esqrs., 
Nassau, N. P., and to further care of Messrs. John Frazier & Co., Charles- 
ton, will reach me. 

"I am, etc., (3^. B. Lamab. 

" To Hon. Fernando Wood, New York."" 

The publication of Mr. Lamar's letter in the Confederate 
States had much influence in shaping the legislation, referred 
to in the text, for prohibiting commercial intercourse with the 
enemy. Mr. Lamar's letter, though addressed to the Hon. 
Fernando Wood, of New York, does not implicate that gentle- 
man, since there exists no evidence that Lamar was author- 
ized by Mr. Wood to make such a proposition, and the mere 
writing to Mr. Wood is only evidence of what Lamar pro- 
posed, and not that Mr. Wood assented to or was cognizant in 
advance of the proposition. The letter, however, is instructive 
as to the profits arising from that traffic, as well as the shifts 
and resorts to which men went in making haste to get rich — 
even in the midst of desolating war. Mr. Lamar acknowl- 
edged the genuineness of the letter, defended his scheme for 
trading with the enemy as "advantageous" and "beneficial" 



THE CONFEDERATE STATES NAVY. 493 

to the Confederate cause, as well as highly profitable to him- 
self. Mr. Lamar — and he was but one example of many 
people engaged in that trade — failed to comprehend that 
trading with an enemy in time of war was a crime infamous 
under every known construction of international law, as well 
as against the provisions of the statutes of the Confederate 
States. Such people, realizing enormous profits, disguised 
from themselves, under the color of helping with their impor- 
tations the cause of the Confederate States, the crime they 
were committing as well as the aid they were giving to the 
enemy. 

Before Mr. Lamar's letter was captured, he ventilated his 
patriotism in the Savannah papers after this fashion: 

" I don't own a wharf in the city that I would not sooner sacrifice 
altogether than the infernal Yankees (now waging the most savage war- 
fare against us, and using the scum of Europe, of all their own large cities, 
as well as their Billy Wilson regiment of convicts, to kill and destroy our 
most valuable citizens, as they have done and are doing), should ever be 
allowed to enjoy any right or privilege within this State." 

Such evidence of greed is a melancholy instance of the 
infirmity which overtook a very large class of people at the 
South during the war. That class was composed of heavy 
capitalists, who, rich by accident, were greedy by nature, and 
while blatant of their patriotism and furious in their advocacy 
of hostilities, were at all times willing to trade with the enemy 
and to accumulate fortunes out of the impoverishment of 
their country. 

The interchange of kindnesses and the material aid sent 
across the Potomac from sympathizing friends in Maryland, 
and particularly in Baltimore, of which the amount and value 
was immense, must not be confounded with blockade-running. 
There was no trading in their kindness, no element of gain, 
no part of greed or money-making. It was the materializing 
of sympathy, without the demoralizing influence of trade or 
traffic. 



CHAPTER XVII. 
THE TRANS-MISSISSIPPI WATERS. 



IN the early days of the war, the operations of the great 
armies and navies which were then organized, were con- 
fined almost exclusively to the territory east of the Missis- 
sippi River. In some of the States west of that river, there 
were a few important military movements before 1863, but the 
great demonstrations of the Federal government to crush the 
independence of the Southern States were aimed at those more 
vital points of the Confederacy from which issued the intelli- 
gence and the power that directed and prosecuted the struggle. 
The Confederate naval operations west of the 'Mississippi 
were confined mainly to the army, or were conducted jointly 
by both branches of the service — the army and the navy. At 
the beginning of the war, the few navy officers who were 
assigned to duty in the trans -Mississippi department were 
placed under the command of district commanders. They 
performed meritorious service as engineer officers, building, 
arming and officering shore batteries and fortifications ; and 
it can be said of them, that without their co-operation and aid 
many Confederate successes would not have been obtained. 
The deeds of enterprise and daring of the navy officers in the 
trans-Mississippi department, in the early days of the war, 
are worthy of all praise, and we regret that their labors in 
the cause of the South are covered up in the operations of the 
army with which they co-operated. 

In 18G1 Texas, like all her sister States of the South, was 
entirely unprepared for war, but her people were ready to 
answer with alacrity any call from the President of the Con- 
federacy. One of the first accessions to the Confederate 
States navy was the capture of the U. S. steamship Stai^ of the 
West off Indian ola, Texas, by a party of volunteers from 
Galveston. The Star of the West was 1,172 tons burden, and 
built to run from New York to A spin wall on the route to Cal- 
ifornia. She was chartered by the U. S. government to take 
a small force and supplies to Major Anderson at Fort Sumter, 

(494) 



THE CONFEDERATE STATES NAVY. 495 

Charleston. She left New York at five o'clock in the after- 
noon of January 5th, 1861, and proceeded down the bay, hove 
to and received on board four officers and two hundred 
and fifty soldiers with their arms and ammunition, and pro- 
ceeded to sea, crossing the bar at Sandy Hook at nine 
o'clock the same night. She arrived off Charleston bar 
at half -past one in the morning of the 9th, and as the 
lights were all out and no guiding marks to be found, 
she proceeded slowly until 4 a. m., and then, being in four 
and a half fathoms of water, lay to until daylight. As the 
day began to break a small steamer was seen inshore, which, 
as soon as she discovered the Star of the West, burned 
a blue light and two red lights as signals, and shortly after 
steamed over the bar into the ship channel. The soldiers 
were now all put below, and no one allowed on deck except 
those belonging to the vessel. As soon as there was light 
enough to see, the Star of the West crossed the bar and pro- 
ceeded up the channel until she was about two miles from 
Forts Moultrie and Sumter, when a masked battery on Morris 
Island opened fire on her. The battery floated a red Palmetto 
flag, and the Star of the West the United States flag. The 
latter continued on under the fire of the battery, which was 
about five-eights of a mile distant, for over ten minutes. 
Several of the shots went entirely over her ; one shot passed 
just clear of the pilot-house, another passed between the smoke- 
stack and walking-beam of the engine ; another struck the 
ship just abaft of the fore rigging and stove in the planking, 
while another came near carrying away the rudder. At the 
same time there was a movement of two steamers from near 
Fort Moultrie, one of them towing a schooner, which was 
thought by the officers of the Star of the West to be an armed 
vessel to cut them off. Fearing capture or destruction, Capt. 
McGowan of the Star of the West wore round and steered 
down the channel, and the battery continued to fire upon him 
until the shot fell short. He crossed the bar outward at 8. 50 
A. M. and returned to New York. 

A correspondence immediately took place between the 
commander of Fort Sumter and the Governor of South Caro- 
lina, in which the former stated that an unarmed vessel of the 
United States had been fired on, and wished to know if it had 
been with the sanction of the Governor. The latter replied, 
that any attempt to send troops into Charleston harbor by the 
United States, to re-enforce the forts or to retake and resume 
possession of the forts within the waters of South Carolina, 
would be regarded as an act of hostility. 

The Star of the West was subsequently chartered again 
by the Federal government, and sent to Texas to receive and 
convey to New York a part of the regular force withdrawn 
from that State; but on the 17th of April, 1861, she was boarded 
off Indianola and captured without resistance. 



496 THE CONFEDERATE STATES NAVY. 

It appears that in April 1801, Col. Earl Van Dorn, being 
in Galveston, determined to attempt her capture. He called 
for volunteers, and in about two hours and a half detachments 
from the Galveston Artillery, Lieut. Van Buren commanding; 
the Island City Rifles, Capt. Muller, a German company, and 
the Wigfall Guards, Capt, McGrath, an Irish company, re- 
sponded to the call. The entire party amounted to 71 men — 
13 artillerists, 29 rifles, and 29 guards. They embarked on the 
steamer Matagorda, which left early on the following morning 
for Indianola, reaching that point about five in the afternoon. 
The men were concealed in the state rooms. At Indianola the 
transport Fashion was loading with U. S. troops, numbering 
about 6,000 men. with baggage, to put on board the Star of 
the West, Capt. Howe, which was lying in deep water outside 
of the bar. The Matagorda put back, and at Siluria, eighteen 
miles distant, she transferred her armed force to the General 
Busk. About midnight the Rusk, with the soldiers on board, 
came in hailing distance of the Star of the West, and upon 
being hailed, answered, "The General Rusk, with troops on 
board; can you take our line now?" "Certainly," was the 
answer from Capt. Howe, he f ancj^ing that the troops belonged 
to the United States. Capt. Howe asked why the Fashion did 
not bring the troops, and was told that she would be along in 
a few hours, with the rest of the troops and their baggage. 
The sea Was rather rough, and after some little trouble the 
Rusk made fast alongside. In a very short time the Galveston 
soldiers were on board with their guns; and Capt. Howe 
hardly had time to look at them, when they suddenly pre- 
sented bayonets, and their officer commanded him to sur- 
render. 

" To what flag am I requested to surrender?" asked the 
astonished captain. Ensign Duggan, of the Wigfall Guards, 
here displayed the Lone Star flag of Texas, and in his richest 
brogue exclaimed: " That's it, look at it, me byes; did ye iver 
see the Texas flag on an Irish jackstaff before ?" The cap- 
tain, having no means of resistance, surrendered without say- 
ing a word. He had a crew of forty-two men and 900 barrels 
of provisions, but nothing else; none of the arms or munitions 
of the Federal troops had yet arrived on board. 

The prisoners were all treated with politeness. The 
steamer was immediately put about for Galveston; and great 
must have been the bewilderment of the officers of the Fashion 
and of the Federal troops next morning when they found the 
Star of the West nowhere in sight. 

At Galveston, Col. Van Dorn put Mr. Falval, first mate of 
the Mexico, on board the Star of the West as captain, and 
likewise the engineer of the Mexico; and ordering the soldiers 
on board to see her safely into New Orleans, he left, to take 
charge of some 600 troops who were waiting there for him to 
go back to Indianola. 



THE CONFEDERATE STATES NAVY. 497 

The star of the West arrived safely in New Orleans and 
was moored in the Mississippi River below Algiers. She was 
turned over to the C. S. navy, and for some time was used as a 
receiving-ship. 

The Texas coast, extending over several hundred miles, 
was reported, September 27th. 1861, as " in almost a defence- 
less state," and tliat the " task of defending successfully iany 
point against an attack of any magnitude amounts to a mili- 
tary impossibility." Earnest efforts were made to put all 
points of danger in a position of defence. For this purpose, 
by " Special Orders No. 123," from the Adjutant and Inspector 
General's office, at Richmond, Va., on August 14th, 1861, Com- 
mander W. W. Hunter, C. S. N., was ordered to proceed to 
Galveston, and " report to Gen. Earl Van Dorn for duty, as 
superintendent in charge of the works for the defence of the 
coast of Texas." By the same order, John Withers, Assistant 
Adjutant General, directed Brig. Gen. Paul O. Hebert to 
assume command of the Department of Texas in place of 
Gen. Earl Van Dorn, who was ordered to turn the department 
over to him and report in Richmond. 

On September 27th, upon assuming command, Gen. He- 
bert reported to the Secretary of War, that "On a coast like 
this, where in calm weather a landing can be effected at any 
point, and the bays in the rear and flank of Galveston Island 
reached in that manner, or by the pass at the west end, the 
problem of defence, considering the means available to that 
effect, is certainly one of very difficult, if not impossible, 
solution." The port of Galveston was partially defended by a 
few open sand-works, mounted with guns of calibres ranging 
from eighteen to thirty-two pounders and totally inadequate 
to resist a bombardment with heavy guns. 

Upon his arrival in Texas, Commander Hunter was placed 
on special duty and assigned to the immediate command of 
the naval defences of the port of Galveston and the vessels 
in the employ of the Confederate government. He was sub- 
ject to the orders of his military superiors in the district and 
was authorized "to employ such boats propelled by steam or 
otherwise, as the service, in his judgment, rendered neces- 
sary." He was to "take measures to guard against any sur- 
prise by the enemy in the harbor and bay of Galveston," and 
report upon a plan for " establishing a system of alarm sig- 
nals with the forces on the island and at Virginia Point." His 
attention was also directed to the railroad bridge. 

In obedience to these orders Commander Hunter made a 
complete inspection of the water approaches and defences of 
Galveston. On November 17th, 1861, with the chartered 
steamer John F. Carr, drawing two and a half feet of water, 
he made an examination, and reported on tlie Rollover, and 
the practicability of the launches being transported across it, 
and the necessity of defending that point, and the best means 



498 THE CONFEDERATE STATES NAVY. 

of effecting this. He also examined the water of East Ba}^* 
from Bolivar Point to the nearest api)roachable shore of the 
Rollover in that direction and examined and recommended 
the means of defence at Smith's Point. On the 22d of No- 
vember, by direction of the commanding general, he reported 
on the practicability of gunboats of the class represented to 
be in the enemy's fleet being able to reach a position in Gal- 
veston Bay to command the bridge from Galveston Island to 
the mainland; and on December 2d, he reported on "the 
means of defence of the mouth of Trinity River." 

Commander Hunter was exceedingly active, and directed 
all his energies and talents to fortifying Galveston, Browns- 
ville, Pass Cavallo, and Sabine Pass. There were no vessels 
under his command, except a few improvised "cotton-clad'' 
river steamers and with these he rendered efficient service to 
the army in transporting troops and munitions of war, and 
guarding the coast from tlie marauding expeditions of the 
enemy. The " mosquito fleets" of Texas cotton-clad steamers 
had many severe engagements with the enemy during the war, 
and their brave actions form a noteworthy series of episodes. 

If the Texan authorities found the coast defenceless, and a 
navy non-existent, in 1861, fortunately the Federal govern- 
ment, in blockading the Atlantic coast, Mobile and New Or- 
leans, exhausted its supply of vessels. We find the following 
decided opinion expressed of this attempted blockade in the 
London Shipping Gazette, as late in the year 1801, as August: 

"There is no doubt that, up to the present time, so far as we have 
been informed, the blockade of the Southern coast has not been efficient. 
Tlie more important ports, such as New Orleans, Mobile, Charleston and 
Pensacola, have been blockaded, but the blockade of these places appears 
to have nearly exhausted the disposable forces of the national govern- 
ment and the consequence is that other places, such as Wilmington, 
Beaufort, etc., although declared to be blockaded, have not as yet been 
legally, that is, efficiently closed against commerce. It is in vain for the 
natt'oiKil gocernineiit to proclaiin the blockade of the Southern ports from 
Baltimore to the Rio Grande. Neutral States are only bound to respect 
such a proclamation so far as there is the ability to give effect to it, which 
on the part of the national government there does not appear to be. All 
this is, of course, well known to Admiral Milne, who has been placed in 
the somewhat difficult position of having to witness an inefficient block- 
ade with a force at his disposal adequate to raise it. That he should hav^e 
applied to his government for precise instructions under the circumstances 
is more than probable, but with the sincere desire to i^reserve a strict neu- 
trality between the American belligerents, which animates our govern- 
ment and people, it is equally probable that Admiral Milne has been di- 
rected to avoid any collision with the blockading squadron, until at least 
a fair time has elapsed for establishing the blockade of coast along the 
line indicated by President Lincoln's proclamation." 

To anticipate a little, it was hot in fact until 18G3 that the 
blockade of the Texas coast became formidable, and opera- 
tions began with a purpose to hold the important points. 

In July 1801, the South Carolina, a vessel previously in 
the New York and Savannah trade converted into an armed 



THE CONFEDERATE STATES NAVY 499 

cruiser. Capt. Alden commanding, appeared before Galveston, 
and captured five small sloops, among them the yacht Dart, 
and the sloops Shark and Falcon. Great excitement followed 
the arrival of the South Carolina, and the citizens of Gal- 
veston immediately dispatched a pilot-boat to Sabine Pass to 
intercept vessels bound for Galveston. The Dart was sub- 
sequently armed by tlie United States; and on August 3rd, the 
South Cai^olina and Dart, against the protest of all the foreign 
consuls, shelled the shore batteries, and the city of Galveston, 
but without doing much damage. ' 

Gradually the Federal fleet was re-enforced. The Rhode 
Island and Santee were sent to Galveston, the steamer Mont- 
gomery to cruise off the Brazos; the steamers Hatteras and 
De Soto cruised between the passes of the Mississippi and 
Sabine Pass, and the schooner Kittatinny and lighter vessels 
were on other duties. A letter to the New York Herald, 
however, from the mortar schooner Henry Janes off Sabine 
Pass reported the blockade still " ineftectual." It became 
necessary to capture Galveston and Sabine Pass. The demand 
for the surrender of the former was made in the following- 
terms: 

"United States Frigate 'Santee, W 
" Off Galveston, Texas, May 17th, 1862. ) 
" To the Military Commandant commanding Confederate Forces, Galvea- 
tou, Texas: 
" Sir: In a few days the naval and land forces of the United States 
"vvill appear off the town of Galveston to enforce its surrender. To pre- 
vent tlie effusion of blood and destruction of property -which would result 
from the bombardment of your town, I hereby demand the surrender of 
the place, with all its fortifications and batteries in its vicinity, with all 
arms and munitions of war. I trust you will comply with this demand. 
" I am, respectfully, etc., u henry Eagle, 

" Captain Commanding U. S. Naval Force., off Galveston, Texas.''"' 

The foreign consuls protested, and were curtly answered: 

"United States Frigate 'Santee,' } 
"May 22d, 1862. S 

" Gentlemen: Let me assure you. gentlemen, that no person can de- 
plore more than myself the misery that would result from the bombard- 
ment of the town of Galveston and its fortifications, yet it is a duty that 

1 The protest of the foreign consuls was as warfare, and meriting the condemnation of 

follows: Christian and civilized nations. 

Galveston, August 5th, 1861. Arthur Lynn, British Consul. 

To Captain Jas. Alden, Commanding United States James Frederick. Hanoverian and Oldenburg 

steamer " South Carolina." Consul; and, in the absence of J. W. Jackorsh, 

Sir: The undersigned.Consiils and Vice-Consuls Acting-Consul for Prussia and Hamburg, 

at Galveston, consider it their duty to enter J. C. Ndhn, Swiss Consul, Vice-Consul for 

their solemn protest against your bombardment Prussia. 

of this city on the evening of the 3rd inst., with Wm. Bohkheimer, Deputy-Consul for Bremen, 

out having given any notice so that the women Saxony, Belgium, Holland, and Vice-Consul for 

and children might have been removed, and Austria. 

also against your firing a shell into the midst of F. Jonzales, Mexican Consul. 

a large crowd of unarmed citizens, among whom T. H. Zetil, Consul for Nassau, 

were many women and children, causing there- B. Theron, French Agent-Consul, and Consul 

by the death of an unoffending Portuguese, and for Spain. 

wounding boys and peacefully disposed persons, Frederick Wagner, Consul pro tern for Elec- 

as acts of inhumanity unrecognised in modern toral Hesse. 



500 THE CONFEDERATE STATES NAVY. 

will become necessary to enforce its surrender. It is not in my power to 
give you any assurance of security during the bombardment, for it is im- 
possible to tell what direction the shot and shell will take. 

" Henry Eagle, 
'' Captain Commanding U. S. Nat^al Forces off Galveston. 
"■To the Foreign Consuls, Galveston^ 

As has been previously noticed, the fall of Galveston was, 
in the opinion of its military commander, Gen. Hebert, inevi- 
table when a strong force should appear before it. The city was 
therefore evacuated at the approach of the enemy, who took 
possession. Without proper guns, with no vessels of war of 
importance, the place was indefensible; but this fact was not 
known in the interior of the State, where its fall created a pro- 
found sensation, and some unjust criticism of the authorities. 
The Houston Telegraph said, editorially: 

" To whom censure for this most serious calamity to our State is to 
be imputed we cannot, nor will we undertake to say— in fact we do not 
know. It is not now with the past but the future we have to do. We, 
however, cannot avoid saying that we see with regret, now that Galves- 
ton has fallen, and the people do not hesitate to express their deep con- 
demnation of those to whom the country looked as the persons expected 
to avert this blow. Upon them it is now the fashion not only to charge a 
supineness criminal in its nature, but a most glaring incompetency and 
imbecility. Whether these censures be just or not, as we have already 
stated, it is not within our competency to say. But it appears to us that 
if founded in truth, many of those who employ these censures are them- 
selves not free from blame. If it be true that the military authorities 
were either imbecile or neglectful, the fact that it was so has been long 
apparent, for long has it been believed that Galveston was in peril, and 
knowing it, it thus became the duty, at least the right, of those whose in- 
terests were immediately involved to put in operation measures to avert 
the apprehended calamity. 

"It is true that cannon were removed from the place, but it appears 
to us that by timely remonstrance this might have been jjrevented; and 
there certainly existed no sufficient reason why the people might not 
themselves have otherwise prepared to meet the foe. But we repeat, that 
it is not with the past, but the present, we have to do; and as the place 
has fallen, it now becomes the part of patriotism to so aid the authorities 
as to confine the enemy to his present limits, and thereby prevent him 
from using his conquest to the further injury of the State. It is no time 
for querulous complaint. With the citizens of Galveston exiled by this 
event we sincerely and deeply sympathize, and so, we have no doubt, does 
every generous, right-minded person in the State." 

All tliis was unjust. The military authorities made as 
brave a defence as was in their power. Even after the battle, 
though the Federal fleet dominated, the army never took pos- 
session of the city. 

During the floods of the spring of 1862, several steamers 
were brought away from New Orleans, and with others the 
Wehh and the Cotton. The former was taken to Alexandria 
on the Red River, and the latter, a large, fine river steamer, 
built for the Bayou Sara route, was in the lower Teche, in 
charge of Capt. E. W. Fuller, a western steamboat man, and 



THE CONFEDERATE STATES NAVY. 501 

one of the bravest of a bold, daring class. The engines of the 
Cotton w^ere compound, high and low pressure. Captain Fuller 
desired to convert her into a gunboat, and was assisted to the 
extent of his means by Major J. L. Brent, chief of artillery 
and ordnance on the staff of Gen. Richard Taylor, who armed 
her with one thirty-two pounder, smooth-bore, and two twenty 
four pounders, smooth-bore, in casemate, covered with cotton 
bales and railroad iron. On her upper or hurricane deck she 
had one nine-pounder rifled piece, on field carriage. Her case- 
mate extended aft sufficiently to partially protect her boilers 
and engines. 

in October 1862, the Federal General Weitzel brought up 
a force from New Orleans, with the intention of invading the 
interior of Louisiana. In connection with gunboats he made 
several attacks on the small Confederate force below Brisland, 
on the Teche between Berwick's Bay and Franklin. In these 
affairs Captain Fuller was always in the advance with the 
Cotton, though her boilers were inadequately protected, and 
she was too large and unwieldy to be handled in the narrow 
Teche. We give below the report of Capt. Fuller of one 
of the most gallant and successful engagements of tiie 
war. In the Cotton he fairly defeated four Federal gun- 
boats, mounting twenty-seven guns, in a fight which lasted 
three days. The report was endorsed by Major General Tay- 
lor, in command of Western Louisiana, as being "true in 
everv word." 

" Gunboat ' Cotton,' Nov. 2d, 1863. 
" Gen. a. Mouten, Commanding Forces South of Red River: 

"Sir: I embrace the first opportunity of making my report of the 
recent aflfair between the Cotton, under my command, and the squadron 
of Federal gunboats that have occupied Berwick's Bay. 

" On Saturday evening, November 1st, the smoke from the enemy's 
boats warned me of their near approach in such force tliat resistance at 
the bay was considered by me to be rashness. Acting upon your order, 
received but a few minutes previously, I immediately gave the necessary 
orders for leaving the bay. The steamers Hart and Hegnr were there at the 
time, also Launch No. 1, under the command of J. M. Rogers, whom I had 
temporarily appointed to the position of acting master. My order to the 
oflBcers of those boats was to get immediately under way; the Hart, un- 
der command of Lieut. E. Montaigne, to proceed up to the Teche with a 
barge loaded with government sugar in tow. This was safely done ac- 
cording to orders, with one exception. Lieut. Montaigue at one time 
dropped his barge and returned, like a gallant soldier, to aid the Cotton 
in an unequal conflict. As soon as I could connnunicateto hini my wishes, 
he resumed his tow, and proceeded safely to his destination. 

^'Launch No. 1 also obeyed the order given to her commander, and 
conveyed the launch up the lake to a place near Indian Bend, from where 
he has since safely reported, and is now in position to render valuable 
service. 

" The Segur, under the command of Acting Master J. C. Coons, dis- 
obeyed the orders I gave of proceeding up the lake, and turned up the 
Atchafalaya, and was ignobly abandoned to the enemy at a time when the 
Cotton was between the enemy and the Segur. The commanding officer 
has not since reported. I have been informed that he abandoned his men 
and proceeded as fast as possible to St. Martinsville. Up to the present 



503 THE CONFEDERATE STATES NAVY. 

time the only reliable fact I have about the Segur is that it is in the 
hands of the enemy, prowling about Grand Lake and bayous in the vicin- 
ity ; of the crew, nothing. 

"The enemy came into Berwick's Bay on Saturday evening, just at 
dark, as the Cotton was in range, having had to wait to get the other 
boats off. They immediately opened fire upon us, and gave chase up the 
bay with thi-ee boats, continuing the fire, which I did not return until 
rounding into the Atchafalaya, when one of our guns was brought to bear, 
and we fired one shot, which sped straight to its mark, striking one of the 
Federal boats in her bows, breaking many timbers, and I have since been 
informed killing three and wounding five men. The Federals continued 
to 'ire shot and shell at us from eighteen guns, for about thirty minutes, 
wnen they gave up the chase. 

"The Cotton came up to the Teche turned bows down, and Ijacked 
into it, keeping our teeth to the enemy. We backed up to the Fuselier 
plantation, where we stopped for the night. On Sunday morning, the 2d 
inst., I received orders to move the Cotton above Cornay Bridge, which I 
did as soon as possible. The bayou had some obstructions thrown 
across at that point, which I was ordered to defend until it got too hot 
for me, and then to fall back, turn my boat across the bayou at the second 
bridge, and, if pursued, sink her. 

"On Monday, at 2 o'clock p. M., the four Federal boats, mounting 
twenty-seven guns, cameuj) and opened fire upon us. They came up in 
full confidence of overpowering numbers, giving us broadside after broad- 
side, frequently the whole four dehvering their fire at once. The shot 
and shell literally rained on and about our boat, several striking us, but 
without doing serious damage. We returned their fire, my brave boys 
cheering frequently, when a well-directed shot stmck the Federal boats. 
One of them retired from the contest in about fifteen minutes, her place 
being taken by another. One boat, for several minutes, had her colors 
down. Whether accidentally down or that they hauled them down to 
indicate a surrender, we had no means of learning. However, they hoisted 
them again after a delay of about twenty minutes. One, more venture- 
some than the rest, steadily steamed up the bayou. When in about 200 
yards of the obstructions, we gave her a plunging shot from each of our 
guns, which all struck near tlie water on the starboard quarter; the boat 
immediately run her head up on shore, and was listed down so as to throw 
her guns out of use, and ceased her fire, except occasionally from one gun 
on the bow. At this time, when but one of the enemy's boats fii*ed with 
any vigor, when victory seemed to be within our reach, it was announced 
that we had no more cartridges, having fired the last one. Retreat was 
all that remained for us; but as we slowly backed up. we had some sacks 
made, and by cutting off the legs from the pantaloons of some of our men, 
which we filled up, and returned fire with one as often as we could, in that 
manner, obtain a cartridge; this we continued until out of range, and the 
enemy ceased their fire 

" We had to mourn the loss of one brave soldier killed by an accidental 
discharge of his gun, which severely wounded another. Another was ac- 
cidentally wounded at another gun by recoil of the carriage, and has since 
died. One man was wounded by a piece of the enemy's shell. These are 
all the casualties that occurred. The boat sustained no perceptible dam- 
age, 

" On Tuesday morning we resumed our original position near the ob- 
structions, the enemy having previously retired. We worked hard to im- 
prove the condition of our boat, and got up souie iron to shield the engines. 
JN^othing occurred worthy of note during the day. 

" On Wednesday the 5th inst., the enemy again opened fire upon 
ns with four boats at about half-past ten o'clock. They fired from 
behind a point out of our range for about twenty minutes; when two of 
them steamed up into sight. We then immediately returned theit fire 
and with such effect that the enemy retired and abandoned the contest 



THE CONFEDERATE STATES NAVY. 503 

ill fifty-five minutes from firing their first sliot. The two l)oats that came 
into sight were badly damaged and their loss heavy -ours nothing; the 
only damage being a trifling break in the cabin roof. This day victory 
was clearly ours; the enemy retired from the action badly discouraged 
with severe loss. We were unhurt. 

'' On Thursday the enemy came up and opened fire upon us, but took 
care not to come into sight. I did not return their fire. They threw 
shells at us for half an hour and retired without doing us any damage. 
Since that up to present date they have not assailed us. 

" I cannot close this report without returning thanks to officers and 
men. Where all did their duty gallantly it may seem invidious to mention 
particular names, yet I must particularly mention the good conduct of O. S. 
Burdett, Pilot, who for two hours and a half, during the full contest on 
the 3d inst., manoeuvi-ed the boat with the utmost coolness — also the same 
gallant conduct on the 5th inst. Each of my lieutenants did their duty 
nobly and ably. Also, F. G. Burbank, gunner, and privates F. D. Wil- 
kinson and Henry Doming deserve particular mention for their gallant 
conduct — but all did their duty well, and are again I'eady to meet the en- 
emy should they come up and try us again. 

'* Respectfully your obedient servant, 

" E. W. Fuller, 
" Captain, Commanding Gunboat ' Cotton.''"''' 

In the first days of January, 1863, Weitzel's force was in- 
creased to forty-five hundred men, and on the 11th, accom- 
panied by gunboats, he advanced up the Teche and drove in 
the Confederate pickets at the obstructions "left unprotected by 
the retreat of the pickets. " Gen. Richard Taylor says the Cotton 
was assailed on all sides. ^ Fuller fought manf ulh^ responded 
to the fire of the enemy's boats with his twenty-fours, 
and repulsing the riflemen on either bank with his field 
piece. His pilots were killed and he had an arm broken, but 
he worked the wheel with his feet, backing up the bayou, as 
from her great length the boat could not be turned in the nar- 
row channel. Night stopped the enemy's advance, and 
Mouten, deeming his force too weak to cope with Weitzel, 
turned the Cotton across the bayou, and scuttled and burned 
her to arrest the further progress of the Federal boats. Weit- 
zel returned to Berwick's, having accomplished his object, the 
destruction of the Cotton, supposed by the Federals to be a 
formidable iron-clad. ' 

On March 28th, 1863, Gen. Weitzel, who had been quiet at 
Berwick's Bay for some time, sent the gunboat Diana, accom- 
panied by a land force, up the Teche to drive in the Confed- 
erate pickets. The capture of the Queen of the West, and 
destruction of the Indianola, had impaired the prestige of 
gunboats, and the troops at Brisland were eager to apply Gen. 
Taylor's theory of attacking them at close quarters. The 
Diana was armed with one thirty-two pounder Parrott rifle 
on her open bow and one or two twelve-pounder bronze Dahl- 
gren rifled boat howitzers. As the Diana proceeded up the 
Teche she was engaged by the Valverde battery, Capt. Sayres, 

1 Destruction and Reconstruction, p. 121. bank of the Teche, to command the bayou and 

2 The guus removed from the wreck of the road, and the line of breastworks at Brisland 
Cotton were mounted in a work on the west were strengthened. 



504 THE CONFEDERATE STATES NAVY. 

attached to Sibley's Texas brigade, and a detachment of cav- 
alry. After a great slaughter among her crew she was cap- 
tured with nearly two hundred infantry on board. The boilers 
of the Diana were protected by two thicknesses of wrought 
bar-iron, four by one-and-a-quarter inches, laid flat on a wood 
backing, built at an angle of thirty to forty degrees. The 
captain and pilot occupied the pilot-house, the former being 
killed by the side of the pilot, who jumped overboard, and, 
swimming to the marsh on the left bank of the Teche, made 
his way to Berwick's Bay and reported the loss of the boat. 

The Diana was repaired and was posted in the centre of 
the Confederate line at the battle of Brisland, April 12th and 
13th, 1863. Capt. O. J. Semmes, son of Admiral Semmes, 
C. S. N., an officer of much coolness in action, was detached 
from his battery and placed in command of the boat. Conical 
shells from the enemy's Parrott guns had pierced the railway 
iron, and killed and wounded several of her gunners and crew 
and cut a steam pipe, and she was lying against thebank dis- 
abled. Fortunately Capt. Semmes had kept down his fires, or 
escaping steam would have driven every one from the boat. 
It was necessary to take her out of fire for repairs, and she 
was withdrawn to Franklin, to which point the Confederates 
retreated. Later, when Gen. Taylor fell back up the bayou, 
the gallant Semmes, to prevent her from being recaptured by 
the enemy, after landing his crew applied the torch, and she 
blew up soon after. Semmes remained too long near the Di- 
ana to carry out his instructions and was captured. ' 

Following these naval and military movements in western 
Louisiana came the capture of Galveston, Texas; one of the 
fiercest and most successful naval captures of the war — one 
that was most creditable to the Confederates and most morti- 
fying to the Federals — so mortifying that Admiral Farragut, 
to account for the disaster, did not hesitate to cast a slur upon 
his officers which was as hasty as it was undeserved. During 
the month of December, Galveston was blockaded. The Har- 
riet Lane, a favorite vessel of the Federal navy, was abreast 
the city, outside were the steamers Otvasco, the Westfield, 
the Clifton and the Sachem — the whole under the command of 

1 Capts. Semmes, Fuller, Fusilier, and the Fusilier, who lived in the parish of St. Mary's, 
prisoners taken from the Queen of the West were twenty miles below New Iberia, was the possessor 
on the transport Maple Leaf, when they were of great estates and of a hospitable, generous 
sent from Fcjrtress Monroe to Fort Delaware. nature. His sons were in the army, and sixty 
Beaching tlie capes of the Chesapeake at night- years had not diminished his energy or his en- 
fall, the prisoners suddenly attacked and over- thusiasm. His corn-bins, his flocks and herds, 
powered the guard, ran the transport near to the were given to the public service without stint; 
beach in Princess Anne County, Virginia, landed, and no hungry, destitute Confederate was per- 
and made their way to Richmond, whence they mitted to pass his door. Fusilier was twice cap- 
rejoined Gen. Taylorin Louisiana. All the pris- tured; after liis escape from the J/a;)/e iea/he re- 
oners escaped, excepting Fuller, who friun joined Gen. Taylor in Louisiana. Again taken, he 
wounds received in his last action was unable escaped, while descending the Teche on a steam- 
to walk. Remaining in charge of the Maple boat, by springing from the deck and seizing the 
Xea/ until his friends were ashore, he restored overhanging branch of a live oak. Theguardfired 
her to the Federals, was taken to Fort Dela- on him, but darkness and the rapid movement of 
ware, and died in prison. " A braver man the steamer were in his favor, and lie got off un- 
never lived," says Gen. Taylor. Capt. Leclerc hurt.— Gen. Taylor'sDestruclionandUeamsti-udion^ 



THE CONFEDERATE STATES NAVY. 505 

Commodore Renshaw. All December, 1862, the United States 
naval forces lay at Galveston anticipating an attack. Letteis 
published in the Northern papers from Commodore Renshaw, 
and Capt. Wainwright of the Harriet Lane, show this appre- 
hension; so that when the attack came in January, 1863, they 
could not claim to have been unprepared, although the defeat 
was attempted to be softened by terming it a surprise. 

All the winter the Confederate forces under Gen. Magru- 
der had command of all points except the small strip of land 
upon which Galveston was situated. The Federals were 
masters of only the region within the range of their guns. 
Renewed activity began with the appointment of the fighting 
Gen. Magruder. Galveston was to be relieved at all hazards, 
and the blockade raised. How well he succeeded the sequel 
shows. Throughout December troops were quietly moved to 
this point. On Galveston Bay and the Trinity River boats 
were being cotton-clad and armed. Major Leon Smith was 
actively engaged in this work, as in the subsequent fight at 
Sabine Pass. The attack was delayed, however, for the co- 
operation of the land forces, who were to engage first. The 
time was spent in completing the fitting out of the boats as 
speedily as possible. During Christmas week the expected 
artillery arrived, and by January 1st, 18G3, all was ready. 

The Bayou City, a packet-boat on the river, had been fitted 
up as a gunboat under the charge of Capt. Henry Lubbock; 
she was armed with a thirty-two pound rifled gun on her bow 
deck; bulwarks of cotton bales were built up on her sides, and 
a force of 100 men put on board of her. Capt. Wier was gun- 
ner, and the boat was manned by a portion of his regiment. 
A party of Col. Green's sharp-shooters were among the crew. 
The Neptune, another packet, was also cotton-clad; she was 
armed with two howitzer guns. Col. Bayley, of the Seventh 
Texas cavalry, commanded the sharp-shooters on board. The 
men were detailed from the Sibley brigade; all the brigade 
having stepped forward on a call for volunteers anxious to 
take part in the affair. The full number of men was about 
150. The Lady Gwinn and the John F. Carr accompanied the 
expedition as tenders. On the Carr were a number of troops 
and volunteers: and on the Givinn a number of spectators who 
were prepared to take part in the fight if necessary. The 
cutter Dodge and the Royal Yacht were present, but did not 
go into action. The whole naval force was under the com- 
mand of Major Leon Smith. 

The boats moved down about midnight and took position 
above the town, waiting for the land forces to open the fight. 
In the meanwhile, the latter, consisting of detachments from 
some four or five regiments under the command of Brig. Gen. 
Scurry and Col. X. B. Le Bray, were moved early in the night 
from their station at Virginia Point. This point is on the 
mainland, and from it a bridge, two miles in length, crosses 



50G THE CONFEDERATE STATES NAVY. 

Galveston Bay to Galveston Island, being about five miles 
distant from the city. On crossing this bridge the troops 
moved down toward Galveston, but met with unexpected 
delays, and did not reach their position until after 4 a. m. The 
boats were twelve miles off, at Half Moon Shoals, awaiting 
signals. 

The town of Galveston was garrisoned by the Federal 
naval brigade of Commodore Renshaw, and by Col. Burrill 
with the Forty-second Massachusetts regiment, which had 
been brought as a reinforcement, and arrived on the preceding 
Christmas-day. Lying in the channel were the Harriet Lane, 
near the town; the Oivasco, a little distance further, keeping 
in deep water, accompanied by the Westfield, iron-clad, nine 
guns, and the Clifton and the Sachem, smaller armed vessels. 
The Westfield was the commodore's flag-ship, and the Harriet 
Lane was commanded by a brave and capable officer. Com- 
mander Wain Wright. Three schooners were lying off the bar 
at this time — two of them loaded with coal for the fleet. 

At about five o'clock on New Year's morning the Confed- 
erate troops reached the chosen point for an attack both on 
tlie city and the Federal fleet. Silently the batteries were 
placed in position. So quietly was this done that the officer 
of the night of the Forty-second Massachusetts on his round 
passed within a stone's-throw of where the artillery was 
posted without discovering anything wrong. As soon as 
everything was in readiness, Gen. Magruder in person fired 
the first gun, saying, "'Now, boys, I have done my part as 
private, I will go and attend to that of general." 

Just before this, however, the Confederate gunboats had 
been siglited. A letter of January 8th to the Philadelphia 
Inquirer iitaXQB that at this time the Harriet Lane, then lying 
near the city, signaled an attack on the town. Although it 
was night, a beautiful moon plainly revealed everything for 
miles, and tlie course of the gunboats could be distinctly seen. 

The artillery duel between the batteries and the Federal 
fieet soon became one of the most terrific on record. The Con- 
federates were at one time driven from the batteries by the 
appalling rain of iron hail poured upon them from the Oivasco 
and Harriet Lane. One of the most gallant exploits of the 
contest was the attack on Kuhn's wharf by Col. Cook of the 
Confederate forces. The Federal troops there consisted of the 
Forty-second Massachusetts militia regiment, over three hun- 
dred'strong, commanded by Col. Burrill. They were upon the 
outer end of the wharf, and had torn up the heavy planks 
forming its floor for about fifty feet, making a wall of those 
uext to the strand, behind which a platform had been erected 
for riflemen. The Confederates dashed into the water at the 
sides of the wharf, and by the use of planks succeeded in 
crossing the gap amidst an enfilading fire of grape and can- 
ister from the vessels, which continued with such fury that 



THE CONFEDERATE STATES NAVY. 507 

Col. Cook withdrew his men to wait for daylight and renew 
the attack. The Bayou City and Neptune had now arrived, 
and tlieir first attack was upon the nearest Federal vessel, the 
Harriet Lane. The Bayou City was the first to open fire on 
the Lane with her thirty-two pound rifled gun. Several shots 
were fired — the second striking her behind the wheel, knocking 
a large hole in her. As he fired again, Capt. Weir called out, 
"■"Well, here goes for a New Year's present!" and the gun ex- 
ploded, killing him instantly, and wounding Capt. Schneider 
and one or two others. Deprived of its gun, the pilot, Capt. 
McCormick, was ordered to use the vessel as a ram, and to 
hit the Lane, so as to allow the men to board her. Going 
with a strong ebb-tide he ran past her, and damaged the 
Bayou City. Meantime, the Neptune came up, striking the 
Harriet Lane on the starboard side, getting her bow stove in, 
and causing her to leak badly. She then passed round under 
the stern of the Lane, receiving her shots as she passed. One 
of the shots of the Lane struck the Neptune's hull, causing her 
to take water fast. She got on the edge of the channel and 
soon sank in eight feet water. 

By this time the Bayou City had rounded-to, with head up 
stream, and run into the Harriet Lane, striking her fairly aft 
of the larboard wheel-house, and running her bow so far under 
the gunwale and wheel that she could not be extricated, and 
the two vessels stuck fast together. The riflemen on the Con- 
federate vessels immediately opened fire upon the deck of the 
Harr^iet Lane at close quarters from behind the cotton bales 
and every point of vantage. The fire was terrific for some 
minutes, and the deck became a scene of flight and slaughter. 
There were 130 men on the vessel. Commander Wainwright 
and First Lieutenant Lea fell early in the action. The crew 
were driven from the deck and took refuge below, first hoist- 
ing the white flag ; upon which the boarding parties from 
the Bayou City and the Neptune sprang on board and took 
possession. The Neptune was so damaged in the encounter 
that she soon sank, leaving only the Bayou City available. 

The Oivasco was the only Federal vessel formidable at this 
time. About 10 a. m. the Westfield, with her splendid battery, 
had run aground. After removing some personal effects, the 
commodore determined to burn her. The decks were satu- 
rated with turpentine, and the last of the crew, with Commo- 
dore Renshaw, were just about to leave the ship. The gig 
was ready and the commodore was the last to descend. The 
torch was applied — a bright flash ran along the deck — the 
commodore turned his face to look at the vessel for the last 
time. The sailors rested a moment on their oars; all eyes 
were turned in the direction of the Westfield, attracted by the 
vivid flame. It was a moment of surprise and of perfect 
silence, and it was only a moment; then there was a flash 
of blue smoke and a fearful explosion. The shells of the 



508 



THE CONFEDERATE STATES NAVY. 



magazine, rising in the air, burst far up. There was a plung- 
ing noise in the water, such as is occasioned by the falling of 
a heavy body, and then for a radius of four or five hundred 
feet there was a shower of fragments which sounded like 
falling rain. The Westjield was seen to part or burst out for- 
ward, like a chestnut burr, and when the smoke cleared away 
there was no sign of life about her. Forward she was blown 
into fragments down to the water; but the machinery had not 
been destroyed, as the singing of the steam was distinctly 
heard after the explosion. The commodore's boat and all in it 
were annihilated in the terrible catastrophe — scattered through 
the air in fragments. The smoke-stacks and the after part of 




THE " HAERIET LANE," CAPTfBED BY THE COHFEDERATES, JANUARY IST, 1863. 

the ship lay a black mass in the water for ten minutes, when 
there was another flash, and she was speedily wrapped in 
flames. 

Commodore Renshaw and Commander Wainwright having 
been killed, the scene in the Federal fleet was one of utter con- 
fusion. The Westjield blew up during a truce agreed upon by 
Capt. Lubbock, commissioned by Major Leon Smith to demand 
the surrender of the Federal vessels and Capt. Law, of the 
Federal forces. The time of the truce was three hours, which 
Capt. Law of the Clifton asked to consult Commodore Renshaw. 
Instead of respecting this truce, Capt. Law took the opportu- 
nity of getting the Clifton under way. Capt. Lubbock charged 
him with breach of faith, and told him he considered his run- 
ning away under the circumstances equivalent to stealing so 
much Confederate property. Capt. Lubbock and Col. Green 



THE CONFEDERATE STATES NAVY. 509 

had been dispatched by Gen. Magruder, who had come down 
to the wharf, to close the negotiations for surrender. The 
Clifton and the Owasco, in spite of remonstrance, sailed to 
sea; the latter still having the flag of truce flj'ing at her main- 
mast. Major Smith, on board the John F. Carr, then called 
for volunteers to follow the Owasco and avenge the death of 
Capt. Weir. He obtained all he wanted and pursued the pro- 
peller; but she was too swift for the lumbering cotton-clad 
and too far on her way out of the harbor, and the pursuit was 
given up. 

The casualties on the Confederate side were 12 killed, in- 
cluding Capt. Weir, and 70 wounded. The Federal loss was 
estimated by the New York Herald correspondent, January 
12th, at 155 men killed, besides the wounded and pris- 
oners. The captures were the Harn^iet Lane and her 
crew, with three 9-inch, one 30-pound rifle, and two 24-pound 
howitzer guns, with a complete armament, magazine and 
stores of every description; the 42nd Massachusetts regiment, 
about 300 strong, with their colonel, arms, and two flags, 
stores, etc., the barques Elias Pike and Cavallo, with their 
crews, guard, 700 tons of coal, GOO bbls. of Irish potatoes, and 
a complete outfit; a pilot schooner, of fine speed, and the gun- 
boat Westfield, partially destroyed, carrying eight heavy guns. -^ 

The official report of the battle was as follows: 

''By telegraph from Headquarters, Galveston, to Major Hyllster, via 
Natchez: 
" This morning, 1st January, at three o'clock, I attacked the enemy's 
fleet and garrison at this place, and captured the latter and the steamer 
Harriet Lane and two barges, and a schooner of the former. The rest, 
some four or five, escaped ignominously under cover of a flag of truce. 1 

1 Some of the incidents of the memorable has not been staterl, that Capt Leon Smith, to 

battle are interesting enough to preserve. One whose skill and gallantry Gen. Magruderattrib- 

is quoted from the Jackson Mississippian of the utes the entire success of the attack on the 

16th of February, and is as follows: enemy's fleet in Galveston Bay, is the brother of 

" Dr. Holland was one of the boarding party Caleb B. Smith, until very recently the Secretary 
that cleared the decks of the Harriet La»e. Some of the Interior in Lincoln's Cabinet." 
of the scenes and incidents he describes trans- The other is from the Houston Telegraph: 
cend in strange interest the narratives of Alex- " Cajit. Wm. M. Armstrong went on board the 
ander Dumas. Some years ago when the famous Lwie after the battle, and found lying in the 
steamer Merrimac, afterwards changed into a blood on deck a Bible. He picked it up and re- 
ram by the Confederate government, and for- marked, 'Now I am going to open this Bible 
ever memorable from her engagement with the this New Year's day. and the first passage I read 
Congress, Cumberland and Monitor in Hampton I will take as an omen for the new year.' He 
Roads, made her trial trip across the Atlantic, she opened it carelessly, and the first passage his 
entered, as we all remember, Southampton eye fell on was the 1st verse of the 20th chapter 
waters, and her officers were received with great of Deuteronomy : 'When thou goest out to battle 
hospitality by the authorities of Southampton. against thine enemies, and seest horses and 
Commander Wainwright was then the Merri- chariots, and a people more than thou, be not 
-mac's first lieutenant, and on going up to Lon- afraid of them; for the Lord thy God is with 
don was enterfciined by Dr. Holland, who was thee, which brought thee up out of the land of 
then living in the great metropolis. "The doctor Egypt !' It is a good omen, as well as a most 
never saw him again alive, and recognized with startling circumstance." 

a feeling of astonishment, in the dead body of The United States steamer Harriet Lane was 
the commander of the Harriet Lane lying upon well known to moat of our citizens She was a 
her decks, his guest of some years ago in Lon- side-wheel steamer of 619 tons burden, and was 
don. The saddest of all the terrible tragedies of built for, and engaged in, the revenue service as 
this infernal war was enacted upon the same a cutter, under the command of Capt. John 
crimsoned and slippery stage when Major Lea, Faunce. She v,'as detailed in 1858 from that 
of the Confederate army, encountered in the service, and was engaged in the Paraguay Ex- 
dying lieutenant of the Federal steamer his pedition, under the same commander During 
own son. Can history or fiction afford any the visit of the Prince of Wales to this country 
parallel to this ? It is a curious fact, too, which she wai used for the purpose of carrying the 



510 THE CONFEDERATE STATES NAVY. 

have about GOO prisoners, and a larp:e quantity of valuable stores, arms, 
etc. The Harriet Lane is very little injured. She was carried by board- 
inj^ from two high pressure cotton steamers, manned by Texas cavalry 
and artillery. The line troops were gallantly commanded by Col. Green, 
of Sibley's Brigade, and the ships and artillery by Major Leon Smith, to 
whose indomitable energy and heroic daring the country is indebted for 
the successful execution of a plan which I had considered for the destruc- 
tion of the enemy's fleet. Col. Bagby, of Sibley's Brigade, also commanded 
the volunteers from his i-egiment for the naval expedition, in which every 
officer and every man won for himself imperishable renown. 

"J. Bankhead Magrudeb, Major General.'''' 

Gen. Magruder lost no time in issuing the following also: 

"Galveston, Jan. 4th, 1863. 

" Whereas, the undersigned has succeeded in capturing and destroy- 
ing a i^art of the enemy's fleet, and in driving the remainder out of the 
harbor of Galveston, and l)eyond the neighboring waters, and the block- 
ade having been thus effectually raised, he therefore proclaims to all con- 
cerned that the harbor of Galveston is open for trade to all friendly na- 
tions, and their merchants are invited to resume their usual commercial 
intei'course with this port. 

"Done at Galveston, this the 4th day of January, 1863. 

"J. B. Magruder, Major General Commanding.'''' 

Gen. Magruder's stirring address to the men engaged at 
Galveston was issued January 14th: 

"Headquarters District of Texas, New Mexico and Arizona, } 

"Galveston, Texas, Jan. 14th, 1863. f 
" Soldiers of the Army of Galveston: 

" The New Year dawned upon ^n achievement whose glory is unsur- 
passed. That glory is yours. You have recaptured an island two miles 
from the mainland. Y^ou have i*epossessed yourselves of your beautiful 
' Island City,' and made its hostile garrison, intrenched behind inaccessi- 
ble barricades, surrender to you at discretion. You have planted your 
artillery and battalions of infantry within 300 yards of the enemy's for- 
midable fleet, and exposed yourselves to the showers of grape and canister 
poured into you from his ships. 

"You have repossessed yourselves of forts under a concentrated fire 
of grape, canister and shell, at short ranges, and you have stormed, 

royal visitor from Washington to Mount Vernon, General Magruder, was the meeting of Major 

and from New York up the Hudson to West Lea, of the Confederate army, with his eldest 

Point. When the war broke out she was trans- and fondly loved son, who was first lieutenant 

ferred to the United States navy, and formed, oi Xhe Harriet Lane. 

during its early stages, a part of the Potomac "Nearly two years ago, the father then resid- 

flotilla. She was afterwards attached to the iiig in Texas, had written repeatedly to the son, 

AVest Gulf blockading squadron, from which then on the coast of China, suggesting the prin- 

the was detached for the Galveston expedition, cijjles that should determine liis course in the 

in the capture of which place she figured then approaching struggle between the North 

prominently. The Harriet Lane after her caij- and South, and saying that he could not dictate 

tnre was transferred by the Secretary of War to to one so long accustomed to act on his own 

the Confederate Navy Department, and Lieut. judgment ; and that decide as he might, such 

.Joseph N. Barney, C. S. N., was assigned to com was his confidence in his high conscieutious- 

mand her. She was intended as a cruiser, but ness, he would continiie to regard him with the 

Lieut. Barney, upon examination, finding her respect of a gentleman and the affection of a 

inefficient for that purpose, on March 31st, father ; but thdt if he should select the side of 

1863, the Lane was transferred by the Secretary the enemy, they would probably never meet on 

of the Navy back to the War Department, with earth, unless perchance they should meet in 

the request that Captain Smith, who captured battle. 

her, be i^laced in command. As will be seen "The father had served nearly eighteen months 

elsewhere, she ran the blockade with a load of eastward of the Mississippi, and, through iin- 

<if cotton, and it is believed never returned to solicited orders, arrived at Houston, en route 

this country. for San Antonio, late at night on the 30th ult., 

A Texas paper says : " One of the most affect- when hearing of the intended attack on the 

iDg incidents of the brilliant and successful re- Harriet Lane, aboard of which he had heard was 

capture of Galveston by the forces under Major his son, he solicited permission to join the 



THE CONFEDERATE STATES NAVY. 511 

captured and destroyed a portion of his formidable fleet, and dispersed the 
rest. With inadequate means, you have conquered the enemy upon that 
element on which he boasts himself invincible, thus ijroving yourselves 
successful ranf^ers of the sea as of the land. 

" Your general is proud to command you; your State and country will 
honor you as long as patriotism and heroism are cherished among men. 

"In honor of this victory, you are authorised to inscribe on your ban- 
ners the words ' Galveston and Galveston Harbor,' to commemorate your 
success. 

" Your commanding general is well assured that wherever you meet 
the enemy, you will win the right to adorn your standards with the glori- 
ous records of your prowess and patriotism. 

"The commanding general deems this a fitting occasion to express 
publicly to the ti-oops his high sense of the indomitable energy and chiv- 
alric heroism of the naval commander, and those who so nobly supported 
him. The country is proud of them. The ' stormers ' of the sea and the 
'stormers' of the land should greet each other as brothers in battle, and 
there should be no rivalry, save as to who shall be first permitted to die 
for his country. 

"J. Bankhead Magruder, 

t,^~, . , '•'■ General Commanding District of Texas. 

"Rob't S. Reid, Lieutenarit and A. A. A. G^ 

On the 28th of January, President Davis replied to the of- 
ficial report of Gen. Magruder in complimentary terms: 

"Richmond, Va., Jan. 28th, 1863. 
"■Major Gen. J. Bankhead Magruder, Galveston, Texas: 

" My Dear Sir: I am much gratified at the receipt of your letter of 
January 6th, conveying to me the details of your brilliant exploit in the 
capture of Galveston and the vessels in the harbor. The boldness of the 
conception and the daring and skill of its execution were crowned by re- 
sults substantial as well as splendid. Your success has been a heavy blow 
to the enemy's hopes, and I trust will be vigorously and effectively fol- 
lowed up. 

" It is to be hoped that your prudence and tact will be as successful as 
your military ability — retaking every position on the Texan coast. 

" Your suggestions will receive the favorable consideration due to you. 

" The congratulations I tender to you and your brave army are felt 
by the whole country. I trust your achievement is but the precursor of 

expedition, in expectation of nursing or burying few minutes to live, and asked to express his 

his son, whose courage was to expose him fatally wishes, he answered confidingly, ' My father is 

to the equal daring of our Texas boys. During here,' and spoke not again. He was borne in 

the fight Major Lea was ordered by the general procession to the grave from the headquarters 

to keep a lookout from a housetop for all move- of Gen. Magruiler, in company with bis captain, 

ments in the bay. As soon as daylight enabled and they were buried together, with appropriate 

him to see that the Lane had been captured, by military honors, in the presence of many officers 

permission of the general, who knew nothing of of both armies and njany generous citizens, all 

the expected meeting, he hastened aboard, of whom expressed their deep symi^athy with the 

where he was not surprised to find his son bereaved father, who said the solemn service 

mortally wounded. Wading through blood, of the Episcopal Church for the burial of the 

amidst the dying and the dead, he reached the dead. 

youth, pale and exhausted. ' Edward, 'tis your " The remains of Captain Wainwright were 

father.' ' I know you, father, but cannot move,' removed to the North soon after the war close<l, 

he said, faintly. ' Are you mortally wounded?' but the grave of Lieutenant Lea can be seen in 

'Badly, but hope not fatally.' 'Do you suf- the Episcopal cemetery at Galveston, covered 

fer pain.' 'Cannot sjieak,' he whispered. A with a plain marble block inscribed : 

stimulant was given him. How came you Edwabd Lea, 

here, father?' When answered, a gleam of Lieut. Commander, U. S. N. 

siirprise and gratification passed over his fine Born 31st .January, 1837. 

face. He then expended nearly his last words Killed in battle January 1, 1863. 

in making arrangements for his wounded com- • My father is here.' 

rades. His father knelt and blessed him, and " The concluding words were the last ones he 

hastened ashore for a litter, and returned just uttered. This event made a strange impression 

after life had fled. and showed the horrible features of the war 

" When told by the surgeon that he had but a between the States." 



512 THE CONFEDERATE STATES NAVY. 

a series of successes, which may redound to the frlory and honor of your- 
self and our country. HIT +f n 1+1 

very respectfully and trulj^ yours, 

" Jefb'erson Davis.'" 

The blockade was temporarily raised at Galveston and 
Sabine Pass by this action, as will be seen by Mr. Benjamin's 
declaration issued to foreign nations: 

"Department of State, } 
"Richmond, February 7th, 1863. S 

" Sir: I have again to inform you of the raising of the blockade of 
two Southern ports by superior forces. 

"This government is officially informed of the total dispersion and 
disappearance of the blockading squadron recently stationed off Galves- 
ton harbor by the combined attack of land and naval forces of the Con- 
federacy. In this attack the enemy's steamer Harriet Lane was captured, 
and the flag-ship of the squadron, the Westfleld, was blown up and de- 
stroyed. The blockade of the port of Galveston is therefore at an end. 

" The armed river boats which raised the blockade at Galveston then 
proceeded to Sabine Pass, where they again attacked the enemy's block- 
aders, captured thirteen guns, a large quantity of stores, and a number of 
prisoners. No blockading fleet now exists off Sabine Pass, and the steam- 
ers of the Confederacy were, at the last accounts, cruising off the Pass with 
no enemy in sight. 

" This information is given for the guidance of such of the merchants 
of your nation as may desire to trade with either of the open ports of Gal- 
veston or Sabine Pass. 

" Respectfully, your obedient servant, 

"J. P. Benjamin, Secretary of State:' 

The Federal disaster at Galveston, followed by that at 
Sabine Pass, was the most severe blow the Federal navy had 
received. A correspondent of a Texas paper, who was in New 
Orleans when the news was received there, states that he was 
present when Admiral Farragut raved and "tore his hair" 
on hearing of it. However that may be, the Federal admiral 
was very much incensed and for the moment lost his head. 
There was no reason, no facts, and no fairness, in charging 
cowardice upon the officers and crew of the Harriet Lane. 
Her first and second officers laid down their lives in her de- 
fence. Her fire on the shore batteries was so severe as to 
drive the gunners once at least from their guns. As to the 
conduct of the officer, Capt. Lubbock, wlio accompanied the 
fiag of truce, Admiral Farragut traveled out of the record to 
cast an unjust imputation upon a brave man, and to cover up 
with an unworthy excuse the escape, as charged in Gen. 
Magruder's first statement above, of the Oivasco, the Clifton, 

'^ Joint Resolution of thanks to Major General J. 2. iJcsofced, That the brilliant achievement, re- 

Bankhead Magruder, and Officers and Men of suiting, under the Providence of God, in the 

his command, at Galveston, Texas: captnie of the war steamer Harriet Lane, and 

Resolved by the Congress of the Confederate States the defeat and ignominious tliglit of the hostile 

of America, tliat the bold, intrepid and gallant fleet from the harbor, the recapture of the city 

conduct of Major Gen J Bankhead Magruder, and the raising of the blockade of the port of 

Col. Thomas Green, Major Leon Smith and Galveston, signally evinces that sujierior force 

other officers, and of the Texan Rangers and may be overcome by skillful concei^tion and 

soldiers engaged in the attack ou, and victory daring courage. 

achieved over, the land and naval forces of the .3. Reiolved, That the foregoing resolutions be 

enemy at Galveston, on the first of January, communicated by tlie Secretary of War to Major 

1863. eminently entitle them to the thanks of Gen. Magruder, and by him to his command. 
Congress and the country Approved. February '25th, 1863. 



THE CONFEDERATE STATES NAVY. 513 

and other vessels " under a flag of truce." Farragut's official 
report was as follows : 

"Flagship ' Hartford,' New Orleai^s, Jan. 29th, 1863. 

" Sir: I herewith enclose the report of Acting? Master J. A. Hannum, 
of the Harriet Lane, by which you will perceive the exai^gerations which 
have been circulated concerning the defence of that vessel ; also the pusil- 
lanimous conduct of the officer who accompanied the flag of truce and 
corroborated to Lieut. Commanding Law the enemy's statement, that all 
the officers and crew of the Harriet Lane had perished, save some ten or 
fifteen persons, whereas there were scarcely that number of killed and 
wounded. I take it for granted that of the nine slightly wounded the 
greater part amounted to nothing, so that the testimony of the rebel pilot 
was very near the truth when he said five killed and six or eight wounded. 
I cannot think but that for the death of Commodore Wainwright and 
Lieut. Commanding Lea, the vessel would not have been captured. It is 
difficult, however, to conceive a more pusillanimous surrender of a vessel 
to an enemy already in our power, than occurred in the case of the Har- 
riet Lane. Very respectfully, your obedient servant, 

"D. Gr. Farragut, Rear Admiral. 

" Hoisr. Gideon Welles, Secretary of the Navy.'" 

The idea that the "pusillanimous surrender" was to an 
enemy " already in our [the Federal] power" is perfectly ab- 
surd, in view of the fact that the Forty-second Massachusetts 
regiment was captured,, the Westfield blown up, and the Har- 
riet Lane disabled. Discretion was obviously the better part 
of valor for the remainder of the unfortunate fleet. The "pusil- 
lanimity " was not in surrendering or in getting away as fast 
as possible from an attack so fierce and successful, but in 
escaping under a flag of truce with vessels Avhich, in the lan- 
guage of Capt. Lubbock, were " already to be regarded as so 
much Confederate property." 

Altogether it was a brilliant victory. Credit is due to the 
land forces under Gens. Scurry, Green and Le Bray, and 
especially to Major Gen. Magruder for the foresight with 
which the affair was planned. The brave men of the land 
forces on the Neptmie were under the command of Col. A. P. 
Bagley, of Green's brigade ; and those on the Bayou City 
under the command of Col. Tom Green. Commodore Leon 
Smith, of the old navy of the Republic of Texas, was in com- 
mand of the whole naval expedition, which was managed 
with rare skill. As to the vessels themselves, the Neptune 
was commanded by Capt. William Sangster, with Dave Con- 
nor, chief engineer. The Bayou City was under command of 
Capt. Henry Lubbock, with L. C. Hersberger, chief engineer. 
No mention of this battle can be made without also giving 
due honor to Capt. Michael McCormack, the brave pilot of 
the Neptune, who was given by Commodore Smith his dis- 
cretion in steering his vessel for the Hai^riet Lane, and who 
was the first to begin the attack by water. ' 

1 Captain McCormack lost his life in 1866, by half of the survivors of fehe battle of Galveston 

accidentally falling overboard from a boat com- attended in that city a reunion and encamp- 

manded by him, running between Galveston and ment, and went over the ground and fought 

Houston. Twenty-three years after, about one- their battles over again. 
33 



514 THE CONFEDERATE STATES NAVY. 

How thoroughly the harbor was cleared the incident of 
the attempted capture of the U. S. steamer Cutnbria shows. 
The daring attempt of a single pilot-boat to perform such a 
deed exhibits the confidence of the Confederates in the demor- 
alization of the enemy. Though futile, it was one of the cool- 
est things of the war. It is given from the New Orleans corre- 
spondence of the New York Herald, and the letter is dated 
from on board the Cumhria, for the vessel put back at once: 

"The CiunhHa left New Orleans on the evening of December 31st, 
and arrived off Galveston bar, and anchored sixteen miles to the south- 
west of it, on the evening of Friday, January 2nd. This was the day after 
our disaster, and the enemy, of course, was in full possession. She lay 
here during the night. The morning (Saturday) was rainy, and the city 
of Galveston scarcely visible. At eight o'clock the vessel weighed anchor 
and approached the bar; but no pilot boat was visible, and she fired a gun 
as a signal for a pilot. This was not responded to in any manner, which 
all hands thought extraordinary, yet, while all wondered at the delay, 
no one really suspected the cause, and during the afternoon a boat was 
dispatched to the city to report the arrival of the Cumhria and secure a 
pilot. This boat contained Mr. Smith, a Texan refugee, and five of the 
crew, Avho, of course, were taken by the rebels the moment they landed. 

" Hour after hour passed, and still no return of the boat and no signal 
or tidings from shore. The officers, by aid of their glasses, were enabled 
to see flags, notwithstanding the fog; but they were quite unable to make 
out whether they floated the stars and stripes or the stars and bars. As 
the entire afternoon passed, however, without any return of the boat 
which had been dispatched, or any tidings whatever from the shore, all 
became suspicious that something was wrong, and when night at last 
settled down upon the water there was a firm determination, strongly felt 
if not expressed, to exercise the greatest caution before entering the harbor 
the next morning, even if a pilot should make his appearance. 

" On Sunday morning, having already lain off tJie bar full thirty-six 
hours, the captain again weighed anchor, and slowly cruised about. At 
last, about eleven o'clock in the forenoon, a handsome and good -sized sail 
boat was seen approacliing from the direction of the city, with four men 
in her. She passed the (Jumbria at some distance, and, making tack, 
headed for the city, and came alongside, and inquired how much water 
the vessel drew. 

"Capt. Sumner, of the Cumbria, replied 'that she drew nine and a 
half feet,' and the man said 'there were then eleven on the bar.' 

" 'Are you a pilot ? ' asked the captain. 

" 'Yes,' was the answer. 

" 'Are you the regular pilot ?' inquired the captain. 

" 'No,' was the reply of the spokesman from the boat. 'I am not the 
regular pilot. The regular pilot is busy. He has to pilot out a bark Avhich 
is going to sea; but if you will follow me I will pilot you in, and go ahead 
and take the soundings.' 

"Capt. Sumner, whose suspicions were fully aroused by the non- 
arrival of his boat, was determined not to let the pretended pilot off with- 
out bringing him to the point. As he was talking he came to the stern of 
the boat, bringing himself into full view, and w.as immediately recognized 
by a number of the Texans on board the Cumbria. 

" ' How are you, Capt. Payne?' shouted one of the Texans. 

" The pretended pilot, finding himself discovered, replied, ' I'm first 
rate; how are you ?' 

" ' Come aboard, sir,' said Capt. Sumner. 

" ' No, no,' replied Capt. Payne, ' there are too many damned blue coats 
aboard there to suit me.' 

'* ' Come aboard, sir !' shouted the captain. 



THE CONFEDERATE STATES NAVY. 515 

" BiTt Payne had no idea of allowing himself to be caught, and was 
meantime, making off. 

"' I don't want to come aboard,' he shouted. 'Follow me, and I'll 
guide you over the bar; but I'm not the regular pilot, as I've told you, and 
I don't want to take the responsibility of your vessel.' 

" 'Who's in command at Galveston ?' inquired the captain. 

" 'Commodore Wainwright, ' was the reply. 

" 'Come aboard, I say,' cried out the captain. 

" ' No, no,' said Payne, still making off. 

" The captain now ordered the Texans to stand at a 'ready' with their 
carbines. He also called out, as if giving orders to marines, saying that 
the portholes must not be opened until the colonel had given the orders 
to fire. The pilot hearing this, and witnessing the preparations to fire 
upon him, stopped, and with great reluctance finally came on board. He 
was then told that he must pilot the vessel in, and that if anything was 
wrong — if he was leading the vessel into a trap— his brains would be 
blown out upon the spot. 

" ' Well, gentlemen,' said the pilot, ' I suppose there is no use of lying 
to you any more, as I see I am known.' He then told the truth — that Gal- 
veston was in possession of the rebels, and that the gunboats had all left. 
He was made a prisoner ; but for some reason not explained the three 
rebels in the boat were allowed to go back to the city. As they sailed off 
the pretended pilot shouted out to them: 

" 'Good bye ! Take good care of my clothes, and tell the boys to look 
out for themselves.''' 

The United States made every effort to again blockade 
Galveston. Admiral Bell was despatched there with a formid- 
able fleet, consisting of the Brooklyn, Commander Bell- the 
Oivasco, Capt. Wilson; the Katahdin, Capt. Johnson; the Sci- 
ota, Capt. Lowry; and the Itasca, Capt. Lewis. The masts of 
the Harriet Lane could be seen from the fleet rising behind the 
town, and this made the Federals as angry as a hive of bees. A 
correspondent writing from on board the U. S. steamer Neiv 
London, said: "Galveston is a doomed town. The disgrace 
attending the capture of the Harriet Lane must be wiped out; 
and the vengeanceupon the butchers and captors will beawful." 

As soon as the Brooklyn arrived, therefore, she began to fire 
upon the town, at long range and out of danger. Once before 
all the foreign consuls in the city had protested in the name of 
humanity and civilization against such an act. This time the 
action was stopped by a flag of truce and a message from Gen. 
Magruder that the hospitals containing both Confederate and 
Federal wounded were within range; further, that there were 
many women and children in the city; and also, most potent 
of all, that the Confederate government had proclaimed Gal- 
veston a free port, and that the foreign consuls were decidedly 
of the opinion that the blockade had been successfully broken 
and could not be recognized until they had communicated with 
their respective governments. On which Commander Bell de- 
ferred further belligerent operations. 

At this period the U. S. vessels Morning Light, Eachel Sea- 
man and Velocity were blockading the important outlet of Sa- 
bine Pass. Fears were entertained for their safety. Lieut. Read, 
with the gunboat Cayuga, was sent to reinforce "the blockading 



516 THE CONFEDERATE STATES NAVY. 

ships. He was too late. He arrived in time to see the Morn- 
ing Light in flames, and the Velocity in the hands of the Con- 
federates. Tlie Rachel Seaman, he was told, had escaped. 
The Morning Liglit and Velocity had been captured some days 
before. When Lieut. Read appeared the Confederates were 
attempting to get the former off the shoals and over the bar, 
but were compelled to burn her when they saw the Cayuga, 
and knew it was useless to try to save her. The expedition was 
fitted out against this portion of the Federal fleet soon after the 
battle of Galveston. It was planned by Gen. Magruder to clear 
Sabine Pass of the enemy. Two small steamers, the Josiah 
Bell and the Uncle Ben, were cotton-clad and placed under the 
command of Major Watkins, with about three hundred men of 
Pyron's, Speight's and Cook's regiments. The Bell was armed 
with a 64:-pound rifled cannon, and the Uncle Ben with two 
18-pounders, These vessels reached the pass on Jan, 20th; on 
the 21st they discovered the Morning Light and the Velocity 
twelve miles distant and well out toward the sea. The moment 
the latter discovered the cotton-clads bearing down upon them 
they set sail and endeavored to escape. An exciting chase 
ensued, ' 

The chase continued for fifteen miles, when the Bell got 
within range and fired the first gun at the Morning Light. 
Some ten or twelve shots were fired in all before the vessel 
came within musket range, when the Texan rifiemen on board 
the Bell and the Uncle Ben soon cleared her decks. Before the 
Bell could reach her for boarding, the colors of the Mor- 
7iing Light were lowered and the Confederates took pos- 
session. The Velocity was easily captured after this; the Con- 
federates did not lose a man; the loss of the Federals was four 
killed and fifteen wounded. Major Watkins cruised for 
several days off the pass waiting for Federal vessels, but found 
none. The premature absurdity of the following procla- 
mation by Admiral Bell will therefore be readily seen : — 



U, S, Steam Sloop 'Brooklyn,' 

"Off GrALVESTON, Jan. 20th, 1863. 



^'Whej'eas, a proclamation dated Galveston, Texas, 4th January, 1863, 
and signed J. Bankhead Magruder, Major General Commanding, declares 
the said port of Galveston to be open for trade with all friendly nations, 
and invites their merchants to resunie usual commercial intercourse witii 
the said port of Galveston. Therefore, the undersigned hereby warns all 
concerned that the port of Galveston, and also Sabine Pass, as well as the 

1 It seems almost incredible that these vessels and is of nine hundred and thirty seven tons 

should run away, for the description of the burthen. She is constructed of oak, copperand 

Morning Light alone shows her to have been iron fastened, and was metalled in February, 

a vessel well able to coi)e with the two small 1861. She has a draft of nineteen feet, is one 

cotton-clads, to say nothing of the Velocity and hundred and seventy-two feet long, and thirty- 

Rachel Seaman, both blockading ships, and four feet broad and twenty-four feet in deptti. 

armed. The Morning Light is thus described in She is of sharp model, and was last surveyed in 

the New York Herald after the capture : this city in July, 1861. She carries a crew of 

" The United States ship Morning Light is a about one hundred and twenty men, and an 

purchased vessel, which was put into com- armament of eight thirty-two pounders. She 

missi(m about eighteen months since. She was was attached to the Gulf blockading squadron 

built in Philadelphia in 1853, has two decks, under Admiral Farragut." 



THE CONFEDERATE STATES NAVY. 517 

whole coast of Texas, are under an actual blockade by a sufficient force of 
United States vessels, and any merchant vessel appearing off the aforesaid 
ports, or attempting to pass out from the said ports, under any pretext 
whatever, will be captured, notwithstanding the aforesaid proclamation, 
and sent into an open port of the United States for adjudication. 

"H. H. Bell, 
" Commodore Commanding U. 8. Forces 
'^ Off Galveston and Coast of Texas.'''' 

Gen. Magruder's proclamation of the raising of the blockade 
was true, despite all attempts to hide the fact from foreign 
countries. Soon after the clearing of the pass Major Watkins 
bluffed off the Tennessee, a boat too swift for his vessels; it 
was fitted up as a gunboat by the United States. The Tennes- 
see, according to a letter to the New York Tribune, Jan. 30th, 
1863, written on board, arrived on the evening of the 21st of 
January off Sabine Pass. 

" Soon the Tennessee sighted a large steamer, strongly resembling the 
Morfiing Light, though her top spars and the yards on her mizzen-mast 
had been removed, and her jibboom was rigged English fashion. Behind 
her lay another vessel, indistinctly made out in the fast gathering dark- 
ness. Recognizing the Morning Light, in spite of her disguise, and rend- 
ered additionally distrustful of what might have happened by the fact 
that she showed no signal lights in answer to his own, Capt. Child of the 
Tennessee caused her to be hailed and demanded her name. ' The Morn- 
ing LighV was the reply. ' Then send a boat, we have a communication 
for you.' ' We've neither boat nor crew!' returned the unknown respond- 
ent, although the former could be discerned, hanging at the stern, by the 
officers of the Tennessee. ' Where is Capt. Dillingham?' next demanded 
Capt. Child. The answer came, brief, decisive and exultant! 'Ashoreand 
a prisoner! The Confederates are in possession of the vessel!' 

" A short consultation on board the Tennessee followed this disastrous 
intelligence. Some of the officers were disposed to attempt a recapture of 
the Morning Light. It being known, however, that she had no less than 
eight broadside guns and one thirty -pound Parrott, all of which were in 
undoubted possession of the rebels, while the Tennessee carried but an in- 
considerable armament of howitzers, just sufficient for blockade purposes, 
peaceful counsels prevailed, and Capt. Child steamed for Galveston, forty 
miles to the southward, there to report the bad news to Commander Bell. 
From the appearance of the Morning Light, it was evident that she had 
been recently attacked, probably that very day, and no doubt existed 
that the schooner Velocity, her only partner in the blockade of Sabine 
City, had shared her fate.'' 

Major Watkins at once sent official dispatches of this 
effective engagement as follows ■ 

" Sabine Pass, Texas, ) 

"On Board C. S. Gunboat ' Bell,' \ 

" January 21st, 1863. ) 

" Captain: We met the enemy this A. M. in the Gulf of Mexico, and 

whipped them. Brought everything to Sabine Pass. I fought his ten 

guns to our one. We have captured two vessels — one a full-rigged ship 

and the other a schooner, and twelve guns, medical stores, ammunition 

in abundance and 109 prisoners. I am here waiting further orders. 

"O. M. Watkins, 
" Major Commanding Sabine Pass. 
" To Capt. E. P. Turner, A. A. G." 



518 THE CONFEDERATE STATES NAVY. 

" Sabine Pass, January 21st, 
" To Capt. E. P. Turner, A. A. G.: 

"I engaged the enemy to-day and captured thirteen guns, about a 
$1,000,000 worth of property, and 109 i^risoners. 

"O. M. Watkins, Ilajor Commanding.^' ^ 

Sabine Pass was an important outlet for the Confederates. 
The Sabine River is the boundary line between Texas and 
Louisiana ; and to it, and across it, were sent thousands of 
bales of cotton to be shipped from Texan ports to Cuba and 
other points in the West Indies, and to Europe. All the arms 
and munitions of war from Mexico came to the pass on light- 
draft blockade-runners, whenever the pass was clear, instead 
of making- the more tedious journey overland. 

If Admiral Farragut was correct in his account of these 
affairs at Galveston and Sabine Pass, the United States navy 
had more cowards in it than was credited to it at the time. 
The italics in the lines of his report of the Sabine Pass fight 
are ours. 

Abundant caution seems to have been a characteristic of 
the Federal vessels in Texan waters, at this time. 

Flagship ' Hartford,' New Orleans, Jan. 29th, 1863, 

" Sir: I have received dispatches from Commodore Bell and Lieut, 
Commander Read, on the coast of Texas, extracts and a copy of which I 
herewith enclose, by wliich you will see that our disasters on that coast 
are not ended. As I had ah-eady anticipated, it appears that the enemy came 
out of Sabine Pass, with two cotton -fortified steamers on a certain morn- 
ing, and ran out to sea some twelve or fourteen miles where the 3Iorning 
Light was. The latter soon got under weigh; but, by the rebel accounts, 
and we have no otlier, they gave chase, soon came up with and captured 
her without losing a man. The same course of non-resistance appears to 
have been pursued by the officers and crew of that vessel as was pursued 
by those of the Westfield and Harriet Lane. The schooner Velocity was 
soon made also to surrender and was taken into port, I am very thankful 
that they did not get the guns of the Morning Light, as it would have en- 
abled them to erect a battery of great strength in such a shallow pass, 

"You will notice the guns of the Morning Light were loaded, and 
went off when they became heated, by which circumstance I judge the 
men did not even fire their last charge, but surrendered without a struggle. 

"I am pleased to see by Commodore Bell's report that the Harriet 
Lane is still in Galveston harbor, although they have tried to impress us 
with the idea that she had run out during the last gale, which is now 
known not to be the case. Your obedient servant, 

"D, G, Farragut, Rear Admiral. 
"To Gideon Welles, Secretary of the Navy. 

" P, S. — I have just learned that the Morning Light was captured in 
a dead calm by a steamer coming up astern of her, 

" D, G, Farragut, Rear Admiral.'''' 

The obvious purpose is to belittle the Confederate victories. 
The conquest was easy, says Admiral Farragut in effect, 

1 Joint resolution of thanks to Major Oscar M. command, for the signal victory achieved over 

Watkins and the officers and men under his com- the naval forces of the United States at Sabine 

mand : Pass, on the twenty-tirst of January. 1863, re- 

Resolved bT) the Congress of the Confederate States suiting in the dispersion of the blockading 

oj America, That the thanks of Congress are due sqviadron of the enemy, and the capture of two 

and are hereby tendered, to Major Oscar M. of his gunboats. 

Watkins, and the officers and men under his Approved May 1, 1863. 



THE CONFEDERATE STATES NAVY. 519 

because the Federal naval officers were cowards. He uses a 
weapon, however, that wounds the gallant Admiral's own 
friends more than it does his enemies. 

Capt. Wainwright of the Harriet Lane at least needs no 
further defence. He was ably championed by his brother, and 
it is due to him, and due to the memory of Commodore Smith, 
who was in an eager and cowardly manner accused by the 
Federal papers of shooting him after he had surrendered, to 
give the following card, published in December 1864, in the 
New York Herald, which paper had given currency to the 
scandalous charge. It is inserted here as pertinent to this 
part of the history, and as reflecting honor upon the Con- 
federate officers who took part in these engagements. The 
same respect shown to the body of Capt. Wainwright, it may be 
said also, was shown to that of the second officer, Lieut. Lea. 

"Havana, Dec. 8th, 1864. 
'To the Editor of the New York Herald: 

" My attention has been directed to an article published in your joui'- 
nal of Movember 30th, headed " Cruise of the United States Steamer Fort 
Morgan - Scenes in the Mexican Port of Bagdad — The Murderer of Com- 
mander Wainwright, United States Navy, a Leader of a Lawless Band of 
Rebels and Mexicans, etc., etc' — in which the writer, whom I suppose to 
be an acting officer of the United States Navy, and attached to the Fo7't 
Iforgan, says: 'The state of affairs in Bagdad, a town on the Mexican 
side of the Rio Grande, is wretched in the extreme. A spirit of lawless- 
ness prevails, and the town is said to be full of rebel desperadoes, who 
have openly threatened to take the life of any Federal officer they may 
meet in that town. The notorious Smith, who figured in Galveston Bay 
in the attack on the Harriet Lane, and who shot down Commander Wain- 
wright after he had surrendered, is at this time a leading spirit in Bagdad, 
and is said to be perfecting his arrangements for the capture of the United 
States gunboats at anchor off the mouth of the Rio Grande. 

"Permit me to say, that justice to myself demands that I should ask 
space in your columns to contradict at once such portions thereof as refers 
to me, and which, from beginning to end, are utterly devoid of truth, and 
could only have emanated in a spirit of wanton desire to defame my char- 
acter and to pervert well established facts of history. 

"During the action of January 1st, 1863, in Galveston Bay, I had the 
honor to command the Confederate naval forces. I made the attack on 
the Federal fleet shortly before daylight. The Harriet Lane was the first 
vessel which I engaged byljoarding; and it would have been impossible, 
owing to the darkness then prevailing, to have distinguished her com- 
mander from any of her other officers— particularly so, as he wore no 
uniform or insignia of his rank. After a short struggle the ship was 
surrendered to me by the senior surviving officer. Acting Master Hamblin, 
her commander having been killed some twenty minutes previous, gal- 
lantly defending himself with his revolver and cutlass. 

"A corroboration of my assertion that Commander Wainwright was 
not killed by me after the surrender of the vessel, as asserted by your cor- 
respondent, will be found in the official report of the court of inquiry or- 
dered by Admiral Farragut to investigate the Galveston disaster, a copy 
of which report I enclose, in which it is stated that ' the Harriet Lane 
was carried by boarding from the Bayou City, her commander summoned 
to surrender, which he refused, gallantly defending himself with his re- 
volver until killed.' 

"At the close of the action, I had the dead and wounded taken on 
shore and cared for. I assisted with my own hands in moving the corpse 



520 THE CONFEDERATE STATES NAVY. 

of Commander Wainwri^ht to the headquarters of Gen. Magruder. While 
doing so, 1 was informed that he had been a member of an Order with 
whicli I have the honor to be connected. He was dressed in full uniform 
and laid out in state. I ordered the finest coffin that could be found, and 
paid for the same out of my own private purse. Although I met and 
fought him as an enemy, I admired his undaunted courage and bravery, 
and hence jaaid every respect to his remains. 

"He was buried with military and Masonic honors. I among many 
other Confederate officers followed him to his grave. I saw to the collec- 
tion and safe keeping of all of his personal effects, including his two 
swords, which I placed in charge of the senior surviving officer; but they 
were subsequently sent out to Commodore Bell, at that time commanding 
the United States squadron off Galveston, with the request that they 
should be forwarded to his family in the North, to whom I have every 
reason to suppose they were safely delivered. 

"The statement of my being the leader of a lawless band of Mexicans 
and rebels at the port of Bagdad is simply ridiculous, and may go for what 
it is worth. 

" If I have done any damage to your government at that point it was 
done legitimately, from the Confederate side of the Rio Grande, and under 
the Confederate, not Mexican, flag. 

" I have been induced to make this statement of facts in vindication 
of my character as an officer and a gentleman. 
" Very respectfully, etc., 

"Leon Smith, 

'■'■Confederate States JYavy.'''' 

On March 12th, 1864, Admiral Porter, with nineteen gun- 
boats, followed by ten thousand men of Sherman's army, under 
the command of Major Gen. N. P. Banks, entered the mouth of 
Red River. On the 13th, under cover of a part of the fleet, the 
troops debarked at Semmesport, on the Atchafalaya near the 
Red River, and on the 14th, under command of Gen. A. J. 
Smith, captured Fort De Russy. On the 15th of March the ad- 
vanced boats of Porter's fleet reached Alexandria, where by 
the mismanagement of a pilot one Confederate steamer was 
grotinded on the falls and had to be burned. On the 26th of 
April the Federal iron-clad Eastport grounded on a bar below 
Grand Encore, and to prevent, her from falling into the hands 
of the Confederates she was destroyed. While intercepting 
the Federal gunboats on their way down the Red River at the 
junction of the Cane, on the 26th, the Confederates crippled one 
gunboat and exploded the boiler of a transport. The loss of the 
latter was one hundred dead and seventy-seven severely 
scalded. On the 1st of May the Confederates captured and 
sunk the transport Emma. On the 3d they captured the trans- 
port Cihj Belle, on her way up to Alexandria, with the 120th Ohio 
regiment on board. On the evening of the 4th the Federal 
gunboats Covington and Signal, each mounting eight heavy 
guns, with the transport Warner, attempted to pass Davide's 
Ferry. The Covington was blown up by her crew to escape 
capture, but the Signal and Wariier surrendered. 

During these operations the Federals were engaged night 
and day in the construction of a dam across the Red River, to en- 
able the fleet to escape over the falls. This it finally succeeded 



THE CONFEDERATE STATES NAVY. 521 

in doing, which ended the last Federal campaign undertaken 
for political objects, or intrusted to political generals. 

The Sabine River, between Louisiana and Texas, was a 
line of great strategic importance to the forces of the United 
States ; as its possession would give to their forces short lines 
of operations against the interior of Texas, as well as recover 
the morale that was lost in the harbor of Galveston. For that 
purpose a fleet of twenty-one vessels was organized and dis- 
patched in September, 1863, accompanied by a force of not less 
than five thousand men. The Confederate authorities had 
made no adequate preparations to resist such an army, and at 
that time it was not possible to promptly organize a force that 
could repel such an expedition. A few miles above the en- 
trance to Sabine River a small earthwork had been constructed 
and was at that time garrisoned by a force of forty -two men 
and two lieutenants, with an armament of six guns. The com- 
pany constituting the garrison was composed of Irishmen and 
called the "Davis Guards"; its captain, F. H. Odium, was 
temporarily absent and the command devolved on Lieut, R, 
W. Dowling. 

After the first naval battle off Sabine Pass the United States 
was content for some time to maintain a more or less effective 
blockade of that estuary, of Galveston and of the mouth of the 
Rio Grande. Later in the year 18G3, however, the Federal au- 
thorities saw the necessity, if they would close these ports, of 
taking possession of them by a formidable land force. Sabine 
Pass was the first objective point. The expedition against it 
was organized at New Orleans. The 19th army corps, Major 
Gen. Franklin in command, cwistituted the land army, which 
was embarked on transports on the 4th of December. It was 
designed to land and hold Sabine Pass as a base of strategic 
operations against western Louisiana and eastern and central 
Texas. To cover the landing of the troops there was a navy 
of four light-draft gunboats — the Sachem, the Clifton, the 
Granite City and the Arizona. The foremost transport was 
the Belvedere, having on board Gen. Adam Weitzel and 500 
picked men, who were to occupy the post of honor and make 
the first landing. The only fortified point at Sabine Pass, as 
has been stated, was a Confederate earthwork of small pro- 
portions with a few light guns, on the Texas side of the pass, 
known as Fort Griffin, and commanded by Lieut. Dowling, 
who managed the ensuing fight with a coolness and skill which 
does him and the men under him infinite credit. The Federals, 
officered by a general of such eminence as Franklin, and com- 
posed in part of picked men recently from the victories on the 
Mississippi, exulted in the anticipation of an easy conquest. 

On the 5th of December the gunboats, accompanied by 
the transports, started from New Orleans. The rendezvous 
was Berwick Bay. It was determined that the attack should 



522 THE CONFEDERATE STATES NAVY. 

commence on the Stli of December, should be sudden and secret, 
and before the Confederates had time to reinforce Fort Griffin, 
or to erect shore batteries. On account of the absence of the 
blockading- vessel which they expected to sight, the expedition 
missed the designated point and was delayed one day. On the 
9th, however, the whole fleet was collected at the Pass and the 
order of battle arranged. Capt. Crocker, of the Clifton, was to 
begin the action by feeling and uncovering the Confederate 
batteries, while Gens. Franklin and Weitzel personally exam- 
ined the shore of the Pass and ascertained the most eligible 
point for disembarking the land forces. Accordingly the 
Clifton was the first to enter the Pass, throwing shells as she 
did so into Fort Griffin. She received no response and re- 
turned. Then, the Clifton leading, the Arizona and the 
Sachem steamed in opposite the fort, and the Clifton opened 
with one of her nine-inch pivot guns. The shell exploded in- 
side the fort, throwing up a shower of dirt, and was instantly 
followed by another shell of the same kind. At once the 
Sachem poured in a broadside from her thirty-two-pounder 
guns, and the next moment the Arizona opened. Up to this 
time, and not until thirty or forty shells had exploded appar- 
ently in the fort, was a shot fired in return. The naval com- 
manders began to think the works abandoned. The only 
signs of life apparent on water or land were two steamers in 
the river, one of which ran down to the fort and back just be- 
fore the action. The silence did not continue long. A white 
cloud of smoke arose from the parapet of the fort and floated 
away in the still air. The shot passed directly over the Ari- 
zona, striking the water beyond, showing that the aim was 
good and the range effective. The next shot was at the 
Sachem, and the next at the Clifton. Obviously those in the 
fort did not intend to allow any of the vessels to complain 
of neglect. None of these shots struck the vessel fired at. 
The engagement now became general. The Clifton and Ari- 
zona kept moving forward and backward, pouring in broad- 
sides in quick succession, while the Sachem was moving 
steadily forward in order to get in the rear of the fort, where 
it was open and unprotected. This move was seen, and the 
Confederates redoubled their fire at her, answered shot for 
shot by the three boats, the huge shells every instant bursting 
in the fort, carrying destruction in their wake and knocking 
great holes in the parapet, which appeared of sufficient size to 
admit the passage of a carriage and horses. The Confederates 
acted with great braver}', however, and if their fire slackened 
an instant after one of those terrific explosions, which seemed 
to shake the very earth around them, it was instantly resumed 
with increased rather than diminished determination. Grad- 
ually, but surely, the Sachem was gaining her desired position. 
A moment more and she would pass out of range, and the day 
would be won. All eyes were bent upon her, when suddenly 



THE CONFEDERATE STATES NAVY. 523 

a shot was seen to strike her amidships, crushing in her sides 
and tearing her iron plating for the protection of sliarp- 
shooters as a piece of paper, and causing her to careen and 
tremble from stem to stern. An instant more and she was en- 
veloped in the scalding vapor of escaping steam and lay a help- 
less wreck at the mercy of the fort.' The flag was lowered. 

The disabling of the Sachem enabled the fort to turn its 
attention to the Clifton and the Arizona. The latter kept 
well off; but the former, with a bravery we cannot but admire, 
fought gallantly, running in toward the batteries and deliver- 
ing her fire with a quickness and determination which exhib- 
ited both courage and good handling by her commander. A 
large portion of her crew, as well as a majority of that of the 
Sachem, were Irish, and as the troops in the fort were largely 
of the same nationality, it was Irish pluck against Irish valor. 
Just as the gunboat, however, ran down to the fort for the 
last time, her bow was thrown round slightly in the act of 
turning, and she was driven into the shallow river mud and 
stuck fast. She offered for a moment a target, of which the 
Confederate gunners took instant advantage, for she lay 
broadside on. She still kept firing, and for some time with 
the hope of keeping down the fire of the fort; but a shot from 
the battery at length struck the boat in the centre and passed 
through the boiler. She was now helpless and lay a w^-eck, 
exposed to the fort and at its mercy. Her captain had fought 
her gallantly but uselessly. '^ The white flag was run up and 
the firing ceased. The Arizona was the only boat left, and 
though the largest of them all, she hesitated to engage the 
fort alone. She steamed off, and the fleet withdrew, and was 
next heard of at New Orleans. 

This affair at Sabine was highly creditable to all engaged, 
especially to the Davis Guards, Capt. Dowling, at the fort. ^ 

1 Tbe Sachem was Ijuilt in 1840, in New York, After the affair at Galveston she was commancl- 
and was formerly owned in Hartford, Conn. ed by Lieiit. Frederick Crocker, and was noted 
She was about 198 tons' burden, and drew about on the Texas coast. She served as a Confederate 
seven feet of water. She had a vertical engine, gunboat until the 21st of March, 1864, when, at- 
with a cylinder twenty-four inches in diameter tempting to i-un the blockade at Sabine Pass 
and ten inches stroke. She was rebuilt in 1854, with over 700 bales of cotton on board, she ran 
and was sold to the TJ. S. government early in aground and was burned to prevent her from 
the war. In the attack upon the forts below falling into the hands of the enemy. 
New Orleans she was in the Coast Survey ser- 
vice, under the charge of Mr Gerdes, Assistant ' A New York Herald correspondent noting the 
V. S. Coast Survey. After the taking of New action said :—" Considering the number of the 
Orleans she was fitted up with heavy armament, forces engaged, it is doubtful if any aftair of the 
and figured prominently at various times and whole war can compare with the battle of Sabine 
places. Herotficerswei-e— Acting Master Com- Pass in obstinacy of fighting, loss of life and 
manding, Amos Johnson ; Acting Ensign, A. ^'^^ amount of interest involved. To the enemy 
H. Reynolds ; Acting Master's Mates, J. C. Dal- i* ^as a matter of hfe and death, and to the 
lives, L. C. Granger : Acting Engineers John Union forces it was the opening battle of a most 
Frazier, James R. Wall and George C. M. Woolfe. brilliant campaign. The enemy retained their 

prize; but their loss has been undoubtedly 

- The gunboat Clifton was built in New York, without precedent in the annals of the war, and 

and was purchased by the Federal Navy Depart- they will, in the mid.st of their rejoicing, tremble 

ment early in the war. She was a Staten Island at the thought of a i-epetition of the attack. 

ferry boat, and well known in New York. She There were on board the Clifton, besides her 

was attached to the Porter mortar flotilla, and crew, a party of seventy-five sharp-shooters and 

did considerable service in the engagement be- three of the signal corps, and on the Sachem a 

low the forts at New Orleans. She carried nine detachmentof thirty sharp-shooters. Of the crew 

guns of heavy calibre. After the mortar flotilla of tbe Clifton, five soldiers, one sailor and one 

■was scattered she served in several expeditions. signal man escaped down the beach, and were 



524 THE CONFEDERATE STATES NAVY. 

E. P. Alsbury^ a Confederate participant, gives the follow- 
ing interesting account of the fight, and of the part Com- 
modore Leon Smith and his cotton-clads took therein. That 
it was not a more active one is due to the quick dispatch of the 
Davis Guards in Fort Griffin, and to the haste of the Federal 
fleet to get to sea. 

The Confederate authorities had notice of the fitting out 
of the expedition of Gen. Franklin. Its destination was sup- 
posed to be Galveston, or Matagorda. The army of Gen. 
Magruder was distributed in accordance with this view. It 
was a surprise, therefore, when a dispatch was received by 
Col. Luckett at Harrisburg, Texas, from Lieut. Dick Dowling 
at Sabine Pass, stating tliat a large hostile fleet was in the 
offing, and that he had at Fort Griffin but forty-two men of 
the Davis Guards, a Houston company, and fiv^e pieces of artil- 
lery. Commodore Leon Smith, who was present when the 
dispatch was received, was at once requested to proceed down 
the river to the scene of action. At Beaumont, on the river, 
the steamer Bell, fitted up with cotton bales, incased in two- 
inch plank around her front and boiler, was lying. Commo- 
dore Smith took Jier, and with what men he could muster, 
steamed down the river. The sound of cannon was heard as 
the steamer neared Sabine Pass and told that the conflict had 
already commenced. In the graphic words of Mr. Alsbury — 

" The pass was in full view. The white puffs from the advancing gun- 
boats were seen, but the fort was silent. Could it be that it had been 
deserted? I can better explain the situation by sending the story of the 
fight, as it Avas detailed by its chief actor, and by others who supplied the 
circumstances omitted by the modesty of the young commander. When 
the fleet first anchored off the bar Lieut. Richard Dowling, a young Irish- 
man, twenty years of age, and the junior officer of his company, was in 
command of Fort Grilfin, with forty-two men present for duty. After 
transmitting the news to headquarters, he made every preparation Tiec- 
essary for defence, resolving to hold his position until it should become 
untenable. His men fully entered into the spirit of their young com- 
mander, and they calmly awaited the motions of their enemy. Fort Grif- 
fin was an unfinished earthwork on the Texas side of the Pass, destitute 
of any outer defences, presenting three bastioned sides on the east, south 
and west, the north and rear enclosed by a redoubt about four feet above 
the level. The work occupied high ground and commanded both the 

taken off by a boat from the fleet. The number would have "trembled at the thought of a re- 
ef killed and wounded must have been large, petion of the attack." They were only sorry when 
particularly on the Clifton, as she was not only the Arizona steamed off. The Granite City with 
exposed to a cross fire, but was raked from stem a broadside of brass guns was not heard of in the 
to stern by grape. As to the killed and wounded action. She was intended to cover the landing 
on the Sachem nothing is known ; but the loss of the troops, but none were ever lauded. Why, 
is supposed to be light, and mostly from the it would be difficult to say; General Franklin had 
escaping steam, as but the one shot was known on the transports pi'obably four thousand men, 
to have struck lier. The loss of the enemy was many of them picked troops. He had to cover 
undoubtedly enormous, as the huge nine-inch his landing, the uninjured gunboats Arizona- 
shell apparently searched every. nook and cor- and Granite City, the latter of light draft and 
ner of the earthwork ; and when the Clifton was especially chosen for the pui-pose. It seems an 
aground the same guns poured in a murderous ignominious thing for such a force to sail away 
fire of grape, sweeping the parapet from end to and put back to New Orleans, rather than face an 
end. Their loss, however, will probably never earthwork fore of few guns, garisoned l)y less 
be known." than three hundred landsmen, and already sub- 
The correspondent was sadly mistaken, never- jected to a prolonged and severe bombard- 
thelesB, in his assertion that the Davis Guards ment. 



THE CONFEDERATE STATES NAVY. 525 

Texas and Louisiana channels. The former 300 yards ; the latter at the 
distance of three-fourths of a mile. 

"The armament consisted of one forty-four-pounder, smooth bore; 
and four thirty-two-pound Parrotts, and a brass twenty-four-pounder. 
The latter piece was not used in the action, for the want of suitable am- 
munition. Sabine village was situated about a mile and a half from the 
work, up the Pass, and contained only a few families, chiefly women and 
children of men in the service. 

"The morning of the 8th of September, 1863, dawned brightly, and 
the golden glow from the east was reflected by the white sails of the Fed- 
eral fleet which were making for a berth as near the shallow bar as possi- 
ble. Some of the sailing transports were being towed by the steamers and 
four of the latter, as the sequel proved, were gunboats. Their movements 
were watched with thrilling interest by the people from the town and 
fort, and but few of the former anticipated any other result in the coming 
battle than disaster to the Confederates. 

"Finally the cloud of sails on the outer bar, appeared to be arranged 
to satisfaction, and two steamers headed for the Pass, followed by two 
others, each with a transport in tow. When they arrived opposite the 
light-house, about three miles distant, one of the steamers took the Texas 
channel, while the other turned into that which skirted the Louisiana 
shore. Lieut. Dowling now understood that the enemy meant business. 
He had decided on his plan of defence. Ordering the men to enter the 
bomb-proofs, there to remain until he should fire the first gun, he re- 
mained to watch the gunboats, now slowly feeling their way up the 
two parallel channels. From their long service on the Texan coast, the 
two vessels were recognized with a glass by the time they had reached 
the light-house. The gunboat Clifton, Capt. Crocker commanding, fol- 
lowed the nearer channel; the otlier boat was the Sachem, under Lieut. 
Johnson. At a mile distant, the Clifton commenced the fight with 
shell, turning aside occasionally to bring her broadside into play. Sev- 
eral of the missiles fell in the fort and scattered the dirt in all directions. 
The Sachem did not fire, but advanced slowly, throwing the lead. 
Dowling remained in an angle of a bastion, concealed from view, and 
watching the approaching foe. This programme obtained until but 400 
yards separated the Clifton from the Confederate position, when that 
vessel turned her broadside full to the fort. Until now nothing but 
silence answered the thunder of the Federal guns, and the commander 
of the gunboats began to suspect that they were confronted by dum- 
mies and a deserted work. But Dowling's opportunity had come. With 
the cool precision of a target practice, he deliberately sighted the forty- 
four pounder, and sent a solid shot through the enemy's side. The 
' Davies' were not slow to respond to the signal, and soon the fort was 
wrapped in a curtain of smoke, and shook to the thunders of artillery. 
Three pieces were turned upon the more distant Sachem, now nearly 
abreast the eastern battery. Her response in quick, successiv^e broad- 
sides added to the din of battle, and hot work was in order for the next 
few minutes. A shot from the Clifton took off a handle of the elevating 
screw of the forty-four-pounder, hardly a second after Dowling had 
sighted the piece and moved to one side. The latter vessel fought desper- 
ately and in the last attempt to bring her broadside to bear, ran her bow 
into the mud. While in this position the Confederate shot pierced her 
steam-chest and boilers, scalding a number of her crew, and her flag was 
lowered. In a few moments the colors of the Sachem were struck, and the 
cheers from the fort succeeded the roar of cannon. At this moment the 
Bell was noticed coming down the Pass, while far in her rear on the lake 
the black smoke of another boat was visible. This proved to be an un- 
armed supply boat from Beaumont, which left shortly after the Bell. 
So soon as hostilities ceased, the other Federal steamers, which were 
afterwards known to have been the Arizona and Granite City, steamed 
back to the fleet, and left their gallant consorts to their fate. Capt. 



526 THE CONFEDERATE STATES NAVY. 

Crocker came ashore with a boafs crew, and mounting the parapet of the 
fort, asked for the commanding officer. Dowling, full of the dust of bat- 
tle, and looking little like a hero, presented himself as the person sought. 

" The gallant Federal, in handsome uniform, could scarce believe the 
dirty boy was his conqueror, oi- that the handful of men before him com- 
prised the force who had cahnly awaited a hostile fleet, and by their un- 
aided effort had subjected it to defeat, with the loss of its two best gun- 
boats. 

"As Capt. Crocker and party had come ashore without side-arms, 
Lieut. Dowling stated that he would accompany him back to the prize and. 
receive his sword. While this formality of receiving the surrender of the 
Clifton was in progress, the steamboat Bell^ with Leon Smith and party 
aboard, ran alongside of the Sachem, and she was taken possession of and 
manned by the naval detachment accompanying the commodore. It was 
discovered that the Sachem had also suffered in her boilers, and that fifteen 
of her men had been scalded. Her brave commander had ordered the 
canvas spread, and the run comj^leted under sail, but her crew revolted 
and hauled down her flag. Had the order been obeyed the vessel would 
doubtless have succeeded m passing out of range, and could have engaged 
the work from the rear. The officers and men taken on the captured 
vessels amounted to about 315. In the fort not a single casualty had oc- 
curred. The prisoners were landed during the afternoon, and placed 
under the guard of a militia company of home guards, which hastily as- 
sembled on hearing the cannonading, and arrived at the scene of the con- 
flict shortly after it had ceased. This company was composed of men too 
old to be in active service, and numbered about twenty. Their homespun 
clothes and rusty old fire locks, some of which still had the flint pans, 
afforded no little fun for the pi'isoners, who were neatly uniformed. The 
majority of the latter were Irish, like their captors, and there was no end 
to their wit, at the expense of their guard. 

" The heroism displayed at Sabine Pass has never been excelled, when 
the odds are considered and the moral stamina it must have required to 
brave the presence of little less than an armada bearing a large army with 
a well-defined object of invasion, and prepared to meet with resistance that 
must have been believed to be ten or twenty fold its real strength. The young 
hero, Dick Dowling, has passed away from earth, but his memory will re- 
main green among those who were his fellow soldiers, and still will live in 
song and story, when Texan valor will be the theme, and heroic deeds 
recounted." 1 

Sabine Pass was an unlucky spot for the Federal fleet. 
The Confederates were as active there as hornets. Eight 

1 Joint resolution qffhanlsto Capt. Odium, Lieut. communicate tbe foregoing resolutions to Capt. 

Do^uling, and the men under their command : Odium, Lieut. Dowling, and the men under 

Resolved. That tbe thanks of Congress are emi- their command, 

nently due, and are hereby cordially given, to Approved, February 8th, 1864. 

Capt. Odium, Lieut. Richard Dowling, and the The Federal official dispatch relating to this 

forty -one men composing the Davis Guards, disastrous event tells its own story. The confi- 

under their command, for their daring, gallant dent tone of the dispatch of Sept. 4th is in de- 

and successful defence of Sabine Pass, Texas, cided contrast with the contents of the subse- 

against the attack made by the enemy, on the queut reports. 

eighth of September last, with a fleet of five United States Steam-Sloop "Pensacola," ) 

gun-boats and twenty-two steam transports. New Orleans, September 4th, 1863. ) 

carrying a land force of fifteen thousand men. Sib: I have the honor to inform the depart- 

Resolved, That this defence, resulting, under ment that Major General Banks, having organ- 

the Providence of God, in the defeat of the en- ized a force of 4,000 men, under Major Gen. 

emy, the capture of two gun-boats, with more Franklin, to effect a landing at Sabine Pass for 

than three hundred prisoners, including the military occupation, and requested the co-oper- 

commander of the fleet; the crippling of a third ation of the navy, which I most gladly acceded 

gun-boat, the dispersion of the transports, and to, I assigned tlie command of the naval force 

preventing the invasion of Texas, constitutes, in to Acting Vol. Lieut. Frederick Crocker, com- 

the opinion of Congress, one of the most brill- manding U. S. steamer Clifton, accompanied by 

iant and heroic achievements in the history of the steamer Sachem, Acting Vol. Lieut. Amos 

this war, and entitles the Davis Guards to the Johnson; U. S. steamer ^niona. Acting Master 

gratitude and admiration of their country. Howard Tibbetts; and U. S. steamer Granite 

Resolved, That the President be requested to City, Acting Master C. W. Lamson. These being 



THE CONFEDERATE STATES NAVY. 52T 

months after the action just mentioned, the U. S. steamer 
Granite City, which then escaped, together with the steamer 
Wave, were captured at the Pass. 

While lying in the river waiting for coal the Confederates 
threw a pontoon bridge across Mud Bayou, and brought over 
six pieces of artillery and a force of men. The first intimation 
the gunboats had of their proximity was the opening of the 
battery so near that in a few moments the Granite City sur- 
rendered, and a little while after the Wave. The troops on 
shore were aided by a cotton-clad steamer, probably the Bell. 
The Granite City was an iron side-wheel steamer; the crew wa& 
made up of the paroled and exchanged men of the unfortunate 
Hatteras. The Wave, or Gunboat 45, was originally one of Ad- 
miral Porter's gunboats and was protected by iron armor. The 
Granite had been on the Texas coast since 1863, and the Wave 
since April 18G4. The officers captured with the Granite City 
were Acting Master Commanding, C. W. Lamson; Acting As- 
sistant Surgeon, E. C. Vermulen; Acting Assistant Paymaster, 
John Reed; Acting Master, A. H. Atkinson; Acting Ensigns, 
S. R. Tyrrell and A. H. Terry; Acting Master's Mates, T. R. 
Marshall. J. E. Ashmeadand D. Hall; Engineers: Acting Second 
Assistant, S. Greene; Acting Third Assistants, D. M. Schryver, 
J. H. Rollins and R. H. Gordon; Paymaster's Clerk, H. H. Faring. 

And the officers of the Wave were Acting Volunteer Lieu- 
tenant, B. W. Loring; Acting Assistant Paymaster, Alfred G. 
Lathrop; Acting Ensigns, F. J. Latham, Peter Howard, and 
William Mellen; Acting Master's Mate, Charles Cameron; 
Engineers: First Assistant, John Thompson; Second Assist- 
ant, M. F, Fitzpatrick; Third Assistants, John Rodgers and 
W. H. Wilson; Paymaster's Clerk, Charles H. Grace. 

We have not the official report, but the following letter 
will be of interest: 

" Sabine Pass, Texas, May 8th, 1864. 

" My Dear I am under the painful necessity of informing you 

that I was captured at Calcasien Pass on the morning of the 6th. The 

the only available vessels of sufficient light made repeated attempts to go in alone, but 

draft at my disiiosal for that service, and as they without success. 

have good pilots, I have no doubt the force is I have the honor to be your obedient servant, 

quite sufficient for the object. The defences H. H. Bell, 

afloat and ashore are believed to consist of two Commodore Commanding W. G. B. Squadron, 

thirty -two pounders en barbette, and a battery of pro tern. 

field pieces, and two bay boats converted into To the Hon. Gideon Welles, 

rams. Secretary of the Ifavy, Washington, D. C. 

It was concerted with Gen. Franklin that the 

squadron of four gun-boats, under the com- United States Steamer "Arizona," ) 

maiid of Acting Vol. Lieut. CrocLer, shall make Sabine Bar, September 10th, 1883. | 

the attack alone, assisted by about one hundred Sib : — * * * At 6 a. m. on the 8th, the 

and eighty sharp-shooters from the army, di- Clifton stood in the bay and opened fire on the 

vided among his vessels; and having driven the fort, to which no reply was made. At 9 a. m. 

enemy from his defences and destroyed or the Sachem, Arizona, and Granite City, followed 

driven ofi" the rams, the transports are then to by the trausjiorts, stood over the bar, and with 

advance and land their troops. much difl' nilty (owing to the shallowness of the 

I regret exceedingly that the officers and water) reached anchorage two miles from the 

crews, who have been on blockade there, can- port at 11 a. m., the gunboats covering the traus- 

not participate in the attack, in consequence of ports. 

the excessive draft of water drawn by their ves- At 8.30 v, m., the Sachem, followed by the Ari- 

Bels. zona, advaoced uj) the eastern channel to draw 

The New London, drawing 93^ feet, is the the fire* of the forts, while the Clifton advanced 

lightest draft of all the blockaders, and had up the ■H'jistern channel ; the Granite City to 



528 THE CONFEDERATE STATES NAVY. 

Wave was also captured at the same time. We fought for an hour and 
forty minutes; but the enemy's sharp-shooters picked off our men so that 
we could not keep our guns manned, and their batteries hulled us every 
shot. 

" The Granite City had sixteen shot-holes in her hull, near the water 
line ; two oflBcers were wounded, one severely — so badly that his right arm 
was obliged to be taken off at the shoulder. Ten men were wounded; 
two since dead. 

" The enemy's sharp-shooters annoyed us most, although we were 
pretty well cut up by shot and shell. 

" I am uninjured and in good health, I have met so far with high- 
toned i)olite officers, who have shown me every proper attention. 

" We go from here by steamboat and railroad to Houston. Our des- 
tination from there is now to me unknown. 

" C. W. Lamson, Commanding U. 8. Steamer 'Granite City.''^'' 

It will be seen that Commander Lamson pays a tribute to 
the courtesy and kindness of his captors. In the course of the 
narrative also it has been observed how generous a tribute 
was paid to the remains of Commander Wainwright and 
Lieut. Lea, of the Har7Het Lane. And further, the letter has 
been given in which Commodore Smith so indignantly and 
successfully defended himself against the charge of shooting 
Commander Wainwright after his surrender. It is the unan- 
imous statement of the officers who were prisoners in Texas 
from the Federal naval forces that they were well treated, and 
as well fed, housed and clothed as the circumstances would 
allow. Of course there were persons who, in Northern papers, 
tried to influence the feelings of the North by assertions 
unw^arranted by the facts, but time has vindicated the Con- 
federate authorities from all such charges. 

cover the landing of a division of troops under United States Steam Sloop "Pensacola," ) 

Ueneral Weitzel ; no reply to the fire of the gvm- New Okleans, September 13th 1863. ) 

boats being made until we were abreast of the Sir :— My dispatch No. 41 informed you of the 

forts, when they opened with eight guns, three repulse of the expedition at Sabiue Pass, and 

of which were rifled. Almost at the same the capture of the Clifton, Actiug-Vol. Lieut, 

moment the Clifton and Sachem were struck in Frederick Crocker, and Sachem, Acting- Vol. 

their boilers, enveloping the vessels in steam. Lieut. Amos Johnson, by the rebels, and the safe 

There not being room to pass the Sachem, this return of the troops and transports to the river 

ves.sel was backed down the channel and a boat without loss. 

sent to the Sacltem, w hich returned with Engineer Lieutenants Crocker and Johnson are reported 

Munroe and Fireman Linn badly scalded (since to have fought their vessels gallantly, and are 

dead). The Arizona had now grounded by the unhurt. The rebel steamers took the Clifton 

stern ; the ebb-tide caught her bows and swung and Sachem in tow within twenty minutes after 

her across the channel ; she was, with much their surrender. The extent of their damage is 

difficulty, extricated from this position— owing unknown. 

to the engine becoming heated by the collection The arrival of the Owasco this morning has 

of mud in the boilers. given me the only reports from the naval officers 

The flags of the Clifton and Sachem were rnn concerned that I have yet received, 

down and white flags were flying at the fore. As **#«** 

all the transports were now moving out of the The attack, which was to have been a surprise 

bay, this vessel remained covering their move- and made at- early dawn on the 7th, was not 

ments, until she grounded and remained until made tmtil 3 p. m. on the 8th, after the entire 

midnight, when she was kedged off, as no assist- expedition liad appeared off Sabine for tweuty- 

ance could be had from any of the tugs of the eight hours, and a reconnoissance lid been 

expedition. There are now on board this vessel. made on the morning of the 8th, by Generals 

Wilham Low, Peter Benson, George W. Maker, Franklin and Weitzel and Lieut. Commanding 

John Howels, Samuel Smith.and George Hurtou, Crocker, when they decided on a form of attack 

of the crew of the Sachem. different from that recommended by myself. 

Very respectfully, your obedient se'vant, ****** 

H. T jBKTTCS, I have the honor to be your obedient servant. 

Acting Master Commanding U.y. steamer H. H. Bell, 

Arizotia, Commodore Com. W. G. B. Squadron, pro tern. 

Commodore H. H. Bell, ■" Hon. Gideon Welles, 

Cmnmandingyv. G. B. Squadron, New Orleans. Secretary of the Navy, Washington, D. C. 



THE CONFEDERATE STATES NAVY. 529 

Lieut. Loring of the Wave was an officer of distinction. 
He served the guns that caused the Confederate ram Atlanta 
to surrender, and it is said he fired the first shot at Fort Sum- 
ter, and the one that exploded the magazine at Fort Moultrie. 

The end was drawing near, however. The United States, 
with its almost unlimited forces, was proving too strong for 
the little State of Texas left to itself. Brownsville was occu- 
I)ied by the Banks' expedition; the Matagorda peninsula, com- 
manding Cavallo Pass and Corpus Christi, was firmly held ; 
the blockade of Galveston was strengthened, and only the 
forts at Sabine Pass were still defiantly held. It was not until 
May, 1865, that they were evacuated, and then the long war 
was drawing to a close, and Gens, E. Kirby Smith and Canby 
were arranging terms of surrender. Acting Volunteer Lieut. 
Pennington hoisted the United States flag on the memorable 
Fort Griffin. He found it a small place with five bomb-proofs 
covered with two feet of solid timber and two layers of rail- 
road iron, and containing five guns, which he spiked. 

Acting Rear Admiral Thatcher's report of the capture of 
the forts at Sabine Pass was as follows: 

" New Orleaists, La., May 31st, 1865, 
"Sir: I have the honor to inform the Department that a disf)atch, 
Tinder date of the 25th inst., was this day received from Captain B. F, 
Sands reporting the evacuation of the defences of Sabine Pass, Forts 
Mannahassets and Griffin, 

"Acting Volunteer Lieut, Commander Pennington hoisted the United 
States flag on these forts. The guns, five in number, were spilved. Fort 
Griffin is described as having five bomb-proofs covered with two feet of 
solid timber, two layers of railroad iron, and four feet of each on top. 
There wei'e four magazines of like construction, Lieut. Commander Pen- 
nington having left force enough to hold the forts, retired to his vessel, 
leaving the American flag flying, 

" Captain Sands, under date of the 27th of May, reports that the rebel 
army of Texas have generally disbanded and gone home, and the terms of 
surrender recently executed in New Orleans between the rebel command- 
ers sent by General E. Kirby Smith and General Canby having been com- 
plied with on the part of the rebels, it only remains for us to occupy the 
fortifications. With regard to the rebel naval forces in Texas, I am as- 
sured by the Confederate Lieut, Commander Jonathan Carter, who is now 
here, and declares himself to be the senior naval officer, that there is no 
naval property nor any officers in Texas on the seaboard, and only one 
vessel in the Red River — the ram Missouri — which will be surrendered to 
the commander of the Mississippi Squadron. 

" Very respectfully, your obedient servant, 

"H. B. TB.ArcTiv,R, Acting Rear Ad?niral, W. G. B. 8. 
"To Gideon Welles, Secretary of the Navy. 

On June 13th the U. S. Navy Department received from 
Commander W. E, Fitzhugh his report concerning the sur- 
render of the Confederate naval forces on Red River, Com- 
mander Fitzhugh, in his dispatch, which was dated on board 
the Ouachita, at Alexandria, Louisiana, June 3d, says that 
he started up Red River on the 28th of May with the steamers 



530 THE CONFEDERATE STATES NAVY. 

Benton, Ouachita, Fort Hindinan and the tug Fern, in com- 
pany with Major Gen. Herron and his steamer Ida May, in 
advance of (;he troops. He encountered no resistance what- 
ever. All whom he met seemed well disposed. On the morn- 
ing of June 3d the squadron met Lieut. Commander J. H. 
Carter, commanding the Confederate naval forces of the trans- 
Mississippi squadron, and received from him the iron-clad 
Missouri and the paroles of himself, officers and men. Lieut. 
Commander Carter informed Commander Fitzhugh that the 
Missouri was the only naval vessel on Red River or its tribu- 
taries. The Champion, one of the pump-boats captured in 
the expedition, was turned over to the army. The Missouri 
was brought below the Falls, and was to be refitted at the 
mouth of the river. She was designed to be quite a formid- 
able vessel, made on the plan of the Tennessee, captured at 
Mobile, but was built of timber not thoroughly seasoned, and 
caulked with cotton, and it was believed that she leaked 
badly. Her battery was composed of one 11 -inch gun, one 
9-inch and two heavy thirty-two pounders. Commander Fitz- 
Imgh then went up to Shreveport to secure such property as 
belonged to the navy. The number of Confederate naval pris- 
oners paroled by him at Alexandria was eighteen men and 
six officers, including Lieut. Commander J. H. Carter. 

The end had come, and it only remained for the United 
States to garrison important points on the Texan coast. Ad- 
miral Thatcher reports this fact on June 8th, 18Go: 

" West Gulf Squadron, TJ. S. Flagship ' R. R. Cuyler,' } 
" Off (jAlveston, Texas, June 8th, 1865. J" 
"Sir : In my dispatch, No. 136, written at Mobile, I informed the De- 
partment that the Rebel Commissioners at Galveston had desired trans- 
portation to New Orleans, to meet Gen. Canby, with a view to arrange the 
terms of surrender, and that I had directed such transportation to be fur- 
nished. On the evening of the 28th of May, I arrived at New Orleans, 
where I remained until the morning of the 5th inst., and, during that pe- 
riod, had several official interviews with Colonel Ashbel Smith, the com- 
mander of the defences of Galveston, who assured me that there would be 
no opposition on the part of the forces under his command or the people 
to the occupation of Galveston by i:;he navy. On the morning of the 5th 
I left New Orleans in the U. S. steamer R. R. Ctiyler, and arrived off Gal- 
veston yesterday at 2 p. m. Capt. Sands then informed me that on the 
2d inst. Maj. Gen. E. Kirby Smith and Maj. Gen. J. B. Magruder came on. 
board the U. S. steamer Fort Jackson, where they were met by Brig. Gen. 
E. J. Davis, representing E. R. S. Canby, and the terms of surrender here- 
tofore agreed upon between the representatives of Generals Smith and 
Canby were signed by Gen. E. Kirby Smith. Aftersigningof the articles 
of surrender, Capt. Sands immediately took the necessary steps to buoy 
out the channels, and on the 15th inst. proceeded inside the bar in the 
Cornelia, followed by the Preston, and landed at Galveston, accompanied 
by Commander Stevens, Commander Downs, and Lieut. Com. Wilson, and 
had an interview with the Mayor, C. H. Leonard ; after which the flag of 
the United States was raised on the Custom House, the citizens conduct- 
ing themselves in the most orderly manner. The flag is now floating on 
all the forts in the harbor ; but as we have not sufficient force from the 
fleet to garrison the latter, I have decided the light-draft gunboats Cor- 
nelia, Preston, and New London to remain inside the bar, where they will 



THE CONFEDERATE STATES NAVY. 531 

be joined by the Poj't Royal. I have also given order to Commander Le- 
roy, of the Ossipee, to convey with his vessel the troops which Gen. Canby, 
it is hoped, will in a few days be ready to dispatch to occupy the different 
ports on the coast already surrendered to the United States. Gen. Brown, 
of the U. S. army, on the 1st inst., with a brigade, took possession of the 
garrison at Brownsville. The other ports on the coast of Texas, which have 
been heretofore blockaded by our vessels, are now held by the naval 
forces. Thus blockade running from Galveston and the coast of Texas is 
at an end. To-day I went on shore and had an interview with the civil 
and military authorities, by whom I was cordially received, and, in con- 
versation, these gentlemen expressed their anxiety for the restoration of 
the old order of things, and reiterated their desire that a portion of our 
naval force should remain in the harbor for their protection. On the visit 
I was accompanied by Captain Sands and a part of my staff. 
" Very respectfully, your obedient servant, 

•' H. K. Thatcher, Acting Rear Admiral., 

" Commanding the Western Gulf Squadron. 
" Hon. Gideon Welles, 

"'Secretary of the Navy, Washington, B. C." 

The fate of some of the captured vessels, or the river 
steamers used by the Confederates, remains to be told. 

The Harinet Lane escaped from Galveston about May 5th, 
1864, in company with the blockade-runner Isabel, the Alice 
and a schooner. They were loaded with cotton. The Lane 
went by the southwest channel and was discovered by the 
U. S. steamer Katahdin, one of the blockading squadron, which 
immediately gave chase and got within range. The Katahdin 
fired four shots at the Lane without effect. The chase soon 
became exciting, the vessels being at times so near each other 
as to distinguish the men on deck. At daylight the Katahdin 
discovered that she was not only chasing the Lane, but three 
other vessels, all keeping together. All the day the chase con- 
tinued, the Lane keeping well out of range, but the Alice get- 
ting several shots and being compelled to throw her deck load 
of cotton overboard and break up the timbers of the hurricane 
deck to burn in the boilers. During the night the Harriet Lane 
and Isabel were lost sight of about thirty miles off the west 
coast of Louisiana, and the next day the two others escaped 
owing to a head wind springing up, lessening the speed of 
the Katahdin some two points and enabling the steamers to 
outrun her. 

The Isabel was captured by the blockading fleet while at- 
tempting to enter Galveston Harbor on May 28th, 1864. She 
was chased by the U. S. steamer Admiral, Acting Vol. Lieut. 
Eaton commanding. The Federal vessel reports that the cap- 
tain of the Isabel handled her " with great skill and desperate 
courage, not surrendering until he had received two broadsides 
at short range, every shot hitting his vessel and the fire from 
the small-arms of the Admiral literally driving the men from 
the wheel." The Wave was taken about September 13th, 1863. 

The John F. Carr, noticed in the recapture of Galveston, 
while firing upon troops in Matagorda Bay was caught in a 
gale, driven on shore and wrecked early in 1864. 



532 THE CONFEDERATE STATES NAVY. 

The Federals captured in Texan waters many blockade- 
runners, while still more escaped. Among the unfortunate 
ones were the Spanish bark Teriseta; the Major Barbour, of 
New Orleans; the blockader Cora, off Brazos, by the Quaker 
City, the schooners Loivard and Julia, by the tj. S. steamer 
Chocura; and the schooner Hurley. The Aima Dale was cut 
out in Matagorda Bay by the boats of the U. S. steamer Penola. 
She struck the bank, however, and was burned. The blockade 
running schooners Pet and Annie Sophia were taken in Gal- 
veston Harbor by boats crews from the U. S. steamers Prin- 
cess Royal and Bienville. The noted blockade-runner Will-o- 
tlie-Wisp, while attempting to get into Galveston on the night 
of the 3d February, 1865, ran ashore and was wrecked. The 
U. S. steamer Tennessee captured the British schooner Friend- 
ship from Havana, and at the same time another schooner, 
supposed to have been the Jane, of Nassau, was blown up. 
The Cayuga captured off the Rio Grande the J. T. Davis, which 
had run out from Galveston. 

All these vessels were laden with cotton, stands of arms, 
or an assorted cargo. 

Others were captured of which we have no record, for 
blockade-running was brisk and often profitable on the Texan 
coast, and one letter from an officer on board the blockading 
fleet mentioned ten blockade-runners in sight safe in harbor, 
or awaiting an opportunity to run out. 

Fighting improvised cotton-clads, manned by untrained 
crews, against regularly armored and equipped steamers 
manned by experienced sailors; pitting earthworks, with feeble 
garrisons and insufficient cannon, against blockading vessels, 
heavily armed and iron-clad — the success which attended the 
Confederate operations in Texas waters is remarkable and 
should be as memorable to their descendants as it was honor- 
able to the brave men who planned and executed the capture 
of Galveston and who fought the battles of Sabine Pass. 



CHAPTER XVIII 
ALABAMA WATERS. 



AMONG the earlier of the Southern States to sever con- 
nection with the North, alive and vibrant with the im- 
pulse for independence, the possessor of a broad water 
frontage upon the Gulf of Mexico and its estuaries, and 
threaded inland with navigable rivers, every political and geo- 
graphical consideration induced Alabama to take an imme- 
diate and intimate interest in the maritime operations of 
the Confederacy. Her chief city was the second in rank 
of the great cotton ports of America; it had maintained 
an increasing and lucrative foreign and coastwise com- 
merce, upon which its fortunes had been principally built; 
and, whatever might be the fluctuations of war, the con- 
tingency that Mobile would become at some time the object of 
the enemy's attack by sea could no more be overlooked than 
could the value of the harbor for blockade-running purposes, 
or the adaptability of the Alabama, Tennessee and Tombigbee 
Rivers for the movements of inland flotillas. The alert and 
comprehensive genius of the strong men who founded the 
Confederate government, and formed its schemes of offence 
and defence, was quick to take cognizance of the fact that 
Alabama possessed, upon and within her hills, in vast abund- 
ance, the raw materials of wood and iron needed for the 
creation of ships and their armaments; and that even with the 
lack of money, of sufficient dock-yard and machine-shop 
facilities and of an adequate number of trained designers, 
builders, mechanics and engineers, under which the Confeder- 
ate States struggled, Alabama would be able to contribute in 
a very important degree to their enterprises afloat. Her waters 
were destined to become the theatre of naval conflicts of vary- 
ing magnitude, culminating in that death-grapple of Titans 
at the battle of Mobile Bay; of scores of gallant exploits of 
seamanlike skill and daring; of marine raids by the adventur- 
ous hunters and fishermen of these semi-tropical sounds and 
bayous upon the enemy's transports and tenders, and of that 

(533) 



534 THE CONFEDERATE STATES NAVY. 

side play of blockade-running which was a constant acoam- 
paniment to the main drama of the war. 

The primary location of the seat of the new government 
at Montgomery, and the presence there of such famous officers 
of the old navy of the United States as Rousseau, Tatnali, In- 
graham, Randolph, Semmes, Farrand, Brent and Hartstene, in 
consultation with the civil heads of the Confederacy upon ways 
and means of placing the new flag upon the seas, of course 
were influential in fixing the consideration of the people of 
Alabama upon the subject. ' Quick upon the seizure by their 
State authorities of the forts in Mobile Bay on January 12th, 
18G1, they had mooted this question of ships and guns, and in 
the nature of things it could nowhere have been more a* focus 
of thought than in the seaport town of Mobile. In his " Memoirs 
of Service Afloat," Admiral Semmes writes that when he 
reached there on April 19th, 18(31, he found it " in a great state 
of excitement. Always one of the truest of Southern cities, 
it was boiling over with enthusiasm; the young merchants had 
dropped their day-books and ledgers and were forming and 
drilling companies by night and by day, whilst the older ones 
were discussing questions of finance and anxiously casting 
about them to see how the Confederate treasury could be 
supported." 

It comes within the domain of those morally well-estab- 
lished facts, the documentary proof of which is missing by 
reason of the loss of early records, that Alabama, at this open- 
ing hour of the struggle, was preparing to do her part for the 
Southern navy. The first actual evidence we have of the 
movement in that direction is the signing by the Governor on 
November 8th, 1861, of a bill which had just passed the Leg- 
islature, appropriating $150,000 "for the immediate construc- 
tion of an iron-clad gunboat and ram in the bay or harbor of 
Molbile." This bill had been framed by the Select Committee 
on Harbor Defences, had been reported by Mr. Langdon, and 
had been passed by both houses, and received the Governor's 
approval within a week. Messrs. L. J. Fleming, P. J. Pillans, 
Peter Hamilton, and Duke W. Goodman, of Mobile, and Lieut. 
Johnson, C. S. N., were appointed commissioners to superin- 
tend the work of construction and outfit, and special instruc- 
tions appear to have been laid upon them by the Legislature 
to proceed with all practicable speed. They partially com- 
l^leted a fighting machine of the type described, and this is, in 
all probability, the vessel spoken of in the report of the joint 
Congressional Committee of Investigation into the Navy De- 
partment in the autumn of 1862, as "an unfinished iron-clad 
ram turned over to the Confederacy by the State of Alabama," 
as the State had not authorized of itself any other such ship 
to be built. The onljr other ship-of-war which was in the pos- 
session of Alabama in 1861 was the Federal revenue cutter 

1 See chai^ter III. for details of the organization of the Confederate States navy in Alabama. 



THE CONFEDERATE STATES NAVY. 535 

Lewis Cass, which on January 31st was surrendered to the 
State by her commander, Capt. James J. Morrison, of Georgia, 
and was regularly enrolled in the Confederate navy by a sub- 
sequent transfer from the State to the general government. 
On the 20th of the same month the Mobile Chief of Police 
seized a small craft, the Isabella, which was loading at one 
of the city wharves with fresh provisions for the Federal 
fleet off Pensacola. In May, 1861, Col. Bonner, of Alabama, 
was announced by the New Orleans Delta to have invented 
"an iron-clad steam propelling battery for the defence of Mo- 
bile harbor, which is much approved by Cols. Hardee and 
Chase and by Major Leadbetter of the Confederate States 
army." 

The blockade went into force at Mobile, as at other ports 
of the Confederacy, on May 28th, 1861, and in anticipation of 
it the harbor was cleared of all shipping under foreign flags. 
The first blockader to appear upon this station was the frigate 
Poivhatan, under command of Lieut. David D. Porter, who in 
a communication, of May 28th, to James Magee, the acting 
British Consul, consented that the Mobile tow-boats should be 
used in taking out the British merchantmen in port, and added 
that " it would be better, if it can be done without injury to 
British interests, to get the ships to sea as soon as practicable." 
No incident entitled to historical notice marked this cessation 
of the commerce of Mobile, and from this date until Farragut's 
attack the port and town passed through three years of clos- 
ure to marine intercourse, broken only as the low, long, swift 
ocean racers stole in under the guns of the sentinel fleet, with 
cargoes of arms, ammunition and stores, and out again with 
the cotton for which the great mills of Lancashire were wait- 
ing. But these were not years of idleness or monotony in these 
waters. The occasional chase of a blockade-runner by Federal 
cruisers until the cannon of Fort Morgan stopped the pursuit, 
the dashes of boat parties upon Federal craft, the strengthen- 
ing of the fortifications, the work of laying the obstructions in 
the channel and setting the torpedoes, and the building of the 
squadron that finally confronted Farragut, made the war a 
sharp and close reality to the dwellers upon the Mobile 
shores, the soldiers and the sailors who hereabouts sustained 
the honor of the Confederate cause. 

For some months after the beginning of the war a tol- 
erably regular communication was maintained between Mo- 
bile and New Orleans through Mississippi Sound by merchant 
steamers, but the enemy soon undertook to close this outlet. 
Early in December 1861, the steamer Anna, engaged in this 
trade, was made a prize by the gunboat Neiv London, and as 
this capture was soon afterward followed by that of the P. C. 
Wallace, another trading steamer, other vessels abandoned 
a, line of travel that it had been found dangerous and un- 
profitable to pursue. 



536 THE CONFEDERATE STATES NAVY. 

Actual fighting was opened in the neighborhood on Janu- 
ary 29th, 18G2, when one of tlie blockaders chased into Mobile 
Bay the schooner Wilder, which had run the blockade with a 
cargo of goods from Havana. Seeing the gunboat approach, 
Capt. Ward, of the Wilder, set the British colors and beached, 
his vessel. The Federals came up in launches, into which 
they began to transfer the cargo of their prize, In the mean- 
time word had been sent to Mobile, and Capt. Cottrill, who 
commanded a company of rangers, hurried to the shore with 
his men and opened fire upon the launches, which was returned 
from their howitzers and small arms, and the Federal 
steamer sent in several rounds of shot and shell. The launches 
were driven off, but at night a Federal steamer came in and 
towed the Wilder out. It was claimed by the Confederates 
that Capt. CottrilTs fire killed twenty-five or thirty of the 
enemy's party. Nine of their bodies were found upon the 
beach, and one of their small boats, which was abandoned, 
was pierced from stem to stern with bullets. 

The first occasion of the interchange of the compliments 
of shot and shell between the beleaguering fleet, the Confeder- 
ate land defences and the Confederate flotilla, was on the fol- 
lowing ord of April, when the latter made a reconnoissance 
down the bay and drew the fire of the Federal gun boats, which 
they briskly returned but without any injury being accomp- 
lished on either side. Having consummated the object of the 
movement, the Confederate steamers withdrew toward Fort 
Morgan, and as they were followed by the enemy the batteries 
of the fort opened on the latter, who were then quick to retire 
to their stations off the bar. On the night of June 28th the 
British steamer Ann ran the blockade from London via St. 
Thomas and Havana, but being discovered by the Federals tlie 
next morning before she could reach the protection of the guns 
of Fort Morgan, her crew deserted her on the approach of two 
Federal men-of-war, who easily effected her capture. Her 
officers had endeavored to scuttle the ship, but her water-tight 
compartments saved her, and thus the Confederacy lost her 
valuable cargo of arms and war material. 

On August 30th the Federal gunboat Winona ran up to- 
ward Fort Morgan with a view to dropping shells over Mobile 
Point upon a Confederate armed vessel lying inside. The 
latter was in no position for an engagement, but the fort 
directed so steady a fire upon the Winona as to compel her to 
beat a hasty retreat. The distance, three and a half miles, 
Avas too great for any execution to be done, but the little affair 
served to demonstrate that Fort Morgan's artillerists had an 
excellent range of the channel, and the enemy's gunboats were 
thenceforth somewhat more chary of exposing themselves to 
their fire. This incident preceded by but five days the perilous 
and splendid rush of the Florida under Capt. Maffitt, ' through 

1 See chapter upon the career of the Florida. 







I 

I'l 1 1 n » 



THE CONFEDERATE STATES NAVY. 537 

the lines of the blockaders into Mobile, and taught them to 
keep at a respectful distance from Morgan's batteries during 
the four months they passed in waiting for Maffitt to repeat his 
bold exploit on the reverse course by forging out to sea again. 

After having refitted for sea at Mobile, the Florida cele- 
brated the Christmas Eve of 18G2 by a duel at long distance 
with the Federal ship Neiu London, steaming for that purpose 
down to the westward of Sand Island, while her antagonist 
took up a position on the gulf side of the bar at that point. It 
was a lively afternoon spectacle for the garrisons and the 
blockaders, and it gave Capt. Maffitt the opportunity he de- 
sired of exercising his new crew at quarters and putting them 
through their gun drill with an enemy as a target to practice 
upon. The contemporary Confederate accounts report that 
the Florida was not struck, but it was believed that three of 
her shot took effect on the enemy.' 

Allusion has heretofore been made to the raids of boats' 
crews of Confederates by way of Mississippi Sound upon 
Federal vessels. Two that occurred in 1863 are particularly 
deserving of special description, because of their success and 
because they illustrate the daring spirit of the Mobile 
watermen. 

On April 6th, 1863, Capt. G. Andrews organized at Mobile 
a raiding party for the mouth of the Mississippi, where they 
arrived the next day in a ship's boat, armed with nothing- 
heavier than their revolvers. " So eager were they to take a 
prize," says the Mobile Tribune, of April lOtli: 

" That they resolved to board the first vessel they saw, but she proved 
to be the Illinois, with six guns and a crew of 400 men. Of course they 
abandoned the purpose immediately. Shortly afterward they sighted the 
transport steamer Fox, formerly the Whittemore, and used as a tow-boat 
before she was taken from the Confederates. She was lying at a coal-yard 
in Pass FOutre. At night, when all was still on board, the brave fifteen 
boarded her and made all hands (twenty-three) prisoners. She was in 
command of Capt. Walker, who was formerly captain of one of the 
Mobile Bay boats. They submitted to the capture peaceably. Steam 
was immediately raised, and the Fox, manned by both crews, (the prison- 
ers as well as the captors worked her) was steered away to Dixie land 
with the United States flag flymg at her masthead. She was not inter- 
rupted until she attempted to come in by the Swash Channel at about 
three o'clock, yesterday morning, when thirty shots were fired at her 
from the blockading fleet. One struck the top of her smoke-stack and 
another one of her masts, doing, however, no damage. She came on 
until she got safely under the guns of Fort Morgan and arrived at the 
city last evening about six o'clock. Her capture is certainly one of the 
most daring and well-managed exploits of the war." 

1 "All but these three were seen to strike the " The spectators say that the Florida's long 

water, but the thonsancls of eyes which watch- and terrible guns were admirably served, the 

ed could not tell where these three went to if practice being excellent, placing the shot and 

they were not stopped by the New London. She shell all around the mark, so close, in many 

was evidently hit hard, for after backing out instances, as to apparently dash the water upon 

of the fifiht she signalled the fleet, and one the Lincclnites' decks. The engagement is said 

of them ran down and lay alongside of her for to have been a most animating and exciting 

several hours, rendering assistance,' it is sup- scetie as witnessed from the forts." — Mobile 

posed. Evening News, Dec. IWi, 18G2. 



538 THE CONFEDERATE STATES NAVY. 

The prize had on board 1,000 barrels of coal. The men 
who assisted Capt. Andrews were C. W. Austin, M, Riddle, 
John Brown, Daniel Kernan, R. Hill, Oliver Bowen, D. Mc 
Mickle, Wni. Brown, Asbell Glenson, J. W. Jones, John 
Connor, Thomas Nelligan and Charles Stokes. 

One of the most daring exploits accomplished at this epoch 
of the war in the waters of the gulf was consummated by 
nineteen citizens of Mobile. Cotemporary records have pre- 
served only the name of their leader, Capt. James Duke, 
although it would have been a solid gratification to have 
handed down to the future the names of the eighteen volun- 
teers who joined him in the perilous, gallant and successful 
expedition. Starting from Mobile about the middle of the last 
week of May, 1863, they pushed through Mississippi Sound in 
a small boat to the mouth of the Mississippi River. They car- 
ried nothing but small arms, and it does not appear that they 
liad any more definite object in view than to reconnoitre the 
enemy's position and inflict upon him any possible damage 
the opportunity for which might be presented. After lying 
three days ambushed in the swamps a few miles above Pass 
I'Uutre light-house, they discovered at dusk of the evening of 
June 9th the fine steam-propeller Boston coming up the river 
and having in tow the ship Je?m?/Z/m<i from Boston, loaded with 
ice for New Orleans. Speedily embarking his men on their 
little boat, Capt. Duke in a few moments laid her alongside of 
the Boston, whose commander had not the most remote sus- 
picion of the presence of a foe in a region patrolled by Federal 
gunboats. Before he could make any movements toward de- 
fence the Mobile men had boarded him with drawn revolvers 
and compelled his surrender. Capt. Duke cut the hawser con- 
necting the Boston with the ship and with his prize stood 
down the river. The next day he captured the bark Lenox, 
Capt. Cole, from New York for New Orleans, took off the offi- 
cers, crew and a portion of the passengers, sent the others on 
shore and burned the vessel and her cargo of general mer- 
chandise. Then he stood out to sea, safely passing under the 
guns of the blockading fleet, and on Sunday, June 14th, came 
up with the bark Texana, Capt. Wulff, also from New York 
for New Orleans, with a miscellaneous cargo and a quantity 
of arms. She, too, was boarded and fired; but Capt. Duke 
was now so encumbered with prisoners that he set all her 
people on shore except the captain and mate. On the 17th, he 
brought the Bosto7i to the wharf in Mobile, having run the 
gauntlet of the Federal ships in the bay without injury. He 
landed eighteen prisoners and turned his prize over to the 
Confederate government, which subsequently made good use 
of her. Besides adding this serviceable steamer to the scanty 
naval strength of the Confederacy, the ships and cargoes 
destroyed by Capt. Duke's command were valued at $300,000. 
The nierit of his enterprise was properly recognized in Mobile, 



THE CONFEDERATE STATES NAVY. 539 

and the skill and courage of himself and his companions 
highly applauded. Their daring is attested by the fact that 
in the Mississippi they were for several hours within speaking 
distance of the Federal sloop-of-war Portsmouth, and half an 
hour previous to their capture of the Boston a gunboat had 
passed up within gunshot of them. The newspapers of the 
day speak of the expedition as having been fitted out by Julius 
Buttner, a citizen of Mobile. 

These cool and plucky dashes into the enemy's confines 
had an inspiriting effect upon the military and naval de- 
fenders of Mobile, as affording an indication that notwith- 
standing the weakness of the Confederacy upon the waters, 
and the immense resources of the Federals, the latter were 
not invulnerable against bold hearts and ready hands. 

A hitherto unwritten chapter of the war in the Mexican 
Gulf is that which must record in fitting language the recon- 
noisance of Pensacola, made by Lieut. James Mc C. Baker, ' 
of the Huntsville, and his brother Page M. Baker, Master's 
Mate of the Tuscaloosa, and their subsequent project to cap- 
ture Fort Pickens, which was thwarted by the hesitation of 
their superior officers. The preliminary scout was an achieve- 
ment that could only have been carried through by cool men 
utterly devoid of fear, and the scheme which grew out of it 
was phenomenal for its shrewdness and possibilities of success 
•even in the days when men who wore the Confederate uniform 

1 James Me C. Baker entered the Cimfederate bim in the temporary hospital established on a 
«ervice early in the war as a member of Drew's flatboat above Fort St. Philip. After the dis 
battalion, and on January 23d, 186'2, was trans- persion or destruction of all the Confederate 
f erred to the Washington artillery ; but very soon squadron except the Louisiana and McRae, Lieut, 
afterward was appointed Acting Master in the Baker says, engineers and mechanics, by work- 
Confederate navy and ordered to report to Com- ing day and iii^;ht, put the iron-clad into work- 
modore Whittle, in command at New Orleans, ing and fighting trim; and Baker, learning that 
by whom he was assigned to the iron-clad Commodore JMitchtllcontemijlated taking her to 
Louisiana, then recently launched and still un- Mobile, oJl'ered himself as pilot. "I am glad to 
finished. As her screw engines were not in know you are a pilot," I'esponded Mitchell, " as 
position and the recess wheels alone were in- I may need your services." On Aj^ril 'iSth he was 
sufficient to propel her, she was towed down the placed in command of the Burton, and on the '2(;th 
Mississippi iind moored on the bank above Fort participated in the council of officers called by 
St. Philip to aid in the defence of the river Mitchell that decided to destroy the Louisiana 
against the Federal fleet. Alongside of her was after hearing of the surrender of the forts. Early 
placed the river steamer W. Burton as quarters on the morning of the 2Hth Lieut. Baker says he 
for the officers and crew, and the tug Landis was was ordered to report to the commodore, and 
•close at hand with a company of artillery de- as he presented himself on board the Louisiana 
tailed to assist in serving her battery. When Chief Engineer Youngblood stepped up and re- 
Farragut's ships advanced to the attack, Lieut. ported that the auxiliary propeller engines were 
Baker hastened from the Burton to his station ready and the whole machinery in running 
on the Louisiana, making way for Commodore order. Lieut. Wilkinson, who had already re- 
Mitchell to precede him on the ladder that ceived orders to destroy the ship, asked 
reached the deck, where Mitchell took his stand Mitchell, in Baker's presence, "What shall I 
and passed his orders through Baker to the offi- do?" And the commodore after some hesitation 
cers below. The floor not being laid, Baker sup- replied: "Go on with the work." Baker was 
ported himself astride a scantling in the pilot- then directed to have the Burton ready at a mo- 
house, and when a Federal shiij fouled with the ment's notice to take the crew off the Louisiana. 
Louisiana during the battle the shock knocked All but those engaged in the destruction of the 
him from his place and he fell through to the iron-clad were transferred to the tender, and 
deck. As he rose to his feet, Lieut. John Wil- Mitchell, with Wilkinson, Ward and other offi- 
kinson, in charge of the forward division, or- cers soon followed, leaving the Louisiana in 
dered him to inform Lieut. Ward, who was aft, flames fore and aft. The Burton was headed for 
to look out for the Federal vessel as she swung the opposite shore, where Baker made her fast, 
around on the starboard side of the iron-clad. and the ioMmama blew up in the jiosition where 
The commander of the Louisiana, Capt. Mcln- they had left her. Discovering that the com- 
tosh, was mortally wounded while in the act of modore had dispatched Lieut. Whittle to sur- 
throwing a ftre-ball on this vessel, and Baker renderthe command, he requested periiii.ssion to 
was detailed to take him ashore, where he placed eft'ect his escape, and was the only officer of the 



0-iO THE CONFEDERATE STATES NAVY. 

played the most desperate chances if there seemed to be stake 
on the board of war that might be won. 

On March 20th, 1864, Master's Mate Page M. Baker for- 
warded to Gen. Butler, C. S. A., his draft of a plan for the cap- 
ture of Fort Pickens by means of a boat expedition to start 
from Mobile Bay with 150 men, pull along the beach 35 miles 
to the mouth of Perdido River, where they would lie con- 
cealed until the following night, and then row to the head of 
the Grand Lagoon, whence they would haul the boats over the 
strip of land, but 30 yards wide, that divides the lagoon from 
Pensacola Harbor, and would be close upon the fort. Mr. 
Baker had given careful attention to tlie danger of being 
detected by the sentries, and in the sketch submitted to Gen. 
Butler he had pointed out that in all probability they could 
make their landing without attracting the attention of the 
solitary sentinel outside the fort; and he had ascertained from 
previous prisoners in Pickens that there was usually but one 
sentry on the parapet, a second at the gate and a third inside 
the gate at the guard-room. He added : 

" Having landed we would proceed as cautiously as possible to the 
east face of the fort, and endeav^or to effect our entrance through the em- 
brasures, which are generally left open. Should they be closed, by means 
of ladders carried with us, in sections, we would mount to the parapet 
and descend to the centre of the fort by the stairways very fortunately at 
this point. Once inside, it would be our object to secure the garrison, 
consisting of from 150 to 200 men. For this purpose we would send a large 
detachment to the men's ciuarters on the west side of the fort where they 

Louisiana who escaped falling into the hands of the last course holding out the iiossibilities of 

the enemy after she was abandoned. Lieut. the most brillant achievement and imijortant 

Murdock, Acting Master Gift and a young vol- results. " I feel no hesitation," Lieut. Baker has 

unteer named Wilkinson hadperniissiou to leave written, "in advancing the theory that Mitchell 

the ship before she was destroyed and went might have fought his ship, for iu a conversation 

ashore on the east bank. Lieuts. Arnold and with Admiral Buchanan on the subject, the ad- 

Bowen, and a few others who left the Bitr^on with miral expressed siirprise that he had not done 

Baker after Lieut. Whittle had started on his so." 

errand, were all caxJtured by the Federal pickets Another contribution by Lieut. Baker to the 

on shore. Baker and Mr. Bearing. Chief En- veriticatlon of events In connection with this 

gineer of the Burton, effected their escape by engagement, is his denial of the intimation 

crawling around the picket. Baker reached New made by Admiral Porter that after the Louisi- 

Orleans on May 1st, and on the 3d left for Jlobile, ana was set on fire she was sent adrift in order 

from whence he reported to Secretary Mallory, that she might float down amongst his mortar 

who inquired of him by telegraph whether the schooners and communicate the flames to them. 

Louisiana had been destroyed, the wording of In .support of this assertion Porter declared that 

the dispatch causing him to infer that up to that when she blew uj) she was so near the Harriet 

time the Secretary had only heard rumors of Lane that the concussion made that vessel heel 

what had occurred after the battle on the over, throwing the officer.s, himself Included, 

river. from the seats which the.y were occupying in the 

Baker was ordered from Mobile to Georgia, cabin. Baker states that at the moment of the 

and served some time at Columbus and at the explosion the Burton wa-: much nearer than (he 

navy-yard in Early County during the building Harriet Lane to the Louisiana, and no such shak- 

of the iron-clad at Columbus, Ga. He was af- ing up was felt on his steamer. Tlje iron-clad, 

terwards transferred to Jlobile, and, as a first in fact was left by her officers at the spot which 

lieutenant, was included in the suri-ender of she had occupied since the day when she joined 

May 10th, 1865, at Nanna Hubba Bluff. the Confederate squadron, and there was no 

Lietit. IJaker's condemnation of the destruc- idea in the minds of her officers of setting her 

tion of the Z<ouis(ana is very emphatic. Three adrift as a fire-ship. But Admiral Porter's moi-- 

lines of condtict, in his opinion, were open to tar fleet had proved a good deal of a failure; the 

Commodore Mitchell, the pursuit of either of Federal honors had been won by Farragut, and 

which, in his opinion, would have immortalized to represent himself as in danger from the 

hiui. The first was to compel Gen. Duncan to Louisiana was a means of attracting public at- 

hold the forts when he proijosed to surrender: tention to himself. 

second, to run the gauntlet of the Federal fleet Lieut. Baker now resides in Xew Orleans, and 

and make his way to Mobile; third, to steam up is captain of the steamship Hutchinson belonging 

the river and attack Farnigut's wooden ships, to the Southern Pacific Company. 



THE CONFEDERATE STATES NAVY. 541 

sleep -with their arms stacked. Another detachment would seize the relief 
fruard just inside of the jrate falso asleep,) and a third the officers in their 
quarters on the south side. You will observe there is no boat on the east 
or south side of the fort. There are usually from 18 to 20 vessels lying off 
the yards, and I have understood by letter recently from Pensacola that 
Farragut had removed most of their crews to man his fleet off Mobile; be 
that as it may, they would fall an easy prey with the fort once in our pos- 
session. At and around the navy-yard there is a force of about 3,500 men, 
inchiding one negro regiment. Should Gen. Canby move down with the 
force under his conmiand and invest the yard, they being cut off from all 
relief must necessarily surrender. As we would need men who could be 
relied on in any emergency, I avouI^ request permission to select volunteers 
and men who have been tried under fire. We would necessarily need a 
number of meil accustomed to heavy artillery in order to man the guns. 
It would be necessary also to take several days' provisions." 

If the design of going outside from Fort Morgan to the 
mouth of the Perdido was considered too hazardous. Master's 
Mate Baker presented the alternative of reaching Perdido 
Bay from Bon Secour by hauling the boats over the interven- 
ing tongue of land a mile and a half wide. In submitting the 
plan to Gen. Butler he hoped that it would be approved, and 
asked the general's influence with those wJio had the power to 
aid him in the undertaking. On April 20th. an order was issued 
by Admiral Buchanan to Lieut. Jas. McC. Baker, that he 
should proceed with all possible dispatch to equip a boat for 
an important reconnoissance, and another order on the suc- 
ceeding day informed him that the object was to reconnoitre 
from Mobile to Pensacola by water with the view to ascertain 
whether it would be practicable to capture Fort Pickens with 
a sufficient force by a boat expedition. " You will, therefore" 
the admiral continued, "proceed to Pensacola in one of the 
Morgaii's cutters, taking with you Acting Master's Mate Page 
M. Baker, C. S. N., and a crew of ten men with ten days' 
provisions. Confidence is placed in your judgment and dis- 
cretion to make this reconnoissance and to be careful of your 
men." 

Lieut. Baker and Master's Mate Baker had the cutter 
equipped for the expedition by Monday evening, April 25th, 
but took with them only eight seamen. • They carried the 
boat nearly a mile across the land from Bon Secour Bay to the 
gulf and launched her through the breakers — three men re- 
maining in the boat, and the others, entirely nude, shoving 
outside until the breakers were passed, when she was bailed 
out and all hands taken aboard again. They were then six- 
teen miles east of Fort Morgan and could plainly see the 
blockading fleet as they stepped their mast and set sail for 
Fort Pickens. It was Baker's purpose to run direct into the 
mouth of Perdido River, but a gale that had been blowing 
from the southwest for several days created on Perdido Bar a 
sea that nearly swamped the cutter, which with ten men in 
her was constantly running her gunwales under water; and as 
they could not get into Perdido they kept a course directly for 



542 THE CONFEDERATE STATES NAVY. 

Pickens and passed the fort in the bright moonlight about 
three o'clock a. m. of the 26th, going very near to the beach. 
A few miles to the eastward a large sloop was sighted at 
anchor and was promptly boarded and captured. She proved 
to be the fishing-smack Creole, of New Orleans, ninety tons 
burden, commanded by Capt. Benj. Lancashire, and having 
as crew F. Miller, John McDougal, Bernard Brandon and 
Edward Stafford, the last named of whom claimed to be a 
discharged Confederate soldier, captured on the blockade- 
runner Alice Vivien, en route for Havana.^ 

The captain and crew of the Creole were completely dazed 
by being captured, and could not imagine from* whence had 
come the craft that had made prisoners of them in the Federal 
stronghold in the Western Gulf. They were sent below and 
the hatch closed upon them, while the venturesome Bakers- 
and their men concealed their cutter, arrayed themselves in 
the clothes of fishermen, and headed the Creole for J^'ort Pick- 
ens, passing so near that in their disguise they spoke to the 
guards, made a minute examination of the approaches to the 
fort from the gulf, noted the positions of the sentinels, and 
Avere delighted to find that there would be no difficulty in 
landing a force of men on the beach and effecting an entrance 
either through unguarded sally-ports or by means of scaling- 
ladders — tlie moat on the sea-face of the fort having been 
entirely filled up with sand. Their observations completely 
confirmed the feasibility of the plan which Page M. Baker had 
suggested for the capture of the post, and the reconnoissance 
could not have been more thorough and satisfactor}^ 

After making notes of every point upon which informa- 
tion was desirable, the Creole was headed eastward along 
Santa Rosa Island. A sail was descried, and concluding that 
it was a vessel from New York or Boston bound for New Or- 
leans with Federal army supplies, Lieut. Baker stood out to- 
sea so as to intercept and capture her. Everything was put 
in readiness to send to her a boat's crew of the Confederate 
seamen wearing tlie fishermen's attire and carrying arms- 
concealed beneath their garments. When they were nearly 
in position and waiting for thevessel's approach, Lieut. Baker, 
who had gone to the mast-head, discovered that she was an 
armed steam-cruiser, having all sails set, burning hard coal 
and coming along like a racehorse. The Creole was quickly 

' Lieut. Baker prepared on board the Creole, as it is, I will be compelled to burn vessel at 

while lying otf Phillip's lulet, a dispatch to Ad- this point, and make onr way overland to Mo- 

miral Buchanan, conveying valuable informa- bile. I trust my course will meet with your av>- 

tion gained from (Japt. Lancashire concerning probation, as I have done what under the cir- 

the movements and disposition of the Federal cumstances seemed best and what necessity 

vessels at Pensacola and New Orleans. " Our forced upon me. Should an opportunity present 

provisions are running short," he wrote, " but itself on my return, I will finish the reconnois 

should the wind, which has been blowing con- eance which unfavorable weather has permitted 

stautly from the westward, change in our favor, me to only make in part. It is probable I shall 

I will endeavor to make my way back to Mobile see yott before this reaches Mobile. In the 

Bay, either by running the blockade or hauling event of our capture, however, this will give 

our cutter into Little Lagoon, etc., etc., in which you intelligence of our whereabouts and what 

case I'll destroy vessel. Should the wind hold we have done up to this time." 



THE CONFEDERATE STATES NAVY. 543 

put about and headed in shore and measures taken to con- 
tinue her masquerade as a peaceful fishing craft. The cutter 
was hauled close under her bow and so fixed as to be cut away 
and sunk at a moment's notice: dinner, which was just ready, 
was ordered served on deck; tlie U. S. flag was conspicuously 
displayed ; and when the gunboat, coming uncomfortably 
near, stopped her engines and critically surveyed the sloop, 
the latter was in outward appearance the most innocent and 
inoffensive fishing-smack ever seen. The cruiser's officers 
stared at her through marine glasses, while the riflemen in 
the tops peered over and seemed anxious to try the effect of 
their fire. A prolonged and careful scrutiny satisfied the 
Federals that the Creole was all right, though she was sus- 
piciously distant from the fishing grounds, and they then 
went off on their course. The prisoners, who were safely 
stowed away below, and whose expectations of release had 
been raised to the highest pitch, were much cast down when 
they discovered that the cruiser had gone without sending a 
boat aboard. 

Lieut. Baker sailed the Creole along the coast for nearly 
two weeks in the hope of catching favorable winds to enable 
him to run back to Mobile; but after waiting so long in vain, 
and the sloop being slow in any wind, he concluded to destroy 
her and make the best of his way overland to Mobile with his 
men. She was burned in St. Andrew's Bay, Florida, and the 
cutter was transported eighty miles across the land to Mari- 
anna on ox-wagons furnished by the salt-makers along the 
coast. ' From Marianna the party proceeded to Chattahoo- 
chee Landing, on the Chattahoochee River, where they took 
a steamer to Columbus, Ga. , going thence by railway to 
Montgomery, at which point they launched their cutter, which 
they had carried with them during their circuitous journey, 
and made their way, by sailing and rowing, to Mobile. Ad- 
miral Buchanan was much surprised to see them, and espe- 
cially proud that they had brought back the cutter, which he 
had warned them they would lose, but which Lieut, and 
Master's Mate Baker had determined they Avould bring back 
to Mobile at any cost. Four of the prisoners of the Creole 
were permitted to escape when tlie sloop was burned, but one 
man insisted on being taken to Mobile, where he said he had 
friends. 

The battle with Farragut's fleet on August 5th blocked the 
immediate execution of a covert attack on Fort Pickens, but 
did not cause Lieut. Baker to forget the project. On August 
4th he submitted the proposition to Gen. Higgins, reviewing 
the original plan proposed by Page M. Baker and claim- 
ing that the reconnoissance had established its practicability: 

1 Lieut. Baker mentions in his report to Admiral wagon hauling salt, and who has kindly offered 
Buchanan: " Mr. Broxton, a citizen of Alabama, to haul a seine of 90 fathoms and a new manilla 
whom we accidentally met at this point with his hawser of 150 fathoms, to a place of safety." 



544 THE CONFEDERATE STATES NAVY. 

"By the arrival of Mr. Newman [^he wrote], who escaped from Fort 
Pickens on Friday last, I have obtained information concerning sentinels 
and garrison which leaves no doubt in iny mind of the success of an 
attack on the fort if attempted at the present time. There are in the fort 
for garrison duty three companies of the Seventh Vermont, numbering 
in ail 100 men, in command of Major Allen. There are but two sentinels, 
one on the parapet on the east face of the fort and one at the gate oppo- 
site Barrancas. In view of this fact, I earnestlj^ desire to obtain permis- 
sion to attempt the capture of the fort, and should you approve the pro- 
ject, would request your influence with the admiral, in order to have me 
detached for that purpose. I would require but three or four boats carry- 
ing about fifteen men each, with their arms, and five days' isrovisions. In 
seven hours after leaving the lagoon we can reach the fort, so that start- 
ing about 5 p. M. we would arrive about midnight. The enemy have now 
A\'ithdrawn all their large vessels for an attack on Mobile, and their atten- 
tion is wholly diverted from Pensacola. In the event of the capture of 
the fort, with the immense amount of ammunition, stores, etc., there and 
at the yard, the force of the blow here would be broken, as the enemy ob- 
tain all their supplies from that point. Having already reconnoitred the 
route, I feel confident in asserting its entire feasibility and think it would 
greatly relieve Mobile. Mr. Newman is an engineer whom I have long 
known, is intelligent and trustworthy. He is well known by naval men, 
and very anxious to accompany me on this expedition." 

Gen. Higgins indorsed this communication: "I think a 
diversion might be made in the manner proposed if the neces- 
sary officers and men can be obtained"; and Gen. Maury's in- 
dorsement was: "I approve of attempting this if the proper 
outfit can be procured." Both these indorsements were made 
on August 6th, the day after tlie battle. Tlie removal, within 
a few days succeeding, of Admiral Buchanan and other cap- 
tured Confederate officers to Pensacola. stimulated the ambi- 
tion of Baker to make a descent on Fort Pickens, for it might 
include the recapture of the beloved admiral and those who 
had shared his misfortune. Having secured the favorable 
judgment of Higgins and Maury, he expected that Commo- 
dore Farrand, who had succeeded to the naval command at 
Mobile, would furnish him with the men and boats for the ex- 
pedition; but on August 15th he received from Lieut. W. T. 
Key, secretary of Admiral Buchanan, and who now occupied 
the same office under Commodore Farrand, a missive that 
broke rudely upon his lofty aspirations to do a grand deed for 
the Confederacy. Key wrote him: 

Your letter to me, and communication to the commodore enclosed, 
was received on Saturday evening. On Sunday (yesterday) I handed 
it to him when he was at leisure, and said and did everything I could to 
get him to give his consent to the proposed expedition; but all in vain. I 
am disheartened at the way in which this project, one so perfectly feasi- 
ble and practicable in all its bearings, has been suffered quietly to be 
passed over by the authorities that be; and this particularly after it re- 
ceived the full and entire endorsement of both the generals, and Commo- 
dore Buchanan especially. 'Tis no further use, I am sorry to say, to push 
this matter with Commodore Farrand, as he is now decided that we can- 
not go; if you think it would be right to telegraph the Hon. Secretary of 
the Navy, do so; but be certain before you do so that you receive not a 
reprimand for presuming to address him without sending your communi- 
cation through your commanding officer, and thereby the whole plan 



THE CONFEDERATE STATES NAVY. 545 

fall through. I do not know that it would do so; you know best, I am 
truly sorry to blight your hopes, but the truth must be told— the expedi- 
tion will not be allowed to embark by the commodore. I am as sorry as 
you are; and if you should go by consent of a higher authority, I also 
will endeavor to go with you." 

Baker endeavored to stride over the obstacle interposed 
bv Farrand's supineness bv making an appeal to Secretary 
Mallory. ' His letter of August 18th to the head of the Navy 
Department inclosed the proposition submitted to Gens. Maury 
and Higgins, and pointed out how easily the garrison of 100 
men in the fort might be surprised by an inferior force in con- 
sequence of the small number of sentinels on duty and the 
abandonment of Fort McRae. In this communication the 
daring sailor told Mr. Mallory that the generals had proffered 
him all the men and arms necessary, and that Farrand " also 
approved of the project, and indeed ordered me to make the 
necessary preparations, but afterwards concluded that he 
could not well spare my services at this juncture." 

"Mr. Newman [he continued] says there are immense stores of pro 
visions, medicines, ordnance, etc., both in the fort and at the yard. In 
the event of our succeeding. Gen. Maury would send a co-operating force 
by land against the yard, which being assailed in front and rear, must 
necessarily surrender. The reinforcements we would receive in the pris- 
oners (numbering some fifty) would enable us to hold the fort without a 
doubt. 

"Believing, sir, that the capture of this place would be of incalcu- 
lable advantage to us at this time, giving us, as it would, open port, and 
distracting the attention of the enemy from more vital points, together 
with the probability of recapturing our noble admiral and the officers 
confined there, I most respectfully and earnestly request that you will 
detach myself and brother for the purpose of undertaking this expe- 
dition. 

" Having already reconnoitred the proposed route, and being per- 
fectly familiar with the coast and the localities in and around the fort, I 
feel confident in asserting the feasibility of the enterprise.' 

Their proposal received at Richmond the respectful con- 
sideration to which it was entitled, and Commodore Farrand 
was overruled by the higher authority. It was referred by 
Secretary Mallory to President Davis, who approved it and 
directed Gen. Braxton Bragg to co-operate in its execution. 

1 While holding the Fort Pickens' expedition it and consented to their detail for the work, 
in view, Lieut. Baker and his brother also had but his habitual timidity overcame him after- 
in contemplation a project to destroy one ves- ward, and on August 27th he instructed Lieut, 
sel or more of the blockading fleet with tori^e- Myers, of the Huyitsmtle, to " inform Lieut, 
does. They were to place a spar toi-pedo in a Jas. McC. Baker, and request Lieut. Command- 
row-boat and pull out on a dark night to the ing Chas. P. McGary, of the Tuscaloosa, to in- 
ship selected for destruction. Lieut. Baker was form also his brother. Master's Mate Page M. 
to keep the boat in position, while Master's Baker, that, upon due deliberation, I am in- 
Mate Baker was to dive overboard with the duced to withhold the verbal permission given 
torpedo, swim under the side of the ship, and them a few days since ' to destroy by torpedo, 
endeavor to explode it below her water-line. in the manner proposed, any of the enemy's 
The merest statement of such a de.sign is all vessels in the bay,' considering the whole 
that need be said to carry conviction of tlie de- scheme from beginning to end impracticable 
votion and heroism of these two young ofBcers. and attended with too great personal risk and 
They desired to attempt the task alone, being danger to the person or persons using the 
-unw'illing that anyone else should venture into torpedo. They will therefore' dismiss all 
the peril which it involved. When it was first thought of it and return to their respective 
proposed to Oommodore Farrand he sanctioned duties." 
35 



546 THE CONFEDERATE STATES NAVY, 

On September 2Gth, 1864, Mr. Mallory wrote to Lieut. Baker a 
letter marked " Confidential," and saying: 

" Your plan is approved. Flag-officer Farrand is in- 
structed to take all necessary measures for fitting out the 
expedition and securing its success, and he will promptly con- 
fer with you. * * * My instructions as to secrecy must be 
rigidly observed. Your success must depend upon a surprise. 
I earnestly trust, as well for yourself, officers and men as 
for the country, that there will be no failure." 

The Secretary inclosed a communication from Gen. Bragg 
suggesting that one modification in the plan seemed advisable 
to him. That was to rely solely on effecting an entrance at 
tlie sally-port. '* But a small party," he wrote, " would suffice 
for the ruse, whilst the main force was thrown by scaling- 
ladders immediately into the fort, over the wall opposite Fort 
McRae. This point is easily approached, is near the landing- 
place, and is the lowest part of the wall. It could be scaled 
by light ladders transported in the boats, which can be carried 
readily by two stout men. It will afford me pleasure to order 
the necessary assistance and co-operation from the land forces, 
and to direct a movement in the diversion whenever the naval 
expedition shall be in readiness." 

In pursuance of Secretary Mallory's authorization, Farrand, 
on October 6th, issued orders temporarily detaching Lieut. 
Baker from the Huntsville and directing him to report for fur- 
ther instructions. Five days later Baker announced that he 
was ready to prepare the boats, and requested that they should 
be turned over to him as soon as possible, and on the 13th he 
made the following formal requisition upon the flag-officer: 

" In accordance with your order, I bef? leave respectfully to submit 
to you the following statement : 1 will require the following- boats, barge 
and launch at navy-yard, first cutters of Morgan and HunisviUe, launch 
and first cutter of JVasIiville, with their fixtures, and six wagons with 
good teams to transport same from Shell Banks to Ross Point; also five 
officers and 125 men — one-third sailors, the balance heavy artillerists, if 
possible, armed with revolvers and some short, effective gun ; carrying 
with them seven days" cooked rations, two ladders, forty feet long, in sec- 
tions of ten feet; six axes, lines for lashing and material for muflflingoars 
will be needed. All to be ready in ten days from date." 

On the same day he informed Secretary Mallory that he 
had reconnoitred and would adopt the route suggested by 
Gen. Bragg; that the boats, with fixtures, ladders, etc., would 
be ready by the 19th. the moon serving about that time; but as 
Commodore Farrand and Gen. Maury had so small a force 
tliat they did not like to spare the men, he applied for an order 
that would enable him to procure them without delay. The 
necessity thus imposed upon Baker by the commanders at 
Mobile of communicating with the sources of authority at 
Richmond at every step of his undertaking had already 
caused valuable time to be wasted, and this refusal of Farrand 
and Maury to provide him with the aid that it was most 



THE CONFEDERATE STATES NAVY. 547 

unquestionably intended by President Davis, Secretary Mallory 
and Gen. Bragg that he should have, without calling for fur- 
ther orders from Richmond, prevented him from starting on 
the 19th, as he had anticipated doing. However, the Confed- 
erate government supported him, and on the 20th Gen. Maury 
notified Gen. Liddell, commanding the Eastern Division, Dis- 
trict of the Gulf, that Lieut. Baker was authorized to receive 
100 volunteers from the Fifteenth Confederate cavalry regi- 
ment for a special and dangerous service, and he recom- 
mended that a portion should, if possible, come from each 
company. The regiment named was in the brigade com- 
manded by Col. R. McCollock, whose headquarters were at 
Greenwood, Ala., and on the 31st Baker was informed that 
McCollock approved of the project of obtaining volunteers. 
On the 24th, Gen. Maury wrote to Lieut. Baker a letter which 
to an appreciable extent explains his attitude toward the ex- 
pedition. In it he said: 

"Having discharged my whole duty, and perhaps more, in laying- 
before you my views of your proposed operations, I will now aid you as 
far as I can in their execution. Confer fully with Gen. Liddell, who will 
CO operate with you as he best can. I regret that my forces are so much 
reduced as to prevent me from sending to Gen. Liddell any troops from 
this point. I would not be justified in doing so. I earnestly hope com- 
plete success will attend you, and 1 desire to express my respect for tlie 
energy, confidence, tenacity and courage you have evinced. 1 believe if 
your future movements be conducted with secrecy, you will capture the 
fort, and in that case yours shall be all the credit." 

Fickle fortune seemed to smile at last upon the expedition. 
Lieut. Baker and his brother had obtained the steamer Dick 
Keys, and on October 24th he notified Farrand that they 
would start that night for Blakely, transporting the boats 
thence in wagons to Ross Point on the Perdido River, from 
whence it would be easy rowing to Fort Pickens. Once in 
possession of the fort, he was to signal the land forces that 
were to co-operate. They did not, however, get away from 
Mobile until the next evening and had only reached the bay 
when their ardent hope of making a great coup ior the Con- 
federacy were blasted by the receipt of an order that they 
should proceed no further. They returned to Mobile, and on 
November 1st Lieut. Baker made the annexed report to Sec- 
retary Mallory: 

"I beg leave respectfully to report that on the evening of the 25th 
ult. I left this place in the steamer Blck Keys, with five launches, fixtures 
complete, two scaling ladders in sections, wagons, teams, etc. 

*' We landed at Blakely, at 9 p. m., where I found my men, 100 in 
number, awaiting me. The better to conceal our movements, started at 
once under cover of night. At this time I received an order from Brig. 
Gen. Liddell, commanding me to suspend the expedition temporarily, by 
order from Maj. Gen. Maury, who had heard of a heavy force of the en- 
emy being landed at the navy-yard. Upon receipt of this I encamped 
in an obscure spot, off the road, three miles from Blakely. On the 30th 
ult. news was received by the general of the falsity of the rumor, and I 
inimediately requested permission of Gen. Maury to move forward. He 



548 THE CONFEDERATE STATES NAVY, 

again ordered a temporary suspension of tlie expedition, as he was not 
fully prepared to co-operate and feared the enemy had obtained informa- 
tion of the movement. I remonstrated against the delay, stating the im- 
possibility of the enemy having obtained such information, since not even 
the men in my command were aware of my destination, but the men being 
under his control I was compelled to acquiesce. He advised that the men 
be returned to their respective companies, so as to give the impression of 
the move being abandoned; and on a given day suddenly ordered back, 
when the expedition might proceed, he thought, with more secrecy and 
certainty of success. This has been done, and I have left the boats on the 
wagons concealed, and under cover with a guard in charge of Master's 
Mate P. M. Baker. Had I been allowed to proceed without delay, I feel 
confident we should have met with success. It is greatly to be regretted 
that the men could not be obtained from the navy, as in that case they 
would have been under my constant control and this delay avoided. I 
would respectfully suggest that if possible sailors be procured for the en- 
terprise. The generals commanding have recently received intelligence 
that besides the vast quantities of stores, munitions of war, etc., always 
at the yard, the enemy have accumulated there immense supplies for 
Sherman's army. Inclosed you will find a letter to me from (ien. Maury 
which unfortunately did not reach me until other orders had been issued. 
As soon as the general is ready to co-operate, I will proceed to carry out 
the plan without delay. " 

A week elapsed, and at its end, instead of receiving the 
renewed instructions to move on to Pensacola that he was 
pleading for. Baker was peremptorily commanded by Farrand 
to withdraw from the undertaking. Nothing but his duty to 
obey a superior officer could have compelled him to abandon 
a project on whicli his courageous heart was set and which 
promised such magnificent results. He did not forego his 
scheme, however, without making to Secretary Mallory an in- 
dignant protest against the vacillating counsels that had em- 
barrassed and ultimately checked him. His last official com- 
munication was addressed to Mr. Mallory, from Mobile, on 
November 9th, and was as follows: 

" I beg leave respectfully to report that while acting under orders 
from the Department, bearing date Richmond, September 26th, 1864, and 
while awaiting near Blakely, Ala., the co-operation of Maj. Gren. Maury, 
I received enclosed communication from Flag-officer Farrand, order- 
ing my return with boats, officers, etc., to this point. I obeyed the order, 
and now respectfully enter my protest, as I conceive myself still under 
orders from the Department. Furthermore, that upon reporting to 
Flag-officer Farrand, I was ordered to relinquish the expedition, and re- 
turn to my ship for duty. Inclosed you will also please find communi- 
cation from Maj. Gren. Maury ordering a temporary suspension of the 
expedition." 

The Secretary of the Navy responded, under date of Nov- 
ember 24th, with a note which closes the narrative: ''Maj. 
Gen. Maury," he wrote to Baker, "■ having withdrawn his men 
from the enterprise to the command of which you were as- 
signed, its prosecution became impracticable. It was Capt. 
Farrand's duty therefore to issue to you the order of which you 
complain, and against which your protest, for the protection 
of either your own or the public interests, was unnecessary 
and irregular. I regret that circumstances beyond the control 



THE CONFEDERATE STATES NAVY. 549 

of the Department or yourself should have thus terminated an 
enterprise which seemed to promise good results."' 

It was never questioned at the time or since that the pri- 
mary cause of the thwarting of the expedition was the opposi- 
tion of Flag-officer Farrand, who grudgingly consented to it 
under the positive orders of Secretary Mallory, and even then 
placed ohstacles in its way that delayed it, and in the end 
brought it to naught. The whole plan of operations had been 
formulated before Admiral Buchanan was taken prisoner; it 
had seemed to him practicable and praiseworthy, and we may 
concur in the belief of Lieut. Baker and Master's Mate Page M. 
Baker that if he had remained in command of the Confeder- 
ate naval forces at Mobile, they could have been encouraged to 
go ahead and furnished with whatever assistance they needed. 
But Farrand only nominally filled Buchanan's place, and this 
grand conception of taking a fortified place by a bold dash 
was more than his spirit could grasp. The youthful officers 
whom he restrained on the verge of their enterprise have been 
vindicated as to the judgment which they displayed in formu- 
lating and organizing the proposed assault. They felt that 
they could take Fort Pickens, and since the restoration of 
peace, Page M. Baker, now the honored editor of the New 
Orleans Times- Democrat, has been informed by the officer 
in command of the post in the summer and autumn of 1864, 
that they would, beyond peradventure, have succeeded in 
capturing it by the movement which they proposed. This 
confirmation from their former enemy of the foresight and 
wisdom of their plans renders it all the more regretful that 
official timorousness balked them. To have taken this im- 
portant post in the gulf, with its immensely valuable stock 
of arms and munitions of war, to have released the valiant 
Buchanan and to have regained Pensacola and the navy- 
yard would have been of vast benefit to the Southern cause 
both in the moral and the material aspect, and justified the 
assent given to the enterprise by the President, the Secretary 
of the Navy, Gens. Bragg and Maury. That it was created in the 
mind of Page M. Baker is an instance of the eminent genius 
for the brilliant surprises of war frequently exhibited by young 
men of the Confederacy in the face of the excessive strength of 
the enemy, that partly sufficed to neutralize their superiority. 

In anticipation of the assault by the Federal fleet that 
had been threatened ever since the capture of New Orleans, 
Admiral Franklin Buchanan had been assigned to the com- 
mand of the Confederate naval force at Mobile and was 
gathering a squadron of some respectable power. ' 

1 " We are informed from pretty good author- built and equipped to aid in the defence of Mo- 

ity that Admiral Buchanan, wlio has just re- bile. A crack rait, with a powertul battery and 

turned from a trip of observation down the bay, picked crew,.ably and gallantly commanded, is 

determined upon an order which will materially the addendum. This is the avant courier ot 

add to the strength of the fleet which has been four other floating engines of war which will 



550 THE CONFEDERATE STATES NAVY, 

In June 1863, he had ready for operations the iron-clad 
ram Baltic, the steam gunboats Morgan, Gaines and Selma, and 
the tender Crescent. The history of the Baltic is somewliat 
obscure, and tliere are i^o known details of her armament and 
characteristics. She may have been the former coasting 
steamer of that name altered for purposes of war, and it is 
again possible that she was the vessel alluded to in a former 
paragraph of this chapter as having been partially built by the 
State of Alabama and tlien turned over to the Confederate 
government. The lack of Confederate records renders any 
precise determination of her identity impossible. 

The squadron was officered as follows at this time : 

Ram Baltic, flag-ship of Admiral Franklin Buchanan — Lieutenants, 
Jas. D. Johnston, Wm. P. A. Campbell, John Grimball: Second Lieuten- 
ants, Geo. A. Borchett, E. G. Read, A. G. Hudgins; Surgeons, John T. 
Mason, AVm. F. Carrington ; Assistant Paymaster, M. M. Leay; Masters, 
Ivey Foreman, H. W. Perrin; Midshipmen, S. P. Blanc, F. B. Dornin, T. 
J. H. Hamilton, E. A. Swain ; Engineers, W. M. Fauntleroy, G. Simpson; 
Gunners, W. H. Haynes, D. G. McComb. 

Gunboat Morgan — Commander, C. H. McBlair ; Lieutenants, C. J. 
Graves, Thomas L. Harrison ; Assistant Surgeon, Edwin G. Booth ; As- 
sistant Paymaster, R. L. Mackall'; Midshipmen H. H. Scott, T. G. Gar- 
rot, John A. Wilson, H. H. Tyson, James R. JN orris, F. Arthur; Engineer, 
H. B. Willy. 

Gunboat Gaines— Commander, T. T. Hunter; Lieutenants, John W. 
Bennett, Hilary Cenas ; Assistant Surgeon, T. B. Ford ; Assistant Pay- 
master, J. E. Armour; Master, E. C. Stockton; Midshipmen, J. A. Merri- 
■weather, James M. Gardner, D. D. Colcock, W. D. Goode, W. H. Ster- 
ling, James H. Dyke, W. F. Clayton. 

Gunboat Selma— Lieut., P. U. Murphy; Midshipman, J. B. Ratcliffe. 

One of the largest naval stations in the Confederacy was 
located at Selma, on the Alabama River, where in the spring 
of 1803 five gunboats were in i)rocess of construction. The 
senior officer on duty at this point was Commander Ebenezer 
Farrand, associated with whoni were First Lieut. Van R. 
Morgan, Assistant Paymaster Gr. H. O'Neil, Master John Pear- 
son. First Assistant Engineer Wm. Frick and Carpenter John 
T Rustic. Besides these the following attaches of the Mobile 
station did frequent duty at Selma: Lieuts. John R. Eggles- 
ton and Alphonso Barbot, Paymaster Thomas R. Ware, Mid- 
shipman Wm. S. Hogue and Gunner Benjamin F. Hughes. 
Surgeons Lewis W. Minor and O. S. Englehart were attached 
to the Mobile station. The ablest naval designers, engineers 
and ordnance officers in the Confederate service visited Selma 
from time to time to assist in the construction and armament of 
the vessels there fitted out. 

The remainder of the j^ear 1863 passed away in naval 
inactivity around Mobile so far as actual hostilities were 

soon take their station in the bay, and oppose splendid aptitude for fighting on terra firma. 
their iron sides to the iron shot of the Federal Whether we gain these additions to our navy- 
navy. The Federals will find out, after awhile, through cracks in the enemy's blockade, or by 
that 'some things can be done as well as others.' other means, we leave him to find out or to 
and that Southern men may develop a genius for infer." — Mobile Advertiser, December 27th, 1802. 
naval coustruction and warfare, as they have a ' Died August 11th. 1863. 



THE CONFEDERATE STATES NAVY 551 

concerned. Admiral Buchanan was kept on the constant alert 
by the reports that Farragut was coming at last, and as became 
so sagacious a commander he busied himself with the various 
projects of obstructing the channel and placing torpedoes in 
position that occurred to his keen judgment and fertile inven- 
tion. He was too wise to underrate the strength of the enemy 
as compared with the meagre naval equipment of the Con- 
federacy, but his experience in handling the Virginia in the 
battle of Hampton Roads had imparted to him much con- 
fidence in that type of fighting machine and he therefore ex- 
erted himself in speeding the work upon the iron-clads then 
building at Selma and Mobile. None but himself and those 
nearest to him could comprehend the immensity and difficulty 
of the task of putting afloat even one ship that might cope 
with the monitors which the ship-yards of the North were 
turning out with all the rapidity that unlimited money, plant, 
material and workmen could secure. On that side were all 
the advantages that invention, science and resources could 
confer, while from laying the keel of a ship to installing her 
engines and guns there was not a step at which the Confeder- 
ate officials were not halted, embarrassed and almost thwarted 
by their poverty in every appliance that should facilitate their 
labor. No man can claim to have a truthful understanding of 
the war who, in studying any of its phases, does not view 
them by the light of the facts of this vast disparity between 
the combatants, and it of course follows that the Confederates 
are to be judged by the obstacles which they overcame rather 
than by those that proved to be insurmountable. 

On February 23d, 1864, the operations of the Federal 
fleet for the destruction and capture of the seaward defences 
of Mobile began. Before proceeding with the narrative of the 
attack it is proper that an accurate description should be given 
of the approaches to Mobile by water and of the fortifications 
which guarded the channels. 

The city is situated thirty miles from the Gulf of Mexico 
at the head of the Bay of Mobile, the width of which varies 
from fifteen miles at the lower end to six at the upper. The 
principal entrance is by the Swash Channel, which trends at 
first northeastward from the gulf and closely skirts Mobile 
Point, a long, low projection from the mainland on the east. 
On the west side of the bay is Dauphine Island, the eastern- 
most of the chain which bounds Mississippi Sound, the en- 
trance to which is by Grant's Pass, which makes into the bay 
at the northern side of the island. Because of the deflection 
of the ship channel to the northeast it is fully three miles dis- 
tant from Dauphine Island. The most important of the land 
defences was Fort Morgan, built upon the western extremity 
of Mobile Point to command the channel, and occupying the 
site of old Fort Bowyer, which on September 15th, 1814, gal- 
lantly repelled the attack of a British fleet. Fort Morgan was 



552 



THE CONFEDERATE STATES NAVY. 



a pentagonal bastioned work, built of brick and intended to 
carry guns both in casemates and barbette, but the Confeder- 
ates had masked the embrasures of the curtains facing the 
channel and thrown up an exterior water battery before the 
northwest curtain. The main fort mounted seven 10-inch, 
three 8-inch and twenty-two 32-pounder smooth-bore guns, and 
two 8-inch, two 6.5-inch and four 5.82-inch rifled cannon. 




Twenty-nine more guns were placed in the exterior batteries, 
the most formidable of which was the water battery, which 
was armed with four 10-inch Columbiads, one 8-inch rifled gun 
and two rifled 32-pounders. 

On the eastern extremity o ' i.uphine Island, three nau- 
tical miles west-northwest from Fort Morgan, stood Fort 
Gaines, like Morgan constructed of brick. It was of second- 
ary importance as a defence of the port, and its armament 






I'. iT ,^ 



jf^' I' in ^-"' 




COMMANDER RICHARD L. PAGE, C. S. N. 

ALSO BRIGADIER GENEKAL, C. S. A. 



^ 



THE CONFEDERATE STATES NAVY. 555' 

consisted of but twenty-seven guns, of which three were 10-inch 
Columbiads, four were rifled 33-pounders. and the remainder 
smooth-bore 32's, 34's and 18's. Fort Morgan was commanded 
by Brig. Gen. R. L. Page/ and its garrison numbered 640 
officers and men. The commander of Fort Gaines was Col. 
Charles D. Anderson, and it was garrisoned by 8G4 officers 
and men. 

On Tower Island, a diminutive sand hummock at the 
mouth of Grant's Pass, the Confederates had begun the con- 
struction of a battery named Fort Powell, which, although it 
never reached completion, mounted a 10-inch and an 8-inch 
Columbiad and four rifled guns. These three fortiflcations 
made up the land defences of Mobile Bay, and we have now 
to take a look in detail at the squadron under Admiral Bu- 
chanan's command. 

His flag-ship was the iron-clad steam-ram Tennessee, with 
the exception of the Arkansas, destroyed upon the Mississippi 
River, the most formidable vessel of her class that ever car- 
ried the Confederate flag. The Tennessee was 209 feet in 



THE C. S. RAM "TENNESSEE." 

length, with an extreme beam of 48 feet, and carried her bat- 
tery in a casemate or shield amidships 79 feet long and 29 feet 
wide, inside dimensions. Her frame was composed of yellow 
pine beams, 13 inches thick, set close together vertically and 
planked with Sg inches of yellow pine in horizontal courses, 
and 4 inches of oak in vertical courses. Within, the yellow 
pine frames were sheathed with 2\ inches of oak. The 
outer walls of the casemate were inclined at an angle of 45 
degrees from the deck, and on this 25 inches of wood backing 
was laid the plate armor, which was 6 inches thick on the 

1 Geu. Richard L.Page was born in Virginia.and year was selected as executive officer of the frig- 
entered the U. S. navy as midshipman on March ate Independence, flag-ship of Commodore Shu- 
12th, 1824, being aswigned to the line of battle- brick, of the Pacific squadron, in which he re- 
Bhip iVo»-?/t Caroftwa, of the Mediterranean squad- mained during the Mexican war. On his return 
ron. In 1827 he was transferred to the frigate Cora- home in 1849, Lieut. Page was again detailed to 
stitution, and in 1828 returned to the United States the Norfolk rendezvous, and in 1851 was select- 
to complete his studies. Between 1830 and 1834 he ed for special ordnance duty in company with 
served in the sloop Concord in the Mediterranean, the then Commander Farragut. In 1852 he was 
and the schooner Foxa,t Baltimore. He received assigned to the couimaud of the brig Perry, and 
his lieutenant's commissiim March 26th, 1834, and was on duty with the African squadron until 
was made executive officer of the schooner En- July, 1854, when he was made executive officer 
terprise, in which he remained upon the East at the Norfolk navy-yard. On September 14th, 
India station until the autumn of 1837, alter 1855, he was promoted to commander and was 
whichhe was granted two years' leave of absence. appointed Assistant Inspector of Ordnance at 
From 1830 to 1841 he was attached to the frigate this navy-yard, where he remained until after 
Macedonian of the West Indian squadron, and the inauguration of President Bnchanan in 
the succeeding two years he spent at the Nor- 1857, when he was ordered to the command 
folk naval rendezvoxis, going to sea again in 1844- of the sloop Germantown, and attached to the 
45 on the sloop Plymouth, of the Mediterranean East Indian squadron. He remained with this 
squadron. In 1845 he was ordered to the line-of- squadron until April, 1860, when he was re- 
battle-ship Pennsylvania, at Norfolk, and the next called to the position of ordnance officer at the 



554 THE CONFEDERATE STATES NAVY. 

forward wall, and elsewhere 5 inches thick, and was fastened 
to the wood with bolts 1^ inch in diameter that went entirely 
through the wall and were secured by nuts and washers on 
the inside. The outside deck was plated with two inches of 
iron. A curious arrangement of the casemate was that its 
sloping sides were carried down two feet below the water- 
line and then reversed at the same angle, so that they met the 
hull seven feet under water. This projection was carried out 
around the bow, where it was fashioned into a spur or ram. 
The pilot-house stood on the forward edge of the casemate, 
and was in fact made by building it up some three feet. 
There were ten ports, two on each side, three forward and 
three aft, so arranged that the pivot guns could be fought in 
broadside, sharp on the bow and quarter and on a direct line 
with the keel, but the ship never had more than six guns. At 
€ach end she carried a Brooke 7|-inch rifled gun on pivots, 
capable of throwing a solid projectile of 110 pounds' weight. 
There were also four Brooke 6-inch rifles in broadside, each 
firing a 05-pound solid shot. 

So far the Tennessee was a credit to her builders, but she 
had avoidable and unavoidable defects that proved to vastly 
impair her efficiency in action. One avoidable defect was the 
manner of constructing the port shutters which revolved upon 
a pivot and were fatally apt to be jammed in an engagement. 
Another and greater blunder was that the rudder chains were 
exposed upon the after-deck, where they were at any moment 
liable to be shot away. Of the defects that could not be 
avoided the worst was her lack of speed. Her engines were 
not built for the ship, but were taken from the high-pressure 
river steamboat Alonzo Child; and though on her trial trip, in 
March, 1804, lier speed was set down at eight nautical miles 
per hour, she could not make more than six with her battery, 
ammunition and fuel on board. 

Yet, taken in all, the Tennessee was a fighting machine of 
■which the Confederacy had a right to feel proud. She was as 
apt an illustration as the whole war produced of the triumph 

Norfolk navy -yard. He resigned from the navy established the ordnance and construction depot 
of the United States as soon as his native State at Charlotte, N. C, which under his admiiiis- 
had seceded, and was appointed an aide on the tration became of inestimable value to the Con- 
staff of Governor Letcher, of Virginia, with special federacy. For nearly two years he continued in 
reference to the organization of a State navy. The charge of this important post, the only iuter- 
fortiflcations at the mouth of James River, the ruptiou being an assignment to the command of 
defencesofNansemondKiver and those of Pagan the naval forces at Savannah, during Mhioh 
Creek were constructed under his direction. service he was with Commodore Tatiiall in the 
Upon the formation of the Confederate govern- gunboat Savannah at the naval battle of Port 
nient, he entered the Confederate States navy. Royal; thence returning to the Charlotte station, 
Jvme 10th. 1861, and received the commission he was detached from the latter, and ordered to 
of commander in the navy, and acted as ordnance the command of the outer defences of Mobile 
officer at the Norfolk navy-yard until the evacu- Bay, making his headquarters at Fort Morgan, 
ation of the place by the Confederates. During This new field of auty necessitated his transfer 
the battles of the iron-clad Virginia in Hampton from the navy to the army, in which lie was 
Roads he volunteered for service at the Sewell's commissioned brigader-general. After the sur- 
Point battery in working the 11-inch gim against render of Fort Morgan he was held prisoner by 
tlie Federal ships. After the evacuation of Nor- the Federals until September, 1865, when he 
folk. Commander Page was promoted to the was released. He now resides at Norfolk in tlie 
rank of captain, and with the mechanics and enjoyment of a vigorous old age, after his many 
machinery removed from the Norfolk shops years of honorable naval and military service. 



THE CONFEDERATE STATES NAVY. 



555 



of dauntless energy over a host of obstacles, and it can never 
cease to be a subject of wonder and admiration that Southern 
builders and seamen, crippled in every department of con- 
struction and outfit, could have wrought their little available 
material to so good a purpose. She was built at the naval 
station at Selma, in the winter of 18(33-64, and so expeditiously 
was tlie work done upon her that when her keel was laid, 
some of the timbers to be used in her were still standing in 
the forests, and much of what was to be her plating was still 
ore in the mines. In March 18G4, Commander J. D. Johnston 
was assigned to duty as her captain by Secretary Mallory, and 
began preparations to take the ship to Mobile. The great prob- 
lem was to float her over Dog River bar mud flats, on which 
there were but nine feet of water at high tide. This was ac- 
complislied by placing on either side of her keel wooden 
tanks or caissons, called by sailors camels, which, when 
pumped free of water, were sufficiently buoyant to lift the 
Tennessee five feet. Thus she was carried over the bar, and 
on May 18th, all ready for action, she steamed down to the lower 




DIAGRAM OF THE C. S. RAM "TENNESSEE." 



bay and hoisted her ensign full in the gaze of Farragut's sail- 
ors. Admiral Buchanan proposed that night to give the en- 
emy a brush, but after dark the Tennessee was found to be 
hard and fast aground, and he was compelled to abandon his 
intention. She was officered as follows : Admiral, Franklin 
Buchanan; Captain, James D. Johnston; Lieutenants, Wm. 
L. Bradford (also Executive Officer), A. D. Wharton, E. G. 
McDermott; Masters, J. R. Molry and H. W. Perrin; Engi- 
neers, George D. Linning, J. C. O'Connell, John Hayes, Oscar 
Renson and Wm. B. Patterson; Paymaster's Clerk, J. H. 
Cohen; Master's Mates, W. A. Forrest, Wm. Beebe and R. M. 
Carter; Boatswain, John McCredie; Gunner, Herman L. 
Smith. The crew numbered 110 men. 

In addition to the Tennessee the Confederate squadron 
consisted of three small gunboats: Gaines, J. W. Bennett, 
Lieut. Commanding ; Morgan, George W. Harrison, Com- 
mander, and Selma, P. U. Murphy, Commander. All were 
unarmored except for small spaces around the boilers, where 
a few inches of light iron plating had been put on in order to 
afford some protection to the boilers and machinery. The 
Morgan and Gaines had been hastily constructed by the Con- 
federate government ; their frames were of unseasoned wood 



556 THE CONFEDERATE STATES NAVY. 

and their engines were entirely too small for their tonnage. 
The Selma was an open-deck river steamer that had been 
hurriedly altered into a gunboat. The Morgan carried two 7- 
inch rifles and four 32-pounders; the Gaines, one 8-inch rifle 
and five 32-pounders ; the Selma, three 8-inch old fashioned 
Paixhan shell guns and one venerable smooth-bore 33-pounder 
that had been rather clumsily rifled and was not reliable for 
close shooting. 

The defence of Mobile was not entrusted entirely to the 
forts and ships. From Fort Gaines a line of closely -planted 
piles stretched southeasterly along the sand-reef in the direc- 
tion of Fort Morgan, the heads of the piles being just visible 
at low water. Where the reef formed the western edge of the 
channel the piles terminated, their use being to prevent any 
light-draft vessels from crossing the flats, but from this 
point a triple row of torpedoes was buoyed across the channel 
and ended at a red buoy distant less than 800 feet from the 
water battery of Fort Morgan. Thus there actually existed 
only an open passage not much more than a hundred yards 
wide through the channel. This had been left unobstructed 
as a means of ingress and egress for blockade-runners, who 
were enabled to navigate it by means of lights displayed from 
Fort Morgan. ' 

The Confederate torpedo service at Mobile was somewhat 
elaborate. About 180 torpedoes are said to have been planted 
in the bay in anticipation of Farragut's advance. One kind 
was made of tin in the form of a cone. The greater diameter 
was filled with an air chamber, which floated upward and 
carried a cap and trigger intended to be fired by a slight blow 
like that from a passing vessel. The lower compartment con- 
tained the charge, which so communicated with the cap that 
the explosion of the latter would reach it. The other class of 
torpedo was made of a barrel or beer keg, pitched to make it 
water tight and with wooden cones secured to the top and bot- 
tom to steady it. It was filled with powder and completed by 
the attachment of half a dozen sensitive primers, which 
would explode by concussion and transmit their flame to the 
charge. When prepared with care these torpedoes were much 
the more reliable as the caps of the can torpedoes got out of 
working order by long exposure to the action of the water. 

In January, 1864, Admiral Farragut began feeling his 
way toward an attack on Mobile, and on February 23d he 
opened the bombardment of Fort Powell at Grant's Pass, with 
his mortar-boats and light-draft vessels that had been able to 
come up from Mississippi River by way of the sound. For 
three days the "bummers" and gunboats poured their shot 
and shell upon the fort without doing it any injury, or so much 
as wounding one of its garrison, while on the other hand the 

1 It was originally coiitenixilated that in case of ing in it hiillis lailen with stones; but for some 
an attack this eiitniupe sliould be closed by sink- reason this jilan was never carried into etfect. 



THE CONFEDERATE STATES NAVY. 557 

iire returned by the Confederates was equally ineffective. Dur- 
ing this harmless duel the Morgan, Gaines and Sehna man- 
oevred about in the vicinity of Grant's Pass, but found no oppor- 
tunity for the exercise of their guns; and the Tennessee laid at 
rest close to Fort Morgan. The attack was indeed intended 
only to prevent the Confederates from detaching any of the 
forces around Mobile for service against Sherman, who was at 
that time making his raid into Mississippi. ^ 

We have now pursued the succession of events in and 
around Mobile up to the consummation of the plans which the 
Fedei'al government had for two years been maturing for an 
attack from the sea upon the forts and Admiral Buchanan's 
squadron. Ever since Admiral Farragut's capture of New 
Orleans public opinion in the North, no less than the judgment 
of the Washington authorities, had selected him as the com- 
mander under whom should be attempted the reduction of the 
last stronghold and fleet remaining to the Confederates upon 
the Gulf of Mexico; and his government was prepared to fur- 
nish him with whatever overwhelming force of men and ships 
he might deem requisite to crush the South at this point. Fully 
aware of the tremendous odds that were to be brought against 
them, Admiral Buchanan and Gen. Dabney H. Maury, the 
military commander at Mobile, threw all their energies into 
strengthening their squadron and their lines of resistance; but 
there was literally no single phase of their schemes at which 
they were not compelled to struggle against their woeful defi- 
ciency in everything except the valor of men and the skill of 
officers that brings to the highest efficiency fleets and armies. 
For instance, if the resources of the Confederacy had been 
anywhere near equal to the demand upon them, Buchanan, in- 
stead of being compelled to rely so largely upon the Tennessee 
with which to oppose Farragut, would have been able to swing 
into his line of battle the Nashville, and perhaps two or three 
other iron-clads and gunboats that were lying unfinished at 
Selma and Mobile because the government was unable to com- 
plete them. Speculation upon what might have been the re- 
sult of the battle of Mobile Bay if Buchanan had been rein- 
forced by these ships may be useless at this late day, but it at 
least presents an open question when we recall the great pre- 
ponderance of power that was required to overcome the Ten- 
nessee alone and oblige Buchanan to strike his flag. '^ 

1 Deserters who about this time escaped from in passing Forts St. Philip and Jackson, the 
the Confederate lines reported that Admiral Nashville and Tennessee were to blockade the 
Buchanan contemplated a dash upon the Missis- river at Southwest Pass while the squadron from 
sippi River and New Orleans with his fleet. the Red River attacked the city ; and in cnse 
According to their story he was only waiting; for tliey were repulsed they were to move up the 
the completion of the iron-clad Nashville to Mississippi and blockade if between New Orleans 
attempt this movement. The programme was and Natchez. If such a movement as this was 
said to be that the renjjessee and iVas/iviWe, assist- ever proposed it was frustrated by the appear- 
ed by the ii-ou-clads from the Red River, should ance of Farragut's fleet in the Bay of Mobile 
proceed up and down the Mississippi, while the and the necessity imposed upon Admiral Bu- 
troops from Mobile, Gen. Magruder's and Gen. chanan of meeting the enemy there. 
Dick Taylor's commands, were to make a land 
attack at the same time. If the iron-clads failed 2 Correspondents of tlie Northern papers added 



558 THE CONFEDERATE STATES NAVY. 

Farragut's attack was delayed for several weeks because 
he was waiting for his monitors to arrive. He had no notion 
of exposing his wooden ships alone to the chances of the 
combat, and it is, moreover, a very reasonable supposition 
that in his requisitions upon his government for iron-clads he 
Avas, to a certain degree, influenced by the exaggerated re- 
ports afloat in the North of the formidable character of the 
Tennessee. ' 

Still another reason for Farragut's delay was the disar- 
rangement of the Federal plans for the co-operation of the 
army in the movement against Mobile. Grant had assumed 
in March, 18G4, that Banks' expedition up the Red River 
would be a success, and had consequently ordered that after 
returning from the Red River, Banks should move against 
Mobile with 30,000 men, to which he expected to add 5,000 
f i-om Missouri. But instead of enjoying the anticipated mili- 
tary promenade in Louisiana and Arkansas, Banks was re- 
pulsed in a manner most humiliating to liimself, and from his 
shattered columns had no troops to spare for a diversion that 
had Mobile as its objective. Consequently, Gen. Canby, the 
successor of Banks, was so hard pushed by the Confederate 
army under Gen. Dick Taylor, that he was unable to carry out 
Grant's instructions, and was compelled to content himself 
with sending a couple of thousand men unuer the command of 
Major Gen. Gordon Granger and Brigadier Gen. McGinnis to 
invest Fort Gaines; these, on August od, were landed on Dau- 
phine Island in the rear of the fort and under the cover of the 
guns of Lieut. J. C. P. DeKraft's flotilla of light-draft gunboats. 

Farragut had formed his plan of battle as far back as 
July 12tli. when he issued a general order regarding the manner 
in which his fleet should attempt the passage of the forts. In 
this he provided that the wooden ships should be lashed in 
couples; that all should open fire as fast as their guns could 
be brought to bear; that short fuses should be used for the 
shell and shrapnel; that grape should be fired as soon as a 
range of 300 or 400 yards was obtained, and that disabled ships 
nuist be helped by their consorts. In a subsequent order of 
July 39th, he instructed his captains to take care to go to the 
east of the easternmost buoy in order to avoid the triple line 
of torpedoes, which, as we have previously explained, termi- 
nated at the buoy which he mentioned, leaving clear water 

to the Confederate squadron "a cigar-sbaped appearance of confidence on the part of the 

torpedo boat," that, according to their letters, writers, that if she were ever permitted to es- 

" was snnk in the lower bay by the exiJlosion of cape from Mobile Bay, every port of the North 

ber boiler." would be at her mercy. Tliey constantly urged 

upon the Navy Department that if the most de- 
' These reports are amusing reading twenty- plorable catastrophes were to be averted. Ad- 
two years after the close of the war. In the niiral Farragut should have at his disposal 
view of the correspondents of Northern news- evei-y irou-clad that could be spared from ini- 
)iaiier» accompanying Farragut, the Tennessee perative duty elsewhere, and Secretary Welles 
w;is the most destructive engine of war that was scorched and slashed with criticism because 
had ever floated. Her speed, her armor and her of his seeming indifferance to the portentous 
battery were exaggerated to the most remark- possibilities to the North threatened by this 
able degree, and it was ijredicted, with all the solitary Confederate ship. 



THE CONFEDERATE STATES NAVY. 55!) 

between that point and Fort Morgan. No resources of inge- 
nuity were left unexhausted to strengthen the wooden ships. 
On one of them, the Richmond, three thousand bags of sand 
were used in building a barricade from the port bow around 
the starboard side to the port quarter, and in various shapes 
this expedient was adopted on other vessels. Chain cables 
were hung over the sides to protect the engines and boilers, 
and the coal in the bunkers was shifted to where it might 
catch shot coming in a line toward the boilers. 

On the evening of August 4th the monitor Tecumseh, the 
last iron-clad for which Farragut had been waiting, steamed 
into the bay, and the morning of the 5th dawned with the con- 
ditions which the Federal admiral desired — a flood-tide to help 
his ships past the Confederate guns and a, westerly wind to blow 
the smoke of battle away from the fleet and in the direction of 
Fort Morgan/ At 5:30 o'clock his wooden ships were double 
banked in the prescribed order, and before six the four monitors 
and the fourteen wooden ships were under way, the golden 
summer sun of this semi-tropical clime shining from cloudless 
skies as the prows of this formidable naval array, which could 
not then have been exceeded by any nation in the world, cut 
the lapping waves of the bay. They steamed in the following 
order, the Hartford being the flag-ship of Admiral Farragut : 
Monitors— Starboard Column. 

Tecumseh 1,034 tons— 2 guns, Commander T. A. M. Craven. 

Manhattan /..:.. . . " " " " " J. W. A. Nicholson. 

Winnebago 970 tons— 4 " " Thomas H. Stephens. 

Chickasarvsr " " " '' Lieut. Comr. George H. Perkins, 

Wooden Ships— Port Column. 

Brooklyn 2,070 tons — 24 guns, Capt. James Alden. 

Octorara., 829 " 6 " Lieut. Comr. Chas. A. Greene. 

Hartford 1,900 " 21 " Capt. Percival Drayton. 

Metacomet 974 " 6 ' Lieut. Comr, Jas. E. Jouett. 

Richmond 1,929 " 20 " Capt. Thornton A. Jenkins. 

Port Royal 805 " 6 " Lieut. Comr. Bancroft Gherardi. 

Lackawanna 1,533 " 8 " Capt. Jno. B. Marehand. 

Seminole 801 " 8 " Commander Edward Donaldson. 

Monongahela 1,378 " 8 " Commander Jas. H. Strong. 

Kennebec 507 " 5 " Lieut. Comr. W. P. McCann. 

Ossipee 1,240 " 11 '' Commander Wm. E. Leroy. 

Itasca 507 " 6 " Lieut. Comr. George Brown. 

Oneida 1,032 " 9 " Commander J. R. M. Mullany. 

Galena .- 738 " 10 " Lieut. Comr. Clark H. Wells. ^ 

At this moment Admiral Buchanan, whose four ships had 
been riding at anchor to the north of Fort Morgan, gave the 

* As Fort Gaines wae more than two miles their total weight of metal was 14,246 pounds, 

distant from the channel it did not count for andthat they threw at a broadside 9,288 pounds, 

anything in the scheme of engagement. The total weij^ht of metal that could be thrown 

from all the Tennessee's guns at one discharge 

^ All these ships carried batteries of the was but 600 pounds, while 900 pounds is a large 

heuviest guns atloat proportionate to their size. allowance for a single round from the three 

Commodore Foxhall A. Parker, of the U. S. navy, other Confederate craft. Thus it will be seen 

bta tes in his paper upon the battle of Mobile that the difference between the concentrated fire 

Bay, read before the Military Historical Society of the Federal fleet, and that of Buchanan's 

of Massachusetts, December 10th, 1877, that squadron, was nearly ten pounds to one in favor 



MO 



THE CONFEDERATE STATES NAV^Y. 



signal to prepare for action, and they stood out across the 
channel just inside the line of torpedoes, their heads pointed 
to the westward in order that their port batteries might bring 
a raking fire to bear upon the advancing enemy. The admiral 
posted his own ship nearest to the channel and to the Fed- 
erals ' in the full expectation of engaging the Tecumseh, 
whose 15-inch guns had been loaded with sixty pounds of 
powder and cylindrical flat-headed steel bolts that it was sup- 
posed would penetrate the armor of the Tennessee. By a 
quarter-past seven o'clock the action had become general, 
Farragut's ships pouring their broadsides into Fort Morgan, 
which responded with so much energy that a dense cloud of 
smoke had already settled down upon the bay, above which 
loomed the masts and spars of the Federal fleet, while it was 
incessantly lit up with the flashes of the guns. The spectacle 
was one of those grand and awful battle-pictures which men 
who witnessed it confessed their inability to reproduce in 
words. Still, Admiral Buchanan, stcitioned in the pilot-house 
of the Tennessee, reserved his fire and kept his gaze fixed upon 
the Tecumseh, whose flat raft of a hull and ominous-looking 
turret were with every passing second creeping closer to him. 
There was even a momentary lull in the fury of the fire as all 
eyes were turned toward these gladiators of the seas, the 
champions each of its own side of the dreadful combat, "^ 
Buchanan, determined that the struggle should be at the 
closest quarters, had transmitted the order through Capt. 
Johnston to Lieut. Wharton, in charge of the first division 
of the Tennessee, " not to fire until the vessels are in actual 
contact." "Aye, aye, sir," responded Wharton,^ tautening 



ot the former. Each of Farragut's ships had 
been built for the naval service, and they con- 
stituted the pick of the fighting force of the 
U. S. government. His monitors were the most 
powerful irou-clads that had been built. The 
Tecumseh and Manhattan were armored with ten 
inches of iron on their turrets, as against the 
six inches of the Tennessee's casemate, and each 
carrifd in her tuiTet two 15-inch guns, the heav- 
iest that in those days had been put on ship- 
board. 

The Chickasaiu and Winnebago were double 
turret monitors, clad in eight and a half inches 
of iron, and tiring from each turret two eleven 
inch puns. The Hartford. Brooklyn a,t\d Richmond 
were second-class wooden screw steamers carry- 
ing nine-inch Dahlgron guns, and lOO-pounder 
Parrott rifles, and these very eflective pieces of 
ordnance were common throughout the fleet, 
even the smallest ships mounting at least one 
nine or eleven-inch gun in addition to the most 
approved form of rifled canmm and howitzers. 
There were few such obsolete guns on board 
of them as the thirty-two ponmlers of the Gaines, 
Morgan and Selma. By far the most valuable 
guns in possession of the Confederates were the 
Brooke rifles, which were manufactured at Rich- 
mond, under the direction of their inventor, 
Onminander John M. Brooke, of the C. 8. navy; 
bvit the largest of tliem were but a little over 
eight inches' calibre, his facilities being too 
restricted to allow him to turn out pieces like 



the eleven and fifteen inch cannon that the 
Federals placed so great a reliance "upon. 

1 Six other Federal ships than those in Farra- 
gut's line of battle, the Sebago, Tennessee, (which 
must not be confounded with the Oonfederate 
iron-clad), Bienville, I'embina, Pinola'^tid Genes- 
see, were detailed to attack Fort Morgaw on its 
southward and eastward faces, so as to attra<'t 
as much as possible of its tire while the fleet 
was running the gauntlet; but they never eteam- 
ed close enough to itsguus to make an import- 
ant factor in the action, and the mention of 
them is only necessary that no feature of the 
narrative should be left untouched. 

2 Before going into the action Adrnfral Bu- 
chanan addressed his assembled officers and 
crew upon the Tennessee's gun-deck, saying : — 
"Now men, the enemy is coming, and I want 
you to do your duty ; and you shall not Iwive it 
to say when you leave this vessel that yon wire 
not near enough to the eneuty, for I will meet 
them, and then you can fight theiu alongside ^of 
their own shijjs : and if I fall, lay me on one 
side and go on with the fight, and never mind 
me— but whip and sink the Yankees or fipht 
until you sink yourselves, but do not sur- 
render." 

•' Lieut. A.. D. Wharton entered theU. S na'/y 
as cadet midshipman September 23d. 1H56, and 



THE CONFEDERATE STATES NAVY. 



561 



the lockstring of the bow-gun in his fingers as he spoke the 
words. Simultaneously the Tennessee was moved a very short 
distance to the westward of the buoy at the end of the torpedo 
line, and Craven, the commander of the Tecumseh. made the 
fatal mistake of disregarding the order of Farragut to keep to 
the eastward of this buoy. Ordering his helm put hard-a-star- 
board, he dashed straight at the Tennessee, this course taking 
him directly across the chain of torpedoes. In a moment, and 
when the ships were less than a hundred yards apart, a muf- 
fled explosion was heard, a column of water like a fountain 
springing from the sea shot up beside the Federal monitor; 
she lurched violently, her head settled, her stern went up into 
the air so that her revolving screw could be plainly seen, and 
then the waves closed over her, leaving of her officers and 
crew less than a dozen men swimming about for their lives, 
while two officers and five men had climbed into a boat that 
had been washed from her deck. ' 

The suddenness of this catastrophe for an instant called a 
halt in the action. In Fort Mors^ran it was imagined that a 



graduated at the Annapolis Naval Academy in 

1860. He was in the steam-slooji Seminole on 
the Brazil Station when the war began, and hia 
vessel was not ordered home until March 8th, 

1861. After returning, he resigned his commis- 
sion in the U. S. navy, was arrested and im- 
prisoned at Fort Lafayette for two months, and 
then transferred to Fort Warren, where he 
was confined for some time, with Cajit. Robert 
Tansell and Lieut. Wilson, who h:ul resigned 
from the U. S. marine corps. Early in 1S6'2, 
Lieut. Wharton was exchanged for Lieut. Van 
Horn, who was surrendered in Texas by Gen. 
Twiggs. He entered the service of the C. S. 
navy ou February 8th, 1862, and was assigned 
to duty on board of the C. S. steamer Arkansas, 
then building at Memphis. He was in all the 
desperate engagements which the Arkansn.t had 
with the Federal fleets until she left Vicksburg, 
when he was ordered to Galveston as one of the 
officers of the captured steamer Harriet Lane. 
This vessel being unfitted for a cruiser, he was 
ordered to Shreveport, La., where he remained 
during the year 1863 in charge of the steamer 
Webb, to await the completion of the Missouri 
to which he was to be attached. In the winter 
of 1863, Lieut. Wharton jn-oposed to the Navy 
Department to load the Webb with cotton and 
run the blockade at the moutli of the Red River, 
make an effort to pass New Orleans, and proceed 
to Havana. Before his propositinn reached 
Richmond, he was ordered to the Tennessee at 
Mobile. Lieut. Read afterwards attempted to 
run the Webb to Havana, and came vei-y near 
succeeding. Upon one occasion Captain R. H. 
Meade, of the U. S. navy, said that the attempt 
of Lieut. Read was one of the most daring teats 
of the war, and really excited his admiration. 
Lieut. Wharton bore a distinguished and gallant 
part in the battle of Mobile Bay, where he was 
taken prisoner. He was sent to Fort Warren, 
and, after a short imprisonment, was exchanged 
and returned to Richmond. He was then or- 
dered as execiitive officer to the ironclad Rich- 
mond in the James River squadron. In January, 
1865, he conceived the idea of destroying the 
bridges over the Tennessee River in East Ten- 
nessee, to delay what was then supposed to be 

36 



the intended advance of Gen. Thomas' army in 
southwestern Virginia. He thought that by 
taking a boat with inflammable material and 
launching it near Abingdon, Va., and passing 
down the river by night and concealing himself 
during the day, he could reach the bridges un- 
observed, and accomplish his mission. The 
Navy Department assented to the jilan and fitted 
him out with a large flat-bottomed skiff, pulling 
three oars on a siile, with an ample outfit. A 
dozen men volunteered for the perilous enter- 
prise, among whom we can remember Lieut. 
Henry Stiles, Lieut. Joseph L. Pearcy, Sergeants 
William H. Wharton and J. Newton Jones. The 
boat was conveyed by cars to near Saltville.Va., 
and launched in the north fork of the Holston 
River. The journey down the frozen river 
through cold rains and heavy snows was one of 
great privation and suffering. Often the party 
were compelled to wade tlirough ice and carry 
their boat over shoals and bars, occasionally 
jumping dams, running afoul of fish traps, and 
passing camps of the enemy. Upon one occa- 
sion the party were wrecked, and finally while 
they were away from their boat, the river rose 
so rapidly that it was caught tinder the over- 
hanging branches of a tree, to which it was fas- 
tened, completing destroying all their ammuni- 
tion and material. It then became necessary 
for the party to make their escape. They pro- 
ceeded down the river and passed impotently 
under the bridge at Strawberry Plains; passing 
Knoxville and going under a second bi'idge at 
London, they were completely used up. Shortly 
afterwards they were taken prisoners and sent 
to Camp Chase, Ohio, where they were confined 
until the close ol the war. Lietit. Wharton is 
at present (1887) in charge of the Htime Gram- 
mar and High Schools at Nashville, Teun. In 
June, 1886, he was appointed by President 
Cleveland a member of the Board of Visitors to 
the Naval Academy. 

1 Twenty-one men in all were saved out of her 
complement of 141 sotils. Commander Craven 
was among the lost. Of the twenty-one fotir 
swam to Fort Morgan and gave themselves up. 
A week afterwards, when the divers went down 



5G2 THE CONFEDERATE STATES NAVY. 

Confederate shot had sunk the Tecumseh and a cheer rang out 
from the garrison, A boat put out from the Metacomet to pick 
up the men struggling with the waves. The roar of battle 
began again while she was on her errand of mercy, but Gen. 
Page, with that fine appreciation of an enemy's gallantry 
characteristic of the chivalrous soldier, ordered his artillerists 
not to fire upon her. 

While these events were occurring, the Selma, Gaines and 
Morgan were doing their full share toward opposing the pas- 
sage of the Federal fieet. Their guns were served promptly 
and efficaciously and from their position across the channel 
they were enabled to inflict much damage upon the wooden 
vessels, although their heaviest shot rebounded harmlessly 
from the impenetrable turrets of the monitors. The latter 
steered steadily onward, but the Brooklyn, leading the wooden 
ships, was stopped by Capt. Alden because of his fancy that 
he saw torpedoes in the water ahead. Then she backed down 
upon the Hartford and the Federal line of battle was in peril 
of becoming involved in inextricable confusion when Far- 
ragut dashed, to its head in the Hartford and so restored order. 
During this embarrassment the batteries of the Federal men- 
of-war were almost silent, while Fort Morgan and Buchanan's 
ships poured into them an incessant and destructive fire. But 
Farragut took the risk of striking torpedoes and pushed ahead. ' 
As he went over the line the keel of the Hartford struck 
several torpedo cases and the primers were heard to snap; but 
they had been so corroded by the action of the salt water that 
not one of them exploded and the fleet passed safely through 
the danger to which the Tecumseh had fallen a victim. 

With the line of battle restored and the torpedo chain in 
their rear the Federals pressed on. Fort Morgan hulled each 
ship repeatedly as it passed, but the chain armor and the sand- 
bag barricades saved every one from being disabled except 

to examine the wreck they found nearly all the ^ Lieut. A. D. Wharton, ■who had command 

crew at their posts, as they sank. The chief of the forward division of the Tennessee, writes 

engineer, who had been married in New Yorlj that when the //((((/brd passed the BcooWyn and 

only two weeks before, and who had received led the Federal line into the bay, she passed 

from the flag-ship's mail his letters while the line across tlie Tennessee s bow, and not more than 

was forming, stood with one hand upon the 2U0 yards distant. The seven-inch rifle in the 

revolving bar of the turret engine, and in the bow of Buchanan's ship was loaded with a per- 

other an open letter from his bride, which his cussion sLell. and Wharton congratulated him- 

dead eyes still seemed to be reading. self that he would sink Farragut's flagship un- 

Lieut. F. S. Barrett, in charge of the torjjedo der the batteriesof FortMorgan,and thatherde- 

defeuces at Mobile, on August 13th telegraphed struction would lead to the defeat of the others. 

Brig. Gen. G. J. Rains at the office of the Torpedo " I took the lock-string from the captain of the 

Bureau, Richmond, that "Monitor Tecumseh was gun myself," he writes, " took a long deliberate 

8unk by torpedo in thirty seconds," where- aim, and gave the commands: 'Raise,' 'Steady,' 

upon Gen. Rains made the following communi- ' Raise a little more,' ' Ready,' ' Fire !' I was as 

cation to the Secretary of War: " I have the confident that our shell would tear a hole iu the 

honor to enclose the within telegram with the Hartford's side big enough to sink her in a few 

remark that previous to leaving Mobile I had minutes as I was that I had fired it. It did 

67 torpedoes planted where this one acted, and tear the hole expected, but it was above the 

had nine submarine mortar batteries under way water-line. Capt. Drayton refers to this shot 

(three completed) to close the main channel, in his official report to Farragut. I have often 

Buch as the enemy report kept them out of speculated since upon the effect of not having 

Charleston, they being unable to remove them. raised the breech of our bow-gun, and thus 

But my instructions and wishes were frustrated caused that shell to ricochet before striking the 

Sitter I left; the place left open and the enemy Hartford. I wish I had let the captain of the 

made use of it." , gun fire the piece himself." 



THE CONFEDERATE STATES NAVY. 563 

the Oneida, in whose starboard boiler one of Morgan's shells 
burst, while another exploded in her cabin, and two of her 
guns were dismounted. In this condition she was towed past 
the fort by her consort the Galena. 

At 8:20 o'clock the hard fighting had lasted a little more 
than an hour and the Federal fleet was well into Mobile Bay 
and past the guns of Fort Morgan. No commander in Gen. 
Page's place could have done more than he had done to defend 
the entrance, but it had been proved again, just as it had been 
demonstrated at New Orleans, Vicksburg and Port Hudson, 
that forts on shore could not stop the passage of a hostile 
squadron of steam- vessels handled with skill and determina- 
tion. But all hope for the Confederates was not lost with Fort 
Morgan out of the fight. Admiral Buchanan and the com- 
manders of his quartette of vessels felt that it now devolved 
upon them to take up alone the herculean task of turning back 
the enemy, and they went to their work with steadfast courage 
against odds that seemed to forbid them to hope for victory. 

The Selma, Gaines and Morgan ran close down on the 
starboard bow of the Hartford as she crossed the torpedo line 
and inflicted upon her the most galling punishment that she 
suffered during the day. The rapidity and accuracy of the 
fire of these gunboats at this stage of the engagement was the 
perfection of artillery practice. They were using mainly 
their stern guns, for they kept a little ahead of the Hartford, 
and the range varied from seven hundred to a thousand 
yards. One shot from the Selma killed ten and wounded five 
men at her forward guns, while that division was strewn with 
the bodies of the dead and wounded, and human limbs and 
splinters were hurled on to the deck of the consort Metacomet. 
Yet Farragut did not halt, ' and Buchanan made a dash at him 
with the Tennessee, proposing to give the Hartfoi-d a taste of 
the ram, but she easily avoided him by her superior speed, and 
Buchanan, finding that it was useless to pursue her or to in- 
vite her to single combat, stood down the bay again to meet 
the other Federal wooden ships, which were coming up a 
mile astern of the Hartford, still lashed in couples, the 
Brooklyn and Octorara being in the lead. In a battle where 
there was so much valor exhibited, it is impossible to specify 
the most daring deed, but this onslaught of the one ship 
upon the twelve was not the least brilliant of the under- 
takings of that memorable 5th of August. 

1 Admiral Farragut told in his own way, after my view became more obscured, and I was 
the war, the story of his being " lashed to the compelled to ascend the rigging gradually, 
mast-head " of the Hartford during the battle. until finally I got some little distance be- 
" It was a fiction," he said to a reporter who neath the maintop. At this juncture, Capt. 
questioned him in San Francisco. "At the com- Drayton fearing, he said, that I might fall over- 
mencement of the battle," he continued, " for board in case of being wounded, called one 
the purpose of obtaining the best view of the of the quartermasters, and cutting oft' a piece 
movements of the enemy, and to better govern of the signal halyard, ordered him to bring 
thefleetunder my command,! got into the lower it up to me, that I might render my position 
part of the rigging of the Hartford, just above more secure. With this rope I attached my- 
what is known as the hammock raiUng. As the self to the rigging, and I was nut near the mast- 
smoke ascended from the heavy cannonading, head." 



564 THE CONFEDERATE STATES NAVY. 

Buchanan had not got well down toward the fleet before 
he was hampered by the low speed of his vessel and her tardi- 
ness in answering her helm. He endeavored in succession to 
ram the Brooklyn, Richmond and Lackaivanna, but each 
sheered off and he missed his aim. In passing each, how- 
ever, he gave her his broadside. " which," says Commodore 
Parker, '• did great injury to the vessels and laid many a 
brave fellow low, while their fire in reply made not the slight- 
est impression on the iron shield." In fact, for a brief period 
of time, Buchanan was master of the situation, as nearly 
every shot that he fired did deadly execution, while he only 
suffered from the musketry fusillade into his ports as their 
shutters were swung open to allow of the guns being run 
out. As the Tennessee was invulnerable to the enemy's shot, 
Capt. Strong, of the sloop-of-war Monongaliela, which had 
been fitted with an iron beak below the cutwater, endeavored 
to dispose of her by ramming, but Buchanan avoided the 
direct blow and received it on his port quarter. By so doing 
he rasped along the quarter of the Kennebec, the Mononga- 
helas consort, and lodged a shell on her berth-deck, which 
knocked over an officer and four men. Holding his course 
down the Federal line, he next drove a couple of shots into 
the Ossipee and then swung around under the stern of the 
Oneida, into which ship he discharged two broadsides that 
disabled two of her guns, carried away much of her lower rig- 
ging, and took an arm off Commander Mullany. He had thus 
pitted the Tennessee single-handed against all Farragut's fleet 
except the Hartfoixl and her consort and the three monitors 
left afloat; he had punished them most severely without being 
himself crippled in the slightest degree, and he now rested 
his ship and men for a little while close to the guns of Fort 
Morgan. 

While the Tennessee was thus employed with the fleet 
astern of the Hartford, the Selma, Morgan, and Gaines were 
continuing their battle with the Federal flag-ship. As soon as 
Farragut saw that all vessels were clear of Fort Morgan and 
the torpedoes, he hoisted the signal for his gunboats to cast 
loose from the larger ships to which they were lashed and to 
make chase after the Confederate gunboats. They did so, and 
the latter were forced to retire up the bay, closely followed by 
the Metacomet, Itasca, Kennebec, Port Royal and others of tne 
swift light-draft steamers, which Farragut had kept in hand 
for this particular duty. Lieut. Murphy, in the Selma, Lieut. 
Harrison, in the Morgan, and Lieut. Bennett, in the Gaines, 
were conscious that in speed and weight of metal they were 
no possible match for their pursuers, but they retreated 
sullenly and without slackening the fire from their stern 
guns. This running engagement was in progress when a nine- 
inch shot hulled the Gaines below the water-line and a 
few moments later a shell struck near the same place and 



THE CONFEDERATE STATES NAVY, 565 

exploded, making- a leak that flooded the magazine. The ship 
was thus placed hors du combat, and to save the lives of his 
ship's company Lieut. Bennett beached her on the sands in 
front of Fort Morgan and applied the torch to her. 

The officers of the gunboat Gaines at the battle of Mobile 
Bay were Lieut. Commander J. W. Bennett; First Lieut, and 

Executive Officer John Payne; Second Lieut. Lambert; 

Assistant Surgeon O. S. Iglehart; Midshipman Eugene Philips; ^ 
Master's Mate George Waterman. In addition to her cre"v^ of 
100 men she had on board a small detachment of marines under 
command of Lieut. Fendall, Mr. Philips writes in the course of 
a letter concerning the share that his ship took in the action: 

"As the Federal fleet approached we stood out to meet 
them to keep them as much as possible under the guns of Fort 
Morgan. Finding that we could not prevent their advance we 
fell back and opened on the leading vessels at 600 yards. Our 
iire was very effective, and as we perceived that the Federals 
wanted to come to closer range, for the purpose of either cut- 
ting us off or boarding, we made a running fight. We received 
an eleven-inch shell under our port counter, which caused us 
to leak very badly, and the port battery was run over to the 
starboard side in hopes to list the ship so that the leak might 
be reached and stopped. This could not be done, and the order 
was given to stop firing and preparations were made to leave 
the sinking ship, the men being allowed time to save what few 
things they had. Marines were stationed at the falls of the 
ship's boats to prevent confusion, but there was no need for 
their services, as the men moved quietly and in good order. 
First putting in the boats our dead and wounded, we rowed 
away from the Gaines, and had gone about 200 yards when she 
suddenly lurched and went down by the stern, the flag flying 
from her main topmast ten feet above the water after she had 
touched bottom. We reached Fort Morgan without any diffi- 
culty and offered our services to Gen. Page, but as he did not 
need us we buried our dead and that night we ran the block- 
ade, taking with us our wounded. We arrived in Mobile the 
next morning, after rowing all night, reported to Commodore 
Farrand and were sent to Battery Buchanan." 

A heavy rain and wind squall had come in from the gulf, 
and with a dense mist succeeded the bright sun and unclouded 
skies of the earlier morning. In the fog the Morgan lost her 
course and went aground, but, getting off as soon as the squall 
lifted, ran down to a station under the Fort Morgan batteries. 
The Selma was not so fortunate. Lieut. Murphy attempted 
to steam through the fog, but his vessel was too slow to es- 
cape the Metacomet, the speediest of all the ships of the Fed- 
eral force. At nine o'clock, by which time the sky was clear 
again, the Metacomet was across his bow with her nine-inch 
guns and 100-pounder rifle trained upon him. Still he defi- 
antly kept his colors at the peak and answered the Metacomefs 



566 THE CONFEDERATE STATES NAVY. 

fire, whicli within a few moments killed Executive Officer 
J. H. Comstock and wounded four men. Lieut. Murphy was 
himself wounded, and recognizing that there was no ineans 
of escape from the swift enemy, and that to prolong the con- 
flict with so much stronger a ship would be but to invite a 
reckless sacrifice of his men, he struck his flag. The Morgan 
remained near Fort Morgan until nightfall, when, under cover 
of the darkness, she reached Mobile. 

We left the Tennessee taking a breathing spell not 
far distant from Fort Morgan, where she was within me- 
dium gunshot of the Federal monitors, which had pur- 
posely lingered near the fort to draw its fire until the wooden 
ships had passed beyond reach of its guns. It is admitted that 
Farragut supposed that Buchanan had given up the fight and 
had souglit protection from the fort, for he first proposed to 
attack him as soon as his people had had their breakfasts and 
then resolved to go in after him as soon as it became dark 
with the three monitors. ' 

But Farragut was not put to the necessity of waiting for 
Buchanan or assuming the offensive against him. When the 
Tennessee hauled off from her first engagement the examina- 
tion of the ship showed that no essential damage had been 
done to her, some slight dents in her armor and the carrying 
away of a portion of her smoke-stack alone revealing that she 
had been stormed at by the huge ordnance of twelve of the 
Federal men-of-war. With this discovery made, Buchanan 
communicated to Capt. Johnston his resolution to once more 
challenge the enemy. The communication was in this simple 
language : " Follow them up, Johnston; we can't let them off 
that way." 

Justice cannot be done in any narrative of the battle of 
Mobile Bay that omits a glance at the situation as it was when 
Buchanan ventured into* this closing scene of that sanguinary 
day. Commodore Parker comiJtires what he calls Buchanan's 
quixotic attack upon the three iron-clads and fourteen wooden 
ships of the Federal fleet to the charge of the light cavalry 
brigade upon the Russian guns at Balaklava and applies to it 
the criticism of a French officer upon the onslaught of Cardi- 
gan's Six Hundred that " it was magnificent, but it was not 
war." Yet it would be manifestly absurd to contend that 
Buchanan should have surrendered the Tennessee without 
making one more effort for the honor and glory of his flag; 
nobody who understood the iron will and pertinacious courage 
of the man would have expected him to act differently from 

1 Commander Mahan, of the Federal navy, in Commodore Parker quotes from a diary, kept 

his account of tlie battle contained in liis book, by Farragut, that "had Buchanan remained 

"The Gulf and Inland Waters," says that Far- under the fort I should have attacked him as 

ragut's resolution to attack the Tennessee after soon as it became dark, with the three moni- 

breakfast had been served was uttered in re- tors." It was probably the ultimate conclusion 

sponse to a remark by Capt. Drayton, of the of the Federal admiral that his advantages 

Hartford, and in the hearing of Lieut. Com. would be greater in a day than in a night as- 

Kimberly, Executive Officer of the Hartford. sault. 



THE CONFEDERATE STATES NAVY. 567 

what he did. True, he was absolutely aloue; the remainder of 
his squadron had disappeared and the forts could give him no 
assistance in the battle into which he was plunging; but it 
must also be taken into account that he had already proved 
that his ship was more than a match for a dozen of the ene- 
my's wooden vessels, and although he had not yet engaged 
their iron-clads it would have evinced a distrust of himself and 
his men of which he was utterly incapable to have taken it 
for granted that the monitors would conquer him. All that 
is said concerning the desperate character of his effort may be 
freely conceded, but the exigencies of the situation demanded 
that he should make it and he acted upon principles that should 
control any naval warrior in a like emergency. There were 
the chances that he might demoralize the Federals by ramrning 
and sinking one or more of their ships; that a lucky shell in a 
boiler or magazine might have the same effect; or, finally, 
that he might carry the Tennessee up to Mobile and save her 
for the eventual defence of the city. These were contingen- 
cies that fully warranted him in seeking a second conflict, to 
say nothing of the battle fervor and devotion to their cause 
felt by every soul on board the Tennessee, from the admiral 
down to the ammunition-passers. 

Shortly after nine o'clock the Federal fleet had come to 
anchor about four miles inside of Fort Morgan, and most of 
their crews were at breakfast, when the Confederate flag-ship 
steamed out from the fort and laid her course directly for the 
Hartford, whereupon Farragut signaled to his monitors and 
heavy ships to attack with their guns and with bows on at full 
speed. The Monongaliela was the first ship to strike her, which 
she did on the port beam, and notwithstanding that the blow 
was delivered at a slightly oblique angle, the shock knocked off 
their feet many men on both vessels. Firing was begun on the 
instant, and while the prow of the 3Ionongahela was in actual 
contact with the Tennessee's side the latter planted two shells 
on the former's berth-deck, wounding an officer and two men. 
The Federals were less active at the guns, but before the Ten- 
nessee had passed on ten yards the Monongaliela rapped her 
casemate with a broadside that failed to penetrate. The fleet 
closed in around her and in ten minutes' time she was the centre 
of an irregular circle, the periphery of which consisted of the 
hostile ships, she firing as rapidly as her guns could be han- 
dled, while on each side and fore and aft she was pounded with 
shot and shell. The second ship to ram her was the Lacka- 
tvanna. whose blow was so forceful that it swung her around 
and listed her to port, but her recovery was speedily effected, 
while the Lackaivanna's stem was stove in for several feet be- 
low the water line. The Tennessee did not come unscathed out 
of the encounter with these two ships. A shot from the Lack- 
awanna smashed one of her gunport shutters, and on sound- 
ing the pumps it was found that the two rammings had started 



6G8 THE CONFEDERATE STATES NAVY. 

a leak which was making water at the rate of six inches an 
hour: but there was little in these circumstances to discourage 
Buchanan and he still endeavored to secure a position from 
which he could ram the Hartford, his highest ambition being 
to come to close quarters with the hostile flag-ship. He was 
no more to be gratified, however, in this supreme intention 
than in any other attempts to use his ship as a ram, for every 
one of the Federal ships not merely exceeded his own in speed, 
but also in rapidity of manoeuvering, and instead of ramming 
he was rammed. 

When the Lackmv anna drew off he found the Hartford close 
aboard and the two flag-ships struck each other in the bluff of 
the bow. Nothing more vexing could have happened to Bu- 
chanan than what did occur at this conjuncture. _He was in 
as favorable a position as could be desired to pour his shot into 
the enemy, but one after another, as the order was given 
to fire, his primers failed to explode except at one gun, whose 
shell killed and wounded several men on the Hartford's berth- 
deck. It was the most unfortunate moment of the conflict for 
Buchanan up to that time, for his inability to inflict injury upon 
the Hartford allowed her to get away and she described a circle 
with the object of again ramming the Tennessee, but in so do- 
ing she was run into by the LacJcawauna and cut down nearly 
to the water's edge. 

During the time occupied in the Tennessee's combat with 
the wooden ships, the monitors had come up and she was be- 
set by a foe far more formidable than Farragut's walls of oak. 
Her shield was impermeable to the latter's shot, but it was yet 
to undergo the test of a fifteen-inch bolt. Lieut. Wharton has 
put into a few concise words the effect of the first discharge 
of one of these monstrous bolts from the Manhattan. " The 
Monongahela" he says, " was hardly clear of us when a hideous 
looking monster came creeping up on our port side, whose 
slowly revolving turret revealed the cavernous depths of a 
mammoth gun. ' Stand clear of the port side!' I shouted. A 
moment after a thunderous report shook us all, while a blast 
of dense, sulphurous smoke covered our port-holes, and 440 
pounds of iron, impelled b}^ sixty pounds' of pow^ler, admitted 
daylight through our side, where, before it struck us, there had 
been over two feet of solid wood, covered with five inches of 
solid iron. This was the only 15-inch shot that hit us fair. It 
did not come through; the inside netting caught the splinters, 
and there were no casualties from it. I was glad to find my- 
self alive after that shot." 

From this moment to the end of the battle the Tennessee 
was vainly contending against the only instrumentalities that 
could have brought her to disaster. The three monitors, the 

1 This was the maximum charge of powder hundred pounds with a proportionate gain of 
then used in the fifteen - incli guns. It was the velocity and battering power of the pro- 
afterwards found that they would stand one jectile. 



THE CONFEDERATE STATES NAVY. 569 

Manhattan, Winnebago and Chickasaiv, had her at their mercy. 
She could drive shot after shot and shell after §hell through 
the sides of the wooden ships, but the solid projectiles from 
her 8-inch rifles were impotent against tlie iron-clads, whose 
gunners, from their place of safety and advantage in the shot- 
proof turrets, could aim and fire with all the coolness and se- 
curity of participants in an artillery target match. Neither 
the Manhattan or the Winnebago appears to have been handled 
with much skill, as the 15-inch shot spoken of by Lieut. 
Wharton was the only one that struck the Tennessee so as to 
do her great harm, and the Winnebago planted but a few pro- 
jectiles upon her; yet the fire of these vessels and especially 
the smashing of her shield by the Manhattans bolt were im- 
portant factors in producing the eventual result. But the most 
serious injury was done her by the Chickasaiv, which took posi- 
tion under her stern and from an average distance of fifty 
yards fired over fifty steel-headed cylindrical projectiles, nearly 
all of which struck either her hull or her casemate. Simulta- 
neously the wooden ships rammed her in steady succession, 
and the unfortunate construction of her port shutters was 
evinced by three of them becoming jammed, which reduced 
her to fighting with but three guns. Many of her plates 
had been started by the 11-inch shot of the Chickasaiv, and be- 
fore ten o'clock, according to the statement of Capt. Johnston, 
•'the smoke-pipe, which had been riddled by shot, was broken 
off close to the top of the shield or upper deck by the concussion 
produced by the ramming process adopted by the enemy." 

The gun-deck was now filled by smoke emitted from the 
stump of the pipe and the heat was so great that the men, al- 
though many of them had stripped to the waist, were in great 
distress. Then the rudder chains, which the enemy knew were 
exposed on the deck aft the casemate and had aimed at, were 
cut away, probably by a shot from the Chickasaiv, and al- 
though the relieving tackle was promptly manned, that, too, 
was shot away in a few moments^ and after her heroic fight 
the Tennessee drifted a helpless hulk upon the waters. 

Meanwhile Admiral Buchanan had descended to the gun- 
deck and taken personal charge of the battery. He had sent 
for a machinist to back out the pivot-pin of a jammed stern 
port-shutter in order that the gun might be brought into 
action again, when a shot struck the casemate just outside of 
where the man was sitting, and the concussion shivered him 
into remain- that, says Capt. Johnston, "had the appearance 
of sausage meat," and that were shoveled into buckets. The 
same shot started an iron splinter that struck the admiral 
and fractured his leg, and he was carried below to the berth- 
deck and placed under the care of Fleet Surgeon D. B. 
Conrad, 

Just prior to the shooting away of the rudder chains the 
admiral had determined to endeavor to seek shelter with the 



570 THE CONFEDERATE STATES NAVY. 

disabled ship under the batteries of Fort Morgan, and accord- 
ingly she had been headed in that direction, it being impossi- 
ble to carry her away from the enemy and into Mobile, and 
during the few minutes in which the relieving tackle was 
available she was still slowly steaming toward Mobile Point; 
but when that last resource as a steering apparatus had van- 
ished, when the admiral had been struck down, and when the 
total responsibility of command had fallen upon Capt. John- 
ston, there was no longer any avenue of escape. The Ten- 
nessee could revolve her screw, and she could fire three guns^ 
at any foe that might place himself in front of their muzzles; 
but she could not be steered, and without that power every- 
thing else was as nothing. Johnston did not want to give her 
up, but the Chickasaiv was still banging away at her, the 
Manhattan and Winnebago were drawing nigher, and the 
Hartford and Ossipee were heading for her at the top of their 
speed with the desire to do a little more ramming, while she 
was unable to give them a gun in reply. With poignant 
regret Capt. Johnston sought the side of Admiral Buchanan, 
and reported that further resistance was out of the question. 
From his couch of suffering Buchanan replied: "■ Do the best 
you can, Johnston, and when all is done, surrender." 

The crisis at which the only alternative of surrender was^ 
a vain sacrifice of life had arrived. Johnston returned to the 
pilot-liouse and beheld each Federal ship either cannonading 
the Tennessee or preparing to ram her. It had been fifteen 
minutes since she had discharged a gun and she was encircled 
by a belt of fire. Within and without she was a picture of 
the havoc wrought upon a lonely foe by the crushingly pre- 
ponderating strength of Farragut's fleet. It was imperative 
that Johnston should make his decision quickly to strike his 
colors, or let his ship and all hands on board be sent to the 
bottom of the bay. The staff upon which the Confederate 
colors were hoisted had been shot away early in the fierce en- 
gagement and the flag had been displayed again upon a boat- 
hook thrust through the grating that covered the casemate. 
Johnston's decision was that the surrender should be made, 
and with his own hands he drew in the boat-hook that carried 
the ensign, but the Federal ships still maintained their fire, 
and he then mounted to the roof of the casemate and showed 
a white flag. ' 

This was accepted as the signal of capitulation, the white 
flag and the figure of Capt. Johnston on the forward edge of 

1 Commodore Parker says of Johnston that place on board the Tennessee. Capt. Johnston 

" hasteuing to the top of the shield, which was had drawn iu the boat-hook that bore the ensign 

exposed to a perfect shower of solid projectiles, before it became necessary for him to throw 

this truly brave man hauled down the Con- the white tlag to the breeze from the top of the 

federate ensign with his own hands ; it had been Tennessee's shield. In a technical sense Johnston 

raised in triumph ; it was lowered without dis- did " haul down the Confederate ensign with. 

honor." Parker meant to render to Johnston his own hands." but he was fired upon after the 

the honor which is always the delight of one colors had been lowered, and his extreme feat 

brave sailor to pay to another, but he failed to of daring consisted in his exposure of himself 

exactly comprehend the events that were taking from the to;' of the shield to the hail of shot and 



THE CONFEDERATE STATES NAVY. 571 

the roof of the casemate being plainly in view of every ves- 
sel in the Federal fleet. The Ossipee was approaching to ram 
the Tennessee, but when the sign of surrender made its ap- 
pearance her helm was shifted and her engines backed. A col- 
lision could not be avoided, but it was a gentle one, and the 
shock was a diminuendo of the stalwart blows that had been 
administered a half hour previously. ^ 

So ended this momentous battle at 10 o'clock in the morn- 
ing. Com. Johnston made the formal surrender of the Ten- 
nessee to Commander Le Roy, of the Ossipee, and his sword 
and that of Admiral Buchanan were afterwards delivered to 
Farragut. " 

The first Federal officer to board the Confederate flag-ship 
was Fleet Surgeon Palmer, who had been instructed to assist 
Dr. Conrad in looking after the wounded, and he thus records 
his entry into the vessel and his meeting with Admiral Bu- 
chanan : 

" I scrambled literally through the iron port and threaded my way 
among the piles of confusion to a ladder, by which 1 mounted to where 
Admhal Buchanan was lying in a place like the top of a truncated pyra- 
mid. Somebody announced me and he answered (tone polite, but savage), 
' I Ivuow Dr. Palmer,' but he gave me his hand. I told him I was sorry to 
see him so badly hurt, but that I should be glad to know his wishes. He 
answered : ' I only wish to be treated kindly as a prisoner of war.' My re- 
ply was : ' Admiral Buchanan, you know perfectly well you will be treated 
kindly.' Then he said, ' I am a Southern man, an enemy and a rebel.' I 
felt a little offended at his tone, but rejoined carefully that he was at that 
moment a wounded i^erson and disabled and that I would engage to have 
his wishes fulfilled. As to the present disposal of his person, that Admiral 
Farragut woidd take him aboard the Hartford, or send him to any other 
ship he might prefer. He said he didn't pretend to be Admiral Farraguts 
friend and had no right to ask favors of him, but that he would be satis- 
fied with any decision that might be come to. Dr. Conrad, lately an as- 
sistant surgeon in our navy, told me he was fleet surgeon and desired to 
accompany Buchanan wherever he might go. I promised that he should, 
and retux'ned to the Hartford and reported to Admiral Farragut circum- 
stantially. He seemed hurt at Buchanan s irritated feeling and said he 
(Buchanan) had formerly professed friendship for him. I saw there must 
be some embarrassment in bringing them together and therefore proposed 

sliell while he was again announcHng the sur- Rovernments, but as soldiers and sailors who 

render of the Tennessee by the exhibition of the served the flag which they deemed to repre- 

white flag. sent the right. Judged by this truthful staud- 

1 As the Ossipee drew up beside the Tennessee ^rd, the meeting of Johnston and Le Roy is 

Commander Le Roy came out on his forecastle V^.'^''^'" episode that it is proper to preserve in 

deck and hailed Johnston. The two men had history. 

served in companionship in the old navy, and - Farragut officially reported that Biichan- 

the warmth of Le Roy's greeting was responded an's sword was delivered to liim on board the 

to by the Confederate captain. It was one of Hartford by Capt. Johnston, which was not the 

those war incidents which excited the wonder fact. In a note to his rejiort to Secretary Mal- 

of the correspondents of the English news- lory from the Pensacola Hospital on August 26th, 

papers, who could not understand how men Admiral Buchanan says: 

who had just been engaged in the bloodiest " Sept. 17th. Since writing the above, I have 

combat could, when a surrender had taken place, seen the report of Admiral Farragut, a portion 

renew their old associations of friendshiii and of which is incorrect. Capt. Johnston did not 

amity, take each other by the hand and wish each deliver my sword on board the Hartford. After 

other well. It is a matter that is plain enough to the surrender of the Tennessee, Capt. Giraud, the 

Americans in the light of the reunion in the officer who was sent on board to take charge of 

North and South, and that even in the war her, said to me that he was directed by Admiral 

days was illustrated by the fact that Northern Farragut to ask for my sword, which was 

and Southern men did not fight as personal brought from the cabin and delivered to him 

enemies or as the machines of monarchial by one of my aides." 



.572 



THE CONFEDERATE STATES NAVY. 



that I should have a steamer to take all the wounded to Pensacola and 
another one to send all ordinary invalids to New Orleans. '"^ 

Gen. Page shortly afterward received a communication 
from Admiral Farragut,'^ under a flag of truce, informing him 
that Admiral Buchanan had been injured, and requesting that 
he might be permitted to send all the wounded, also under a 
flag of truce, on one of his vessels to Pensacola, where they 
w^ould be properly cared for, the understanding being that the 
ship should take out nothing but the wounded and bring back 
nothing that she did not take out. This proposition met the 
humane impulses of Gen. Page, who at once acceded to it, and 
the Metacomet sailed that night for Pensacola with Admiral 
Buchanan and a number of the prisoners and wounded, while 
the Federals proceeded to overhaul the Tennessee and Sehna 
and fit their prizes out for service. ^ 

In making up the lists of killed and wounded, it was found 
that the Confederates had suffered far less than their vastly out- 
numbering enemy. Omitting the loss by the sinking of the 



1 Dr. Palmer evidently -writes with a strong 
prejudice against Admiral Buchanan, who may 
have spoken jiist as the surgeon reiDorted him 
"Without warranting the supposition at which 
Palmer hiuts, that he was bent uijon saying un- 
pleasant things to Farragut or any other Federal 
officers with whom he might be brought in con- 
tact No man cherished a more punctilious 
sense of the proprieties than Buchanan, and it 
is absurd to tiiink of him i-ailing at the enemy 
to whom fate had given victory like a disappoint- 
ed beldame. His lieartily-exi^ressed gratitude to 
Palmer for the latter's professional services to 
him should have convinced Palmer that in de- 
feat as well as in triumph the Confederate com- 
mander was incapable of transgressing the code 
of ceremonial courtesy. We have made use of 
Dr. Palmer's report of the scene on the Tennessee 
because it is the only record of the iucident. but 
it would be unfair to reju-int it without the 
■caution that he seriously misapprehended the 
character of Buchanan. 

- Flag-Ship "Hartfoed," August 5th, 1864. 

Sir : Admiral Buchanan is severely wounded, 
having lost his leg. There are, in addition, 
four or five others of the crew of the Tennessee 
who require more comfortable quarters than 
we can give them in the fleet. Will the com- 
manding officer at Fort Morgan permit a vessel 
to take them to our hosjoital at Pensacola, with 
or without our own wounded ? — the understand- 
ing being that the flag of truce vessel takes 
nothing whatever but the wounded, and brings 
nothing back that she did not take out, and my 
honor is given lor the above. 

Very respectfully, 

D. G. Farhagot, 

Rear Admiral Commanding W. G. B. Squadron. 
Brigadier Gen. R. L. Page. 

Commanding Fori Morgan. 

Headquakters Third Brigade, D. G., 1 
Fort Morgan, Alabama, August 5th, 1804. ) 

Sir : Your communication of this date is re- 
ceived. I am much obliged for the information 
regarding Admiral Buchanan. 

Your request relative to the wounded of the 
Tennessee, and also those of your own com- 
mand, being taken to Pensacola, will be permit- 



ted under a flag of truce, and to return on the 
conditions you propose. 

I would be glad if Admiral Buchanan, having 
lost a leg, be permitted, under pai'ole, to go to 
Jlobile, where he can receive earlier and more 
prompt attention. 

If the latter request is granted please inform 
me, and I will have a boat from town to take 
him up. 

Verj- respectfviUy, 

E. L. Page. 
Brigadier Gen. Commanding. 
Rear Admiral David G. Faeragut, 

Commanding W. C B. Squadron, Mobile Bay. 



Flag Ship " Hartfobd," Mobile Bay, \ 
August 5th, 1864. ) 
Sir : In reply to your note of this date, I 
would say that it is altogether out of the ques- 
tion that I should permit Admiral Buchanan to 
be sent to Mobile, but I will send him to Pensa- 
cola, where he will receive the same comforts 
as our own wounded, which I apprehend are as 
good as they could be in Mobile. 

It was simply as an act of humanity that I 
made the propositiou I did to-day. I would be 
glad to bury my dead on shore; but if there is 
any objection to it, they can have a sailor's 
grave in the deep, honored by the heartfelt 
sighs of their shipmates. 

Very respectfully. 

D G. Fareagut, 
Rear Admiral Commanding. 
Brigadier Gen. R. L. Page, 

Commanding Fort Morgan. 

Fort Morgan, August 6th, 1864. 
Sir : Your note of the fifth received. There 
is no objection to your burying your dead on 
shore. When they arrive near the wharf hei'e, 
a X5oint will be designated for the Imrial. 

Verv resijectiully, vour obedient .seiwaut, 
R. L Page. 
Brigadier Gen. C. S. »4. 
Rear Admiral D. G. Farragut, 

Commanding U. S. Saval Forces, Mobile Bay. 

s Commander Johnston, Lieut P. TJ. Murphy, 
and Lieut. W. L. Bradford, were sent north 
from Pensacola, and arrived at New York on 



THE CONFEDERATE STATES NAVY. 573 

Tecuniseh, the Federals had 52 men killed and 170 wounded, 
distributed on the various ships as follows: 

Killed. Wounded. 

Hartford 25 28 

Brooklyn 11 43 

Lackawanna 4 "5 

Oneida 8 30 

Monongahela 6 

Metacomet 1 2 

Ossipee 1 7 

Richmond 2 

Galena 1 

Octorara 1 10 

Kennebec 1 

The proportion of injury inflicted upon the Federal fleet 
relatively by Fort Morgan and by Buchanan's squadron can- 
not b^ figured out to a certainty, but it is known that the Con- 
federate vessels did much the greater execution, Farragut 
himself stating in his official report that in the conflict with 
them ' •' we lost many more men than from the fire of the bat- 
teries of Fort Morgan." The Confederate losses were as fol- 
lows : 

Te7inessee.— Killed: John Silk, first-class fireman ; Wm. Moore; sea- 
man, mortally wounded and soon afterwards died — 2. Wounded : Ad- 
miral Franklin Buchanan, leg broken ; Alvah T. Post, pilot, on head ; 
J. C. O'Connell, second assistant engineer, head and shoulder; James 
Kelly, boatswain's mate, in knee; Andrew Rossmorson, quartermaster, in 
head; Wm. Daly, seaman, in head; Robert Barry, marine, in head; James 
McCann, marine, in shoulder - 8. 

6*ames.— Killed : Daniel Ahern, quarter gunner ; Michael Vincent, 
seaman — 2. Wounded: W. W. Smith, first quartermaster, contusions of 
thighs and legs; Thomas Woods, seaman, contusions of thighs and legs 
(both these men were wounded by the explosion of a shell while standing 
at the wheel) ; Newton Williams, landsman, left hand lacerated by a 
splinter — 3. 

AS'e^wa.— Killed : J. H. Comstoek, lieutenant and executive officer; 
J. R. Murray, acting master's mate ; Wm. Hall, gunner's mate : James 
Rooney, seaman ; James Montgomery, seaman; Bernard Riley, ordinary 
seaman; J. R. Frisley, landsman: Christopher Shepard, landsman— 8. 
Wounded: P. U. Murphy, lieutenant commanding, in wrist; John Villa, 
seaman, badly in leg and hand; Henry Fratee, landsman, badly in hand; 
Daniel Linnehan, seaman, slightly in arm; John Shick, seaman, shghtly 
in face; John Davis, fireman, slightly; John Gilliland, seaman, shghtly— 7. 

Morgan. — Killed: None. Wounded: One seaman, slightly— 1. 

The total Confederate loss was 12 killed and 19 wounded, 
while the Federals lost 172 killed and 170 wounded, including 
in the killed the 120 souls who went down with the Tecumseh. * 

September ISth. Admiral Farragut reported the i This is Admiral David D. Porter's, estimate 

officers of the Tennessee captured as follows :— of the loss by the .sinking of the Tecumseh. The^ 

" Admiral F. Buchanan, Commander James D. earlier Federal accounts of the battle placed the 

Johnston, Lieuts. Wm. L. Bradford, A. D. Whar- total number of persons on that monitor at but 

ton, E. J. McDermett; Masters J. R. De Mahy, about 100, of whom, as has been said, 21 were 

H. W. Perriu ; Fleet-Surgeon R. C. Bowles ; rescued. But Porter made up his figures after 

Engineers G. D. Lining, .J. C. O'Connell, John a thorough scrutiny of all the official documents, 

Hayes, O. Benson, W. B. Patterson; Paymaster's and they must be accepted as more reliable than 

Clerk J. H. Conen ; Master's Mates W. S. For- the previous statements, which were compiled 

rest, M. J. Beebee, and R. M. Carter; Boatswain without reference to the records to which he had 

John McCredie ; Gunner H. L. Smith." access. 



574 THE CONFEDERATE STATES NAVY. 

This great disparity in the losses is a fact that bears a volume 
of evidence to the pluck with which Buchanan's vessels were 
fought, to the high standard of discipline of his crews, and to 
the perfection of the aim of his gunners. 

Many of the Federal wooden ships were badly cut up. 
The Hartford was struck 20 times by shot and shell, the 
Brooklyn 30 times, the Octorara 17 times, the Metacomet 11 
times, the Lackawanna 5 times, the Ossipee 4 times, the Mo- 
nongahela 5 times, the Kennebec twice, the Galena 7 times, 
and most of the other vessels once or more. Of the monitors, 
the Manhattan was struck 9 times, the Winnebago 19 times, 
and the Chickasaiu 3 times, but no bolt pierced their invulner- 
able armor. 

How the Tennessee came out of the action is best told by 
the subjoined extract from the report of the Board of Survey 
ordered by Farragut: 

"The injuries to the casemate of the Tennessee from shot are very 
considerable. On its after side nearly all the plating is started ; one bolt 






^v.~. 



,VH.- 



L 



C. S. RAM "TENNESSEE " AS SHE APPEAHED AFTER HER SURRENDER TO U. S. SQUADRON, AUGUST 5tH, 1864, 

driven in, several nuts knocked off inside, gun-carriage of the after pivot 
gun damaged, and the steering rod or chain cut near that gun. There are 
unmistakable marks on the after-part of the casemate of not less than nine 
11-inch solid shot having struck within the space of a few square feet in 
the immediate vicinity of that port. On the port side of the casemate the 
armor is also badly damaged from shot." 

The report then speaks of the effect of the fifteen-inch shot 
fired by the Manhattan and previously alluded to, and con- 
tinues : 

" There are visible between forty and fifty indentations and marks of 
shot on the hull, deck and casemate, varying from very severe to slight ; 
nine of the deepest indentations on the after-part of the casemate evi- 
dently being eleven inch shot, and the marks of about thirty of other 
calibres on different parts of the vessel. There are no external visible 
marks or evidences of injury inflicted ujDon the hull of the Tennessee by 
the severe ramming of the Monongahela, Lackawanna and Hartford ; but 
inasmuch as the decks leaked badly, and when there is a moderate sea 
running in the bay her reported usual leakage of three inches an hour 
being now increased to five or six inches an hour, it is fairly to be inferred 
that the increased leakage is caused by the concussion of the vessels. The 
Tennessee is in a state to do good service now. To restore her to the state 
of efficiency in which she was when she went into action with thi^ fleet on 
the 5th inst. it will be necessary to overhaul much of the iron plating on 
the port and after-sides of the casemate and replace some of it. The iron 
gun-port slides or shutters, which were damaged, must be either removed 



THE CONFEDERATE STATES NAVY. 575 

or repaired. A new siuoke-stack is required, and additional ventilators 
should be fitted. Blowers are required to produce i)roper ventilation in 
the engine-room and on the berth-deck. When these small repairs and 
additions shall have been made the iron -clad Tennessee will be a most for- 
midable vessel for harbor and river service and for operating generally in 
smooth water, both offensively and defensively." 

It is of absorbing interest to turn now to the discussion by 
the Confederate commanders of this famous battle. Admiral 
Buchanan's report was not lengthy, it being made from his 
couch of pain in the United States naval hospital at Pensacola 
to Secretary Mallory, on August 26th. After relating the order 
of the Federal vessels as they steamed up the channel, and 
computing that they carried 199 guns and 3,700 men, he says: 

" When they were discovered standing into the channel, signal was 
made to the Mobile squadron, under my command, consisting of wooden 
gunboats Morgan and Gaines, each carrying six guns, and the iSehna four, 
to follow my motions, in the ram Tennessee, of six guns, in all, twenty-two 
guns and 470 men. All were soon under way and stood towards the enemy, 
In a line abreast. As the Tennessee approached the fleet, when opposite 
the fort, we opened our battery, at short range, ui3on the leading ship, 
the admiral's flag-ship Hartford, and made the attempt to run into her, 
but, owing to her superior speed, our attempt was frustrated. We then 
stood towards the next heavy ship, the Brooklyn, with the same view; she 
also avoided us by her superior speed. During this time the gunboats were 
also closely engaged with the enemy ; all our guns were used to the 
greatest advantage, and we succeeded in seriously damaging many 
of the enemy's vessels. The Selma and Gaines, under Lieut. Com- 
mandants P. U. Mui-phy and J. W. Bennett, fought gallantly, and 
I was gratified to hear from officers of the enemy's fleet that their 
fire was very destructive. The Gaines was fought until she was found 
to be in a sinking condition, when she Avas run on shore near Fort 
Morgan. Lieut. Commandant Murphy was closely engaged with the Meta- 
coniet assisted by the Morgan, Commander Harrison, who, during the con- 
flict, deserted him, when, upon the approach of another large steamer, 
the Selma surrendered. I refer you to the rejDort of Lieut. Commandant 
Murphy for the particulars of his action. He lost two promising young 
officers, Lieut. Comstoek and Master's Mate Murray, and a number of his 
men were killed and wounded; and he was also wounded severely in the 
wrist. Commander Harrison will no doubt report to the department his 
reason for leaving the Selma in that contest with the enemy, as the Morgan 
was uninjured. His conduct is severely commented on by the officers of 
the enemy's fleet, much to the injury of that officer and the navy. ^ 

"Soon after the gunboats were dispersed by the overwhelming supe- 
riority of force, and the enemy's fleet had anchored about four miles above 
Fort Morgan, we stood for them again in the Tennessee and renewed the 
attack, with the hope of sinking some of them with our prow, and again 
were foiled by their superior speed in avoiding us. The engagement with 
the whole fleet soon became general at very close quarters and lasted about 
an hour, and notwithstanding the serious injury inflicted upon many of 
their vessels by our guns, we could not sink them. Frequently during the 
contest we were surrounded by the enemy, and all our guns were in action 
almost at the same moment. Some of their heaviest vessels ran into us 
under full steam, with the view of sinking us. One vessel, the Monon- 
gafiela, had been prepared as a ram, and was very formidable. She struck 
us with great force, injuring us but little. Her prow and stem were knocked 
off, and the vessel so much injured as to make it necessary to dock her. 
Several of the other vessels of the fleet were found to require extensive 

1 See report of Commander Harrison and accompanying explanations. 



576 THE CONFEDERATE STATES NAVY. 

repairs. I enclose to you a copv of a drawing of the Brooklyn, made by 
one of her officers after the action; and an officer of the Hartford informed 
me that she was more seriously injured than the Brooklyn. I mention 
these facts to prove that the guns of the Tennessee were not idle during 
this unequal contest. For other details of the action and injuries sus- 
tained by the Tennessee, I refer you to the report of Commander J. D. 
Johnston, which has my approval. After I was carried below, unfortu- 
nately wounded, I had to be governed by the reports of that valuable ofli- 
cer as" to the condition of the ship, and the necessity and time of her sur- 
render; and when he represented to me her utterly hopeless condition to 
continue the fight with injury to the enemy, and suggested her surrender, 
1 directed him to do the best he could, and when he could no longer dam- 
age the enemy, to do so. It affords me much pleasure to state that the 
officers and men cheerfully fought their guns to the best of their abilities, 
and gave strong evidence, by their promptness in executing oi'ders, of their 
wilUngness to continue the contest as long as they could stand to their 
guns, notwithstanding the fatigue they had undergone for several hours; 
and it was only under the circumstances, as presented by Capt. Johnston, 
that she was surrendered to the fleet, about ten A. M., as painful as it was 
to do so. I seriously felt the want of experienced officers during the action. 
All are young and inexperienced, and many had but little familiarity with 
naval duties, having been appointed from civil life within the year. The 
reports of Commander Harrison, of the Morgan,^ and Lieut. Commandant 
Bennett, of the Gaines, you have no doubt received from those officers. 

"I enclose the report of Fleet Surgeon D. B. Conrad, to whom I am 
much indebted for his skill, promptness and attention to the wounded. 
By permission of Admiral Farragut, he accompanied the wounded of the 
Tennessee and Selma to this hospital, and is assisted by Assistant Surgeons 
Booth and Bowles, of the Selma and Tennessee, all under charge of Fleet 
Surgeon Palmer, IJ. S. N., from Avhom we have received all the attention 
and consideration we could desire or expect. 

" The crews and many officers of the Tennessee and Selma- have been 
sent to New Orleans. Couanander J. D. Johnston, Lieut. Commandant 
P. U. Murphy, and Lieuts. W. L. Bradford and A. D. Wharton, Second 
Assistant Engineer J. C. O'Connell and myself, are to be sent North. 
Master's Mates W. S. Forrest and R. M. Cartel*, who are with me, acting 
as my aides, not having any midshipmen, are permitted to accompany 
me. They are valuable young officers, zealous in the discharge of their 
duties, and both have served in the army, where they received honorable 
wounds. Their services are valuable to me. 

"lam happy to inform you that my wound is improving, and sin- 
cerely hope our exchange will be effected, and that I will soon again be 
on duty." 

Captain Johnston's report to Admiral Buchanan was made 
from the Pensacola hospital on August 13th. He also recites 
the advance of the enemy, and thus continues : 

"When they had approached sufficiently near to draw the fire from 
Fort Morgan, signal was made to follow your motions, and the Tennessee 
was moved down to the middle of the channel, just inside the line of tor- 
pedoes stretching across it, from whence she immediately opened her bat- 
tery upon the advancing fleet. Every effort was made, at the same time, 
to ram each of the leading vessels as they entered the bay, but their su- 
perior speed enabled them to avoid this mode of attack ; the first, with the 
admiral's flag, passing ahead, and all the remainder asterii, before the 
ship could be turned to encounter them. As she followed the fleet into 
the bay the leading monitor, the Tecumseh, was discovered to be sinking, 
and in a few seconds she disappeared, taking down nearly all on board, 
consisting, as since learned, of 120 souls. The Tennessee''s battery was used 
to the greatest advantage as long as the fleet were within range, and when 



THE CONFEDERATE STATES NAVY. 577 

they reached a point about four miles from Fort Morgan and were in the 
act of anchoring, she steamed alone up towards them (the other vessels of 
tjie squadron having been dispersed^, and attacked them as soon as she 
was near enough to render her fire effective. 

" The whole fleet were again put in motion to receive her, and she re- 
<3eiv'ed four heavy shocks by the heaviest vessels runnmg into her at full 
speed, soon after which I received an order from you, in person, to steer 
for Fort Morgan, as it had been reported by the acting chief engineer that 
the ship was leaking rapidly. At this time it was reported to me that the 
wheel chains had been carried away, and, ordering the relieving tackles 
to be used, I made a personal examination of the broken chain to ascertain 
if it could be repaired. This was found to be impossible, without sending 
men outside of the shield to expose themselves several minutes to the fire 
of the enemy's vessels, by which the after-deck (over which the chains 
lead) was closely watched and constantly swept until the close of the 
action. 

"Returning to the pilot-house for the purpose of more closely observ- 
ing the movements of the enemy, I soon received a report that you had 
been wounded, when I went aft to see you, and while there found that the 
after-port cover had been struck by a shot which instantly killed a man 
engaged in removing the pivot bolt upon which it revolved, and wounded 
yourself and one of the giua's crew— the latter mortally. I then learned 
that the two quarter-ports, out of which the after-gun was intended to be 
used, had also been so jammed by the fire of the enemy as to render it 
impracticable to move them, and that the relieving tackles had been shot 
away and the tiller unshipped from the rudder-head. The smoke-pipe 
having been completely riddled by shot, was knocked down close to the 
top of the shield by the concussion of vessels running into the ship. At 
the same time the monitors were using their eleven and fifteen-inch solid 
shot against the after-end of the shield, while the largest of the wooden 
vessels were pouring in repeated broadsides at the distance of only a few 
feet; and, I regret to say, that many favorable opportunities of sinking 
these vessels were unavoidably lost by the repeated failure of our gun- 
primers. The bow-port cover was struck by a hea\^ shot, as also the 
cover on the forward port on the port side, and two of the broadside port 
covers were entirely unshipped by the enemy's shot. 

" The enemy was not long in perceiving that our steering gear had 
heen entirely disabled, and his monitors and heaviest vessels at once took 
position on each quarter and stern, from whence they poured in their fire, 
without Intermission, for a period of nearly half an hour, while we were 
unable to bring a single gun to bear, as it was impossible to change the 
position of the vessel, and the steam was rapidly going down, as a natural 
consetjuence of the loss of the smoke-pipe. 

" Feeling it my duty to inform you of the condition of the vessel, I 
went to the berth-deck for this purpose, and after making my report, I 
asked if you did not think we had better surrender, to which you replied : 
" Do the best you can, sir, and when all is done surrender," or words to 
that effect. Upon my return to the gun-deck I observed one of the heav- 
iest vessels of the enemy in the act of running into us on the port-quarter, 
while the shot were fairly raining upon the after-end of the shield, which 
was now so thoroughly shattered that in a few moments it would have 
fallen and exposed the gun-deck to a raking fire of shell and grape. 

" Realizing our helpless condition at a glance, and conceiving that the 
ship was now nothing more than a target for the heavy guns of the en- 
emy, I concluded that no good object could be accomplished by sacrificing 
the lives of the officers and men in such a one-sided contest, and therefore 
proceeded to the top of the sliield and took down the ensign which had 
been seized on to the handle of a gun-scraper* and stuck up through the 
grating. While in the act, several shots passed close to me. and when I 
went below to order the engines to be stopped tne firing of the enemy 
was continued. I then decided, although with an almost bursting heart, 

37 



578 THE CONFEDERATE STATES NAVY. 

to hoist the white flag, and returning again on to the shield, placed it in 
tlie same spot where but a few moments before liad floated the proud flag 
for whose honor I would so cheerfully have sacrificed my own life, if 1 
could possibly have become the only victim ; but at the same time it 
would have been impossible to destroy the ship without the certain loss 
of many valuable lives, your own among the number. 

''It is with the most heartfelt satisfaction that I bear testimony to 
the undaunted gallantry and cheerful alacrity with which the officers and 
men under my immediate command discharged all their duties; and to 
tiie executive officer. Lieutenant Bradford, it is due that I should com- 
mend the regular and rapid manner in which the battery was served in 
every particular. While a prisoner on board the U. S. steamer Ossq^ee, 
and since coming into this hospital, I have learned, from jjersonal obser- 
vation and from other reliable sources of information, that the battery of 
the Tennessee inflicted more damage upon the enemy's vessels than that 
at Fort Morgan, although she was opposed by 187 guns of the heaviest 
calibre, in addition to the twelve eleven and fifteen-inch guns on board 
the three monitors. 

"The entire loss of the enemy, most of which is ascribed to the Ten- 
nessee, amounts to quite three hundred in killed and wounded, exclusive 
of the one hundred lost in the Tecuviseh, making a number nearly as 
large as the entire force under your command in this unequal conflict. 
Fifty-three shot-marks were found on the Tennessee\^ shield, three of 
which had i^enetrated so far as to cause splinters to fly on board, and the 
washers over the ends of the bolts wounded several men." 

Lieut. Commander Murphy, of the Selina, made his re- 
])ort to Admiral Buchanan from the Pensacola hosnital on 
August 15th. He wrote : 

" The shattered state of my nervous system, produced by the wound 
I received, has prevented my making my report before this. Between 
five and six o'clock, on the morning of the 5th inst., it was reported to me 
that a move was made by the fleet outside. I gave the order at once to 
get up steam, to weigh anchors, and to lash both securely and then to go 
to breakfast; and, if we had time, for the crew to clean themselves. The 
Selma was lying to the southward and eastward of the flagship and 
much nearer the shore. After the anchor was weighed the steamer dropped 
down with the tide to the northward and eastward. While the crew 
were at breakfast the engagement commenced, and many shots were 
fired by both sides before I went to quarters; but as soon as the crew 
were through with their breakfast and the decks were cleared up, I went 
to quartei-s and stood slowly to the northward and westward, under easy 
steam, and nearly parallel with the vessels coming in, and as soon as I 
passed the stern of the Tennessee I opened on the enemy Avith all my 
guns, and continued to fight all of them for some time, when I perceived 
the Metacomet was towing the Hartford, the leading ship, when I gave 
the order to give her all the steam they could that I might get ahead 
and on the port side of her. My intention was perceived, and before I 
could get into the position I wanted, the Ifeiacomet cast off and gave 
chase. A constant fire had been kept ui^ all the time, first at one and 
then at another, as the oijportunity offered. Before tne 3Ietaeomet had 
cast off, my best gunner had been killed by a piece of shell from the 
Hartford, I think; but several vessels were firing at me at the same time, 
and in a short while my next best gunner met the same fate. The fight 
was then with the Metacomet (carrying eight 9-ineh Dahlgren and two 
100 pounder Parrott guns), one of the fastest vessels in their squadron. 
She tried hard to rake me, which was prevented by good steering. The 
Metacomet, being so nuich faster, soon came quite near, and, firing one of 
her nine-inch guns, killed six and wounded seven men at the same gun, 
as well as disabling the gun itself. I had only been able to use two of 



THE CONFEDERATE STATES NAVY. 579 

the four guns which composed the battery of the Selma for some time, 
and the crew of l^o. 1 gun had just been sent aft to assist in working 
tliese two. 

"My first lieutenant, Wm. Comstock, and Masters' Mate Murray 
were both killed by the same shot, and I was wounded in the left arm 
after firing one or two shots more. I perceived that the Metacomet was 
about to rake me witU grape and shrapnel, and that the Port Royal, of 
about the same class, was about to open on me also, and as I did not believe 
that I was justified in sacrificing more of my men in such an unequal con- 
test, I gave the order, at about half-past nine o'clock, to haul down the 
colors. My wound was bleeding fast, and I knew if I left the deck for 
one moment the vessel might be sunk. I had eight killed and seven 
wounded. My deck was a perfect slaughter-pen when I surrendered. I 
cannot speak too highly of the officers and crew. Not the least confusion 
occurred during the action. The wounded were taken below and the men 
returned instantly to their quarters. The powder division was beauti- 
fully attended to; every charge and every shell were sent to the different 
guns without a single mistake. The enemy acknowledge great loss, in 
killed and wounded, inflicted on them by the /S'eZwa." 

Lieut. Bennett, having escaped to Mobile after beaching , 
the Gaines on Mobile Point and burning her, addressed his 
report to Secretary Mallory on August 8tli, the essential por- 
tions of which are the following: 

" As soon as the Tennessee delivered fire, the Gaines, having placed 
herself next the admiral, commenced at about two thousand yards dis- 
tance, with her pivot guns, upon the leading wooden ships, supposed to 
be the Hartford and her consort, at about fifty minutes past six, as nearly 
as I can determine, and continued to deliver a raking fire upon the lead- 
ing wooden ships until their passage past the fort. She then made circle 
to prevent too close action, as she was lying nearly in the track of the ad- 
vancing fleet, and afterwards steered in nearly parallel lines with the 
enemy at distances gradually diminishing, until she was within at least 
seven hundred yards, and engaging with her port guns. The enemy now 
being clear of the fort was enabled to direct attention exclusively to our 
little squadron. 

" Early in the action a shell exploded near the steering wheel, Avound- 
ing the two men stationed at it, and cutting the wheel-rope. The ship 
was then steered with the relieving tackles until the after wheel-ropes 
could be rove. Shortly after this, it was reported that the forward maga- 
zine wasfilled with smoke and thought to be on fire. This, on examination, 
luckily proved a mistake. An eleven-inch shot had entered the starboard 
bow, striking the deck above the magazine, had broken it in, and made 
so much dust that the gunners mate, serving powder in that magazine, 
thought it smoke, and believed, from the shock and dust, that a shell had 
exploded and fired that part of the ship. He reported accordingly. This 
occasioned a short delay in the serving of powder to the forward division. 
The firemen of this division, with hose and buckets, went promptly to the 
spot, under the executive officer, and soon discovered the mistake. About 
this time the ship was subjected to a very heavy concentrated fire, from 
the Hartford, Richmond, and others at sltort range, as the enemy passed 
me. Nearly their whole fire seemed, for a time, to be directed at the 
Gaines. The after magazine was now discovered filling with water. I 
•went below to examine it, and found much water had accumulated in it, 
and was rapidly increasing. Not being aware of any shot having entered, 
near the water, that part of the ship, and being unable to see any damage, 
upon inspection from the side, which could have caused such a leak, I di- 
rected the executive officer, with the carpenter's mate, to get into a boat 
and make examination of the counter. He found a shot had broken in 
the outer planking under the port quarter, about the water-line, and 



580 THE CONFEDERATE STATES NAVY. 

"which, from marks, seemed to have glanced below in the direction of the 
stern-post. Tliis could not be stopped by reason of the imjiossibility of 
gettintj to it, because of the flare of the counter. As this break could 
not have caused all the water which flowed into the ship, I am of opinion 
that it was a shell which had caused the break and had probably ex- 
ploded below the water, under the counter, and had started the tmibers 
near the stern-post. The ship had received a shock during the engage- 
ment, which shook her from stem to stern, being much more violent than 
that of shot passing through. The bilge pumps were immediately 
worked, but there was no water in the engine-room. Finding the maga- 
zine rajaidiy filling, also the after hold and shell-room, with no water in 
the engine-room, I caused the after bulk-head of the engine-room to be 
knocked down so as to allow the flow of water to the bilge pumps. By 
this time the stern had settled some and the steering became difficult. 
Under these circumstances I determined to withdraw from action. The 
enemy's fleet had now passed. 

" Finding the ship would sink in a short time, and thinking I might 
be able to reach the shore, now about two or three miles distant, I with- 
drew from action, and made the best of my way towards the fort, steering 
the ship principally with the side wheels, which position I reached with- 
out embarrassment from the enemy — thanks to an opportune rain squall 
which shut me from view — and placed her bow upon the beach within 
five hundred yards of Fort Morgan, about thirty minutes past nine 
o'clock. 

" I am happy to state there was no confusion or j^anic under the cir- 
cumstances of our position, but that every work was done with delibera- 
tion and without undue excitement. The ship delivered fire to the enemy 
at the moment of striking the shore. At the time of beaching, the mag- 
azine was nearly filled; I had caused all the powder to be removed to the 
cabin. The shells were removed as rapidly as possible, but not before 
many of them might have become submerged. The usefulness of the 
ship having been destroyed by the enemy, I devoted myself and crew to 
the preservation of all valuable materiel, and landed all the powder, 
shells, shot, gun equipments, etc., which 1 gave to the general command- 
ing at Fort Morgan, to whom I thought they might be useful in the ex- 
pected siege. The crew were then landed, with their bags and blankets, 
muskets, cutlasses, and small-arm ammunition, and the ship abandoned 
at twelve o'clock, with her battle-flags flying, and her stern settled as far 
as it could — about two fathoms. I did not spike the guns because they 
could be secured by the fort, and could not be taken by the enemy. 

" Having thus left my command, it became necessary to devise a 
retreat for my crew— they were not necessary to the fort, as I was in- 
formed when I offered their services. Already I had secured two boats 
belonging to the Tennessee, left by her at anchor, and with four boats of 
the Gaines, one having been destroyed by shot, I left the fort at eight 
o'clock P. M., and reached Mobile at seven o'clock A. M. on the 6th, with 
129 officers and men, small arms, etc., and with six boats passed the en- 
emy's fleet without observation, and reported myself and crew to the 
senior officer for further service. Not a man wa'" lost by straggling, and 
I brought up the wounded. The dead were buried on the afternoon 
of the 5th in the fort's burial-ground. We had only two killed and three 
wounded. 

" Whilst running the gauntlet up the bay, I beeaiue apprehensive of 
capture or of being forced to land and make a march to Mobile. The 
Morgan was being chased by the enemy. As I knew it was her intention 
to pass near the eastern shore and could see her approach us, I feared she 
might lead the enemy upon the l)oats. Under these circumstances I 
deemed it prudent to drop the signal book into the sea. I did so. The 
officers and crew of the Gaines, for about ten or fifteen minutes, w .re sub- 
jected to a very heavy fire from the enemy at short distance, and, I am 
i:)roud to say, stood it with great gallantry; there were two exceptional 



THE CONFEDERATE STATES NAVY. 581 

cases only. Without casting censure upon any by luy silence, I cannot 
withhold the expression of my thanks to Lieutenant Payne, Passed 
Assistant Surgeon Iglehart, Second Assistant Engineer Debois, Gunner 
Offut, and Paymaster's Clerk Wilson (in charge of the supply of shells to 
the after division), for their examples of coolness and gallantry under the 
trying circumstances of this combat against an overwhelming force, and 
the influence it must have had among the crew, most of whom had never 
before been in action. Frequent interviews with these oflBcers caused me 
to regard them with admiration. 

" The ship received seventeen shots in her hull and smoke-stack; of 
these only two can be said to have caused her any distress — that which 
caused the leak, and the cutting of the wheel-ropes. 

"■ As is usual and proper when a ship is lost, I beg the Department to 
order a court of inquiry to investigate the causes which led to the aban- 
donment of the Qaines.'''' 

Under date of August 23d, Secretary Mallory acknowledged 
the receipt of Lieut. Bennett's report and added : 

" Against the overwhelming forces brought to bear upon our little 
squadron defeat seems to have been inevitable; but the bearing of our 
officers and men has snatched credit even from defeat ; and, mingled with 
deep regret for the suffering and captivity of the brave old admiral and 
the loss of our men and ships is the conviction that the triumjjh of the 
enemy leaves the honor of our service untarnished. 

"The court of inquiry for which you asked is deemed unnecessary. 
Such a tribunal could but strengthen the public verdict, in which the De- 
partment fully concurs, that the loss of your ship resulted from no want 
of courage, skill or judgment on the part of yourself, your officers or crew." 

Commander Harrison was silent concerning his course in 
running the Morgan into Mobile until October 1st, on which date 
he addressed to Admiral Buchanan a communication which he 
styles "this letter for the purpose of relating the particular 
part taken by this vessel in the action with the enemy's fleet." 
He speaks of engaging the Hartford in the earlier moments of 
the action and of materially injuring her by shells, of which 
•'one in particular, from our forward pivot-gun, must have 
been considerably destructive (afterwards confirmed by a New 
( )rleans account), as it struck her bulwarks forward and for a 
rime silenced the gun mounted on her forecastle." This fight 
was continued until the Federal ships had passed Fort Morgan, 
and of his ensuing movements Commander Harrison wrote : 

" The Gaines had been disabled and forced out of action and the 
course we were j^ursuingwas taking us further and further away from the 
peninsula — which was our only place of refuge in case of being hard 
pressed— and thus the chances were continually increasing of our being 
cut off from all retreat by the enemy's gunboats, which I foresaw would 
soon be thrown off from the fleet in pursuit; so I sheered off to the star- 
board—the Selma doing the same; and, as I anticipated, a double-ender, 
said to be the Metacomet, in a few minutes after, started off from the 
Hartford and soon overhauled and engaged in action with my vessel, whilst 
the Seltna, on our bow-port, continued her retreat (unfortunately for her) 
in a direction to cross the mouth of Bon Secour Bay, and to reach the 
shore of Mobile Bay. After a short cannonading between us, the Meta- 
comet slipped off and steamed rapidly in pursuit of the Selnia, seeing which, 
and that my vessel would inevitably be cut off and captured by the two 
other vessels of the enemy now on the way to join in the pursuit, if I suf- 
fered her to engage in a 'stern chase, which is always a long one,' and 



582 THE CONFEDERATE STATES NAVY. 

knowing, furthermore, that with the coal-dust on board, which was my 
only fuel, I could not possibly make steam enough to overtake two such 
fast vessels as the ilfe^acomi?^ and Selma, going off as they were at 'top' 
sjjeed, 1 deemed it best to turn the 3Io7-ga7i's bow directly into shallow 
water, and in doing so we grounded on the long stretch of shoals which 
extends off from thelandalittleto the eastward of Navy Cove. We backed 
off, however, in a few minutes, and the iSel?na, having by that time sur- 
rendered to the Metacomet, and the other chasing gunboats having nearly 
reached them, I directed my vessel's course toward Fort Morgan, on ap- 
proaching which we discovered a small Federal gunboat aground on the 
western side of the seaward channel, about a mile and a half below the 
fort. I steamed down toward her, and sent a boat, with Lieut. Thomas 
Ij. Harrison, to burn her, which was accordingly done. She proved to be 
the PhiUiiypi, disabled by a shot from the fort, and abandoned. Having 
performed this duty, we returned to the fort and made fast to the wharf. 

" A short time before proceeding on this affair of the burning, the 
Tennessee, about four miles distant from us, after a desperate contest 
with the enemy, had been compelled, by being disabled (as we afterwards 
learned), to yield to an overwhelming force, and the Morcjan was now 
the only vessel left of ovir little squadron. I felt exceedingly anxious to 
save her to the Confederacy by 'running the gauntlet up the bay to 
Mobile, distant about twenty -five miles, but it seemed so impossible in a 
noisy, high-pressure steamer, making black smoke, to pass the enemy's 
fleet unobserved, or to elude the vigilance of his gunboats, which were 
seen after the action to go up the bay, that I gave up the idea at one 
time as impracticable, and made preparations to take to the boats, as the 
Gaines'' people intended to do when night should come. Upon reconsid- 
eration of the matter, however, I determined to make the effoi*t, and 
having landed three-fourths of my provisions for the use of the garrison, 
and thrown overboard my coal-dust, for the i^urpose of picking out all 
the lumps that could be found, as well as to lighten the vessel, I started 
at 11 P. M. of a starlight night upon an enterprise which no one on shore 
or afloat expected to be successful. Not only was this the universal 
opinion, but all letters and papers from the fort wei-e sent in charge of 
Lieut. Commanding Bennett in his boats, which were to go up along 
shore ; nor would the two or three town's-people who happened to be 
down there take passage with us, preferring the longer and safer route 
by land. But fortune favored us, and although hotly pursued and 
shelled by the enemy's cruisers for a large portion of the way, we success- 
fully reached the outer obstructions near Mobile at daybreak, having 
been struck but once slightly. We foimd the ' gap ' through the obstruc- 
tions, much to our surjjrise, closed, and it was not until the afternoon that 
the gate was pulled sufficiently aside to allow us to enter. In the action 
down the bay we had the good luck to escape with but small damage. 
AVe were struck but six times, and only one of that number did any harm, 
and that entered the port wheel-house and passed out of the starboard, 
destroying some muskets, boarding-pikes and "tanchions in its progress 
over the deck. Only one person was wounded, and he slightly, by a 
splinter. I owe this exemption from injury and loss, doubtless, in a great 
measure, to the excellent position I was enabled, to keep generally on the 
HartforcVs bow. 

" The officers and men, in their condviet, afforded me much satisfac- 
tion, particularly as the most of them had never been under fire before; 
and I am a good deal indebted to my executive officer, Lieut. Thomas L. 
Harrison, who had especial charge of the after division of guns, owing 
to an insufficiency of officers, for his hearty co-operation pnd assistance. 
* * * * * * . * 

" P. S. — Besides the two other double-enders mentioned in the fore- 
going as having left the fleet shortly after the Metacomet, to join in the 
chase, there was a gunboat also which followed after awhile. It must be 
understood with regard to the Sehna that she did not discontinue hei 



THE CONFEDERATE STATES NAVY. 583 

retreat to engage the Metacomet, but that her fighting was done with 
her after-gun, tired over her stern, at the approaching vessel, an<l that she 
surrendered whilst the Metacomet was yet astern or had just got up." 

This explanation by Commander Harrison must be con- 
trasted with the criticism made upon him by Admiral Bu- 
chanan, who speaks in his official report of Harrison having 
during the conflict " deserted " the Selma while his own vessel 
was uninjured, and further says that "his (Harrison's) con- 
duct is severely commented upon by the officers of the enemy's 
fleet, much to the injury of that officer and the navy." The 
Mobile Advertiser and Register, the leading paper of the city, 
taunted him with having had but one man hurt on his ship. 
A court of inquiry was, however, subsequently ordered by 
Secretary Mallory, and its decision exonerated Harrison from 
blame. ' 

After the surrender and dispersion of Admiral Buchanan's 
squadron the Federal flotilla commanded by De Kraft, and the 
monitor Chickasaw, bombarded Fort Powell, tlieir fire soon 
proving so effective that Lieut Col. J. M. Williams, who was 
in command, telegraphed to Col. Anderson, commandant of 
Fort Gaines : "Unless I can evacuate, I will be compelled to sur- 
render within forty-eight hours." Anderson replied " Save 
your garrison when the fort is no longer tenable." Williams 
had already held out about as long as he thought was possible. 
He describes in his official report the difficulties under which 
he labored. 

" The front face of the work was nearly completed and in a defensible 
condition, mounting one 8-inch Columbiad, one 6.4-inch rifle and two7-ineh 
Brooke guns. The face looking towards Graines and Little Dauphine Is- 
land was half finished. The parapet was nearly complete, but traverses 
and galleries had only been framed. The rear had only been commenced. 
Two guns were mounted — one 10-inch Columbiad and one 7-inch Brooke 
rifled. They were without parapets and exposed from the platform up. 
During the morning the fort was shelled from Ave gunboats in the sound 
at long range. The fort was hit five times, but no particular damage was 
done. I replied with the four guns bearing on that side, with what effect 
is not known. About 2:30 P. M. one of the enemy's monitors came up within 

1 Confederate States Steamer "Morgan," ) at the opportunity thus offered to serve your 

Off Fort Morgan, August 4th, 1864. ( country. 

Messrs Clark and Forsyth, Editors Advertiser Very respectfully, 

a7id Reqister : Yoi"" obedient servant. 

As vour recent essays on the navy, and the „ ^^^'^ ,' -T^v^f^'r 

Mobile squadron in particular, seem to show Commander Confederate States Navy. 

you to be jiQssessedof a courage quite uncommon The Editor of the Advertiser replied as follows : 

as well as an acquaintance with carrying on A thousand thanks to Capt. George \V. Harri- 

naval warfare quite marvellous for gentlemen son, of the Confederate States steamer Morgan, 

leading peaceable lives like yourselves, I feel for his polite invitation, and we have to regret 

particularly anxious to obtain the service of two that it was only received yesterday morning, 

such valuable recruits, and have therefore, at "the day after the wedding." Had it been in our 

the suggestion of some of my brother officers, power to have accepted the invitation, and had 

taken the liberty of addressing you this letter we " occupied the mostconapicuoua position on 

for the purpose of requesting the favor of your board," we should still have been in the land of 

company on board my vessel when the expected the living to acknowledge his courtesy, for " the 

engagement with the enemy's fleet takes place. most conspicuous position " appears, by the re- 

I promise that you shall have the most con- suit of the fight, to have been an eminently safe 

spicuousposition on board and the fullest opiDor- one. Except an engineer, "slightly wounded" 

tunity to display your bravery and naval knowl- by a splinter, "nobody was hurt " on board the 

edge. As patriots, you will, I am sure, jump Morijan. 



584 . THE CONFEDERATE STATES NAVY. 

700 yards of the fort, firing rapidly with shell and f?rape. I replied from 
the 7-inch Brooke gun (rnzeed) on the southern angle. It was protected by 
an unfinished traverse, Avhich, however would not permit it to he depressed 
sufficiently for ricochet 'Q.Y\ng. The gun was loaded with great difficulty, 
there being no platform for the gunners in the rear, owing to which, and 
the delay occasioned by a sponge- head pulling off in the gun, I succeeded 
in firing but three shots from it while the enemy was in range. One shot 
struck on the bow, with no apparent effect. The iron-clad's fire made 
it impossible to man the two guns in the rear and I made no attempt 
to do so. 

"The elevating machine of 10-inch Columbiad was broken by a frag- 
ment of shell. A shell entered one of the sallj'^-ports, which are not trav- 
ersed in the rear, passed entirely through the bomb-proof and buried it- 
self in the opposite wall; fortunately it did not explode. The shells ex- 
ploding in the face of the work displaced the sand so rapidly that I was 
convinced that unless the iron-clad was driven off it would explode my 
magazine and make the bomb-proof chambers untenable in two days at 
the furthest." 

Thus beleaguered, Col. Williams communicated with Col. 
Anderson, and received the reply advising evacuation. " At 
the time his dispatch was received," continues Col. Williams, 
" it was becoming dark. The fleet had not moved up to inter- 
cept my communications with Cedar Point: I could not expect 
to have another opportunity for escape, and I decided promptly 
that it would be better to save my command and destroy the 
fort than to allow both to fall into the hands of the enemy, as 
they certainly would have done in two days." 

Soon after dark, on August 5th, he withdrew his garrison 
of 140 men, left Lieuts. Savage and Jaffers behind long enough 
for them to spike the guns and blow up the magazine, which 
they accomplished, crossed to the mainland at low water and 
marched his troops into Mobile the following morning. 

It was an immediate object with Farragut to secure pos- 
session of the entrance to Mississippi Sound, in order that 
troops and supplies might be brought into Mobile Bay from 
New Orleans, without undertaking to pass the guns of Fort 
Morgan, and this opening he secured by the Confederate evac- 
uation of Fort Powell. The reduction of Fort Gaines was the 
next feature on his programme, and on the afternoon of Aug- 
ust 6th, he sent in the Chickasaw and several gunboats, 
which opened on it with their heaviest shell at short range. 
Col. Anderson made no serious reply to this bombardment, 
and after nightfall he received an invitation by a flag of truce 
from Farraguf ro come on board the Hartford with his staff. 
Taking Major Brown with him, he was met on the flag-ship 
by Farragut and Gen. Gordon Granger, the commander of the 
Federal land forces. Farragut's intention v^as at once shown 
to be to argue him into a surrender, and with this purpose in 
view he began to expatiate on the hopelessness of attempting 
to hold the fort. "Gentlemen," he said, '"if hard fighting 
could save that fort, I would advise you to fight to the death* 
but by all the laws of war, surrounded on three sides by my 
vessels and on the fourth by the army, you have not even a 



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THE CONFEDERATE STATES NAVY. 585 

cliance of saving it." Anderson was overcome by this reason- 
ing-, without stopping to consider whether his case was as 
desperate as the Federal admiral made it out to be, and was 
for capitulation on the spot; but Major Brown was made of 
sterner fibre, and answered that he, for one, was willing to 
fight so long as there was a man or gun left. His courage, 
liowever, was not shared by Anderson, and becoming con- 
vinced that the latter had fully decided to surrender there was 
nothing left for him to do but agree. They left the ship to- 
ward midnight, and on the morning of the 7th, Capt. Drayton 
and Major Montgomery, representing respectively the Federal 
navy and army, were "^admitted to the fort and the surrender 
took place, the garrison marching out as prisoners of war and 
being sent to New Orleans. ' 

The loss of Forts Gaines and Powell was, as Gen. Maury 
reported, a most unfortunate aff'air forthe Confederates, for it 
enabled Farragut and Granger to concentrate all their efforts 
upon Fort Morgan, which was speedily invested and besieged 
bv the Federal fleet, now strengthened by the captured Ten- 
nessee and Selma, while Gen. Granger landed 10,000 troops on 
Mobile Point in its rear, where siege works were thrown up 
and mounted with shell guns and mortars, to which Farragut 
contributed four nine-inch guns and their crews from the 
ships. Farragut's flag-lieutenant, J. Crittenden Watson, and 
Granger's chief of staff. Major James E. Montgomery, deliv- 
ered to Gen. Page, on August 8th, a summons to surrender, to 
which he replied that he would defend his post to the last ex- 
tremity. He had about 400 effective men to oppose to the 
10,000 troops and 2,000 sailors of the enemy, and twenty-six 
serviceable guns against over 200, but it was his decision that 
the Federals could not have Fort Morgan without fighting for 

1 The evacuation of Fort Powell and surrender been exposed, as are sailors on an ordinary man- 
of Gaiues gave rise to much amazement and of-war. It is alto^^ether probable that a faith- 
discontent among the Confederates, who had ful service of their battery for half an hour 
expected Williams and Anderson to defend their would have driven off or sunk the only boat 
positions with the bravery displayed by Bu- attacking its eastern face, and that it might have 
chanan and Page. General Page liad instructed been held long enough to compel the ileet to 
Anderson to hold out until the last extremity, put to sea, or at least to enable Mobile to. fully 
and relied upon him to make a strong fight. He prepare for land attack " 

had received similar orders from Gen. Dabney General Maury was still more severe in his 
H. Maury, commanding the District of the Gulf, strictures upon Anderson's surrender. In 
who was astounded when the two defences were the report of August 12th, he writes : "Fort, 
given up. General Maury touches on the sub- Gaines was garrisoned by six companies, Twenty 
ject in several of his dispatches to Hon. James first Alabama regiment, two companies First 
A. Seddon, Secretary of War. Under date of Aug. Alabama battalion, forty Pelham cadets, 120 re- 
12th, he says; " Lieut. Col. WUlianis abandoned serves and about 40 marines— in all about 600 
and blew up his work without having a man good troops. The fort was well supplied for six 
iniured, nor had any injury been inflicted upon months. The three ten-inch guns were dis- 
any part of the fort. He had under his bomb- mounted during the bombardment (by the care- 
proof fully .30 days' water and two months' pro- lessness of cannoneers, but were subsequently 
vi.'iions. He had hand greiuades, revolvers, mus- remounted) ; twenty guns remained in good 
kets and howitzers to defend his fort against order. The fort was uniniured and could have 
launches, and eight heavy guns to use against long withstood attack." 

the ships. The fort had just been connected In his report of September 1st Gen. Mauiy 
by telegraph with Fort Gaines and Mobile. On returned to the subject, saying : 
the morning of the 5th there were 70 negroes "On the evening of August 3rd. the enemy 
with trenching tools in the fort; the guns on the had landed a force on Dauphine Island in order- 
east face of the work were mounted and in to besiege and reduce Fort Gaines. Gen. Page 
fighting order, but were not yet covered by the called for reinforcements to enable him to attack 
parapet, and the men serving them would have this force, which at that time he supposed to be 



586 THE CONFEDERATE STATES NAVY. 

it, and he gave them a long and stubborn contest. For two 
weeks preceding the 2;2d of August they were busy in ad- 
vancing their hnes on the land side, and on tlie morning of 
that day they began a bombardment as furious as soldier or 
sailor ever assisted in. Their heavy guns on Mobile Point 
were only distant some 250 yards from the fort, and the can- 
noneers were perfectly sheltered by the high and thick em- 
bankments of sand behind which they fought. The ships took 
their positions at leisure on the north, south and west faces 
of the fort, the iron-clads lying the closest in and delivering 
an incessant fire. In twelve hours 3,000 shells were thrown 
into the fort. Gen. Page replied to this terrific bombardment 
with all the vigor of which his little force of men and guns 
was capable, but about nine o'clock at night a shell set fire to 
the citadel of the fort, and in the renewed impulse of the as- 
sault the walls were breached repeatedly and nearly all his 
best pieces of ordnance disabled. The heroism with which his 
men kept up the conflict during the weary hours of that fate- 
ful niglit cannot be exaggerated. While some served the few 
guns still capable of being fired, others labored to extinguish 
the flames, which were perilously near to the magazines in 
which an immense quantity of powder was stored; parties 
were detailed to spike or destroy the dismounted guns, and 
other squads threw into the cisterns all the powder not re- 
quired for immediate use. In each sort of work they were 
under constant exposure to tlie rain of shot and shell that 
with the burning citadel lit up the sky, but not a man flinched 
from his duty. 

The flames were extinguished, but soon after dawn of the 
23d the citadel was again set on fire and Gen. Page displayed 
from his scarred and shattered battlements a white flag. He 
arranged with Capt. Drayton and Gen. Granger the surrender 
of the fort and garrison, with all the honors of w^ar, at two 
o'clock P. M., and at that hour the colors which he had fought 

small. Every available man was sent from Mo- at New Orleans, on An'gnst 18th, a letter to his 
bile to Fort Gaines. Tiie entrance of the fleet wife, in which he said that all his officers and 
into the bay jirevented their return to the city. men saw that they wei-e cut off and surrounded 
They were too few to make the proposed attack, by an overwhelming force, and expressed theiii- 
but were too many for the proijer siege gar- selves decidedly in favor of surrender. He 
rison of Fort Gaines, and lor the unexijlaiued denied that he had acted contrary to the exi^ress 
precipitate surrender made by Col. Anderson of orders of General Page, and contended that the 
a work which, faithfully defended, could have latter had only instructed him to do the best he 
held the enemy before it at least as long as Fort could. ie gave as a reason for not answering 
Morgan. After firing a few shots. Col. Anderson, Page's si,;nal that negotiations were then pend- 
withoutauthority,entered into negotiations with ing under a flag of truce and he had no ri>;ht to 
the enemy, and on the 7th inst , the Confederate communicate with him. " I expected," he wrote, 
flag was lowered and the ensign of the enemy " to be ostracized, and as I could not maintain 
raised and saluted. Gen Page reports that he the etiquette of the military code without ex- 
visited Fort Gaines and used every proper means hibiting too much selfishness, nothing was left 
to prevent its sun-ender. He could not with me biit to consult the great natural and moial 
propriety assume command at Fort Gaines, and law, which prompted me to do exactly as I did. 
remain absent from his more important com- I might have got out of the scrape by demanding 
mand at Fort Morgan. He ordered Col. Anderson to be relieved, but I thought that would only 
to be relieved from command, and forbade any make matters worse ; for had any other officer, 
surrender unl(!ss the Federals should return even General Page himself, attemped to fight 
with Col. Anderson to the fort. Nothing more tliat fort another hour, I feel satisfied that there 
is known of this unfortunate aftair." would have been mutiny and a really disgrace- 
Col. Anderson wrote from the military prison f ul surrender at last." 



THE CONFEDERATE STATES NAVY. 587 

for until the last chance of beating off the enemy had vanished 
gave place to the Federal ensign. ' 

Gen. Page made several reports to Gen, Maury upon the 
participation of Fort Morgan in the events occurring between 
the 5th and 2od of August. In the report relating to the pas- 
sage of the fort by the Federal fleet he says : 

"The spirit displayed by this p:arrison was fine, the guns admii-ably 
served, and all did then* duty nobly; though subjected to a tire which for 
the time was probably as severe as any known in the annals of this war, 
our casualties were slight. Four of the enemy's fleet turned from the fire 
they would have to encounter in passing, and assisted other vessels in an 
enfilading fire from the gulf side during the action. As to the damage 
inflicted on those which succeeded in passing I cannot speak definitely; 
shot after shot was distinctly seen to enter the wooden ships; but, as was 
evident, their machinery being protected by chains, no vital blow could 
be given them there. Their loss in men, I am assured, was very great. 
Four hundred and ninety-one projectiles were delivered from this fort 
during the passage of the fleet. Our naval forces under Arlmiral Bu- 
chanan fought most gallantly, against odds before unknown to history."' 

The report of Gen. Page of August 30th sets out in full 
the defence of Fort Morgan, and is therefore appended: 

"After the reduction of Gaines I felt confident that the whole naval 
and land force of the enemy would be brought against Morgan, and was 
assiduous in pi-eparing my fort for as good a defence as possible. For the 
state of the work I beg leave to refer you to Chief Engineer Sheliha's let- 
ter to Headquarters' Department, of July 9th, from which time no mate- 
rial changes or addition was made; and further to state, that it had been 
demonstrated by the fire from the enemy that the enciente of the fort (in 
which was its main strength) protected the scarp of the main wall only 
about one-half its height from curvated shot; and it was now in the power 

1 Of&cial correspondence relating to tlie ca- Third. Private propertj', with the exception 

pitulatiou of Fort Morgan: of arms, will be respected. 

THE CAPITULATION Very respectfully, your obedient servant, 

„ -^ . ' . „.,, ^„c!A P- Dkayton, Captain U. S. N., 

Fort Morgan, August 2.id, 1864. o„ ^)^^ p^^^ of Admiral Faeragut, Commanding 

Bear Admiral D. G. Farragut, I. S. N., Major Naval Forces 

General Gordon Granger, U. S. A., Com- jj'_ Arnold, Brig. Gen. U. S. A., 

mandnig, etc. ,,.„,. On the part of General Granger, Commanding 

Gentlemen: The further sacrifice of hie being United States Forces 
vinnecessai-y, my sick and wounded suffering 

and exposed, humanity demands that I ask for '^^^ acceptance. 

terms of capitulation. Very respectfully, Fort Morgan, August 23d, 1864. 

R. L. Page, Brig. Gen. C. S. A. Captain P. Draiton, U. S. N., and Brig. Gen. R. 

Headquarters United States Forces, i Arnold, U. S. A., acting on the part, respec- 

Mobile Bay, August 23d, 1864. ) lively, of Admiral Farragut and General 

I have notified Admiral Farragut of your de- Granger. 

sire to capitulate. Until his arrival hostilities Gentlemen: Your conditions in the commu- 

wiU be suspended, when your proposal will b^ nication of to-day are accepted, but I have still 

duly considered. to request that the terms asked with regard to 

Respectfully your obedient servant, mv sick be granted and inserted in the capitu- 

G. Granger, .Major Gen. V. S. A. Com'dg. lation. I will be prepared to surrender at two 

To Brig. Gen. R. L. Page, Com'dg at Fort Morgan. o'clock, and to embarlc as soon as ijossible. 

the terms offered. BespectluUy, etc., 

^ , , . . „ R. L. Page, Brig. Gen. C. S. A. 
General : In reply to your communication of 

this date, received by Captain Taylor, asking for 

terms of capitulation, we have to say that the Ofacial report of Admiral Farragut: 

only terms we can make are: Flag-Ship •' Hartford," ) 

First The unconditional surrender of your- Mobile Bay, August 23d, 18G4. ) 

self and the garrison of Fort Morgan, with 'all of Hon. Gideon Welles, Secretary of the Navy 

the public property within its limits, and in the Sir : I have the honor to inform the Depart- 

same condition that it is now. ment that on the evening of the 21st instant 

Second. The treatment which is in conformity General Granger informed me that his batteries 

with the custom of the most civilized nations would be ready to open on Fort Morgan at day- 

towards prisoners-of-war. lii.ht the next morning. I accordinglv gave 



588 THE CONFEDERATE STATES NAVY. 

of the enemy to open fire from every point of the compass, and conse- 
quently none of the casemates, without lieavy traverses in their front, 
would be safe; that it was manifest, by this concentration of fire, my 
heavy ^uns could be dismounted; and my making a protracted resistance 
depended on my ability to protect my men from the heavy fire and hold 
the fort from the flank casemates against an assault. With these views, 
I employed my men day and night, most of the time under fire, in erect- 
ing traverses to protect my guns on the main wall as long as possible, to 
render the casemates selected for the sick and wounded secure, and to pro- 
vide saft quarters for themselves in their rest from the arduous duties they 
would have to endure. It was necessary also to laut a large traverse at the 
sally-port, which was entirely exposed. 

' Thus, absolutely to prevent the probability of Fort Morgan's being 
reduced at the first test and onset by the heavy batteries of the enemy it 
was necessary for my limited garrison (of some 400 effective) to labor to 
effect a work equal almost in extent to building a new fort. 

"On early morning of the 9th the enemy proceeded with monitors 
and transports, and disembarked troops at Navy Cove, commencing at 
once their first work of investment by land. 

" The new redoubt ' (2,700 yards from the fort) from which the guns 
had been withdrawn, and the work formerly known as ' Battery Bragg,' 
were destroyed as far as possible by burning the wood-work. The build- 
ings around the fort, hospitals, quarters, stables, etc., were also at the 
same time fired and cleared away as much as possible. 

"Two monitors, three sloops-of-war and several gunboats engaged 
the fort for two or three hours— the wooden vessels at rather long range 
—with no material damage apparent to either side. Soon thereafter a 
flag of truce was reported from the fleet, and communicated to this effect: 

'' Brigadier Gen. R. L. Page, Commanding Fort Morgan. 

" Sir : To prevent the unnecessary sacrifice of human life which must 
follow the opening of our batteries, we demand the unconditional surren- 
der of Fort Morgan and its dependencies. 

" We are, very respectfully, your obedient servants, 

"D. G. Farragut, Rear Admiral. 

^ , . , " GrOBDON Granger, Major G'ew." 

To which my reply said : 
"■ Rear Admiral J). G. Farragut, 
" Major Gen. Gordon Granger, 

" Sirs : I am prepared to sacrifice life, and will only surrender when 
I have no means of defence. I do not understand that while being com- 
municated with under flag of truce, the Tennessee should be towed within 
range of my guns. 

" Respectfully, etc., 

"R. L. Page, Brigadier Gen. C. S. A.'' 

" From this time to the 15th, day and night, we were engaged by the 
fleet, sometimes in a brisk fight of several hours' dui'ation, at others in a 
desultory firing, without any very effective damage being done to our fort, 

directions for the monitors and the vessels with their fire. At C this morning an explosion took 

suitable guns to move up and be ready to open place in the fort, and at 6:30 the white flag was 

upon it with the army. displayed on the fort. I immediately sent Fleet. 

1 had previously lauded four 9-inch guns and Captain Draytou to meet General Gran^'er to ar- 

placed them in battery under the cdnimand of range the terms for the surrender of the fort. 

Lieutenant H. B. Tyson, of the Hartford, and These were, that the fort, its garrison, and all 

manned them with crews taken from the Hart- public property should be surrendered uncon- 

ford. Brooklyn, Richmond and Lackawanna, in ditionally, at 2 o'clock to-day, to the army and 

conjunction with the batteries of the army. At navy forces of the United States, 

daylight, on the 22d, the bombardment began These terms were agreed to by Brigadier Gen- 

from tlie shore batteries, the monitors and ships eral Richard L. Page, formerly a commander 

inside the bar and outside, and a more magniti- in the navy. 

cent fire I think has rarely been kept up for I shall send the garrison, officers and men, at: 

twenty-four hours. once to New Orleans. 

At 8:30 p. ji. the citadel took fire, and the Verv respectfullv, vour obedient servant, 

general ordered the near batteries to redouble " D. G. Farragut, Rear Admiral. 



THE CONFEDERATE STATES NAVY. 589 

save a demonstration of the fact that our brick walls were easily pene- 
trable to the heavy inissiles of the enemy, and that a systematic, concen- 
trated fire would soon breach them. On the 15th, three of the fifteen- 
inch shells striking the right flank face of Bastion No. 4 breached the 
wall, and disabled the howitzers therein. 

" During this time a pretty continuous fire was kept up on the fort 
from the Parrott guns in several batteries erected by the enemy; and in 
the intervals of serving the guns my men were engaged in the work be- 
fore mentioned, for their protection, in the anticipation of a vigorous 
bombardment. The sharp-shooters in our front had become very num- 
erous and active, and with these encircling us on the land, and the fire de- 
livered from the fleet on the flanks, our guns had to be served with much 
care and under great difficulty. 

" The land forces of the enemy completed their first approach on the 
9th and 10th across the peninsula; the second through the 11th and 12th; 
the third, a bavou, near and parallel to gulf shore, 13th and 14th; their 
first parallel 500 and 700 yai-ds distant, 15th, 16th, 17th, 18th, 19th ; ap- 
proaches on 20th and 21st to within 200 yards of our glacis. 

"Such guns as I could use on this force I annoyed them with, especi- 
ally at night, and to the extent possible retarded their work; though 
nothing very efl'ective could be accomplished in this way, as their work- 
ing parties were all concealed in the sand hills, and when our fire was 
concentrated on any one point they would merely, unseen, remove to 
some other. 

"To the morning of the 22d, our efforts were with the heavy guns 
that bore on them to interfere with the investing approaches of the en- 
emy. The topography of our front, however, was to their advantage, 
and they made a steady advance, covermg it somewhat with an irregular 
fire from the batteries already in position, and lining their works already 
completed with sharp-shooters to pick off our gunners. 

" At daylight the fleet was reported moving up to encircle us, and 
shortly its batteries (in conjunction with those on land which numbered 
thirty-six guns and mortars) opened a furious fire, which came from 
almost every point of the compass, and continued unabated throughout 
the day, culminating in increased force at sundown ; after which the 
heavy calibres and mortars kept it up during the night. This fire disabled 
all the heavy guns save two, which did not bear on the land approach, 
partially breached the walls in several places, and cut up the fort to such, 
an extent as to make the whole work a mere mass of debris. Their mortar 
practice was accurate. 

"Apprehensive, from the great effect already had on the walls, that 
my magazines, containing now 80,000 pounds, were in danger in conse- 
quence of the continuation of the bombardment in the night, with great 
care and under continuous fire I had the powder brought out and flooded. 
The guns in the water and lunette batteries, now unserviceable and in 
jeopardy from the enemy, I ordered spiked and otherwise effectually 
damaged; and all the guns on the main rampart dismounted by the fire 
from the enemy were likewise destroyed, as of no further avail in defence. 
Early in the night the wood-work of the citadel was fired by the mortar 
shells and burned furiously for some hours; the enemy during the confla- 
gration pouring in his missiles with increased vigor. With great efforts 
the fire was arrested and prevented from extending around near the mag- 
azines, which would have been in immediate danger of explosion. In the 
gallant endeavor to prevent this disaster, I would especially mention 
privates Murphy, Bembough and Stevens, First Tennessee regiment, for 
great courage and daring displayed. 

"At daylight on the 23d (all my powder had been destroyed), the 
citadel was again set on fire in several places by shells and burned until 
it was consumed. 

" The report made to me now was that of the casemates which had 
been rendered as safe as possible for the men, some had been breached, 



500 THE CONFEDERATE STATES NAVY. 

others partially (Capts. Johnston, Fisher and Hughes informed me that 
another shot on them would bring down the walls of their company 
quarters), so that a resumption of the severe fire from the enemy would 
in all likelihood inflict great loss of life, there being no bomb-proof in the 
fort. The enemy's approach was very near the glacis. Mj' guns and 
powder had all been destroyed; my ' means of defence gone '; the citadel, 
nearly the entire quartermaster's stores, and a portion of the commis 
sariat burnt by the enemy's shells. It was evident the fort could hold 
out but a few hours longer under a renewed bombardment. The only 
(juestion was, hold it for this time, gain in the eclat, and sustain the loss 
of life from the falling of the walls, or save life and capitulate? 

" I capitulated to the enemy at two o'clock p. m., and though they 
refused to insert it in the terms there was a full understanding, and I was 
assured that my sick and wounded should be sent at once to Mobile by a 
flag ©f truce. This was not done. Considering the great exposure to 
which the men were subjected, and the fact that shells frequently burst 
among them when in the casemates, the casualties were unusually small. 
The garrison in this severe test behaved well, and I would make little 
distinction. Capt. J. Grallimard, engineer in charge, performed his duties 
to my satisfaction. To the officers of the First Alabama battalion artil- 
lery. Major J. T. Gee commanding, and of Capt. Cothran's company. 
Twenty-first Alabama, I give my thanks for their promptness and alac- 
rity in every duty ; and to Gol. A. J. Jackson, commanding the First 
Tennessee, and Capts. Johnston and Fisher and their brave companies of 
that regiment, for very efficient service. To Capt. C. H. Smith, A. A. Gr., 
and Capt. R. T. Thorn, A. I. Gr., for i)rompt performance of all their du- 
ties, I am under obligations; and to my aide-de-camp, Lieut. J. C. Taylor, 
I owe much for his promi^tness and energy and for his active and gallant 
assistance throughout the operations." ^ 

Farragut experienced much chagrin when he found that 
Gen. Page had left him nothing but the battered walls of Fort 
Morgan, the soaked powder and the disabled guns; and he 
vented his disappointment in a report, in which he accused 
tlie Confederate commander of destroying the armament and 
ammunition of the fort after displaying the white flag. This 
cliarge of a flagrant violation of the laws of civilized warfare 
Avas totally unfounded. The report of Gen. Page and the 
statements of his subordinate officers afford unimpeachable 
evidence that he destroyed the propex ty of the Confederate 
government during the night of August 22d and 23d, previous 

' As soon as Fort Morgan had snrrenclered form who called him by name and whom he 
Farra}?ut sent out boats to rake the channel for recognized as Burke. "' I looked at him with 
torjjedoes. Twenty-one were taken up and one surprise," Arnold says, " and did not recog- 
exploded while being handled by the Federal nize him nntil he said : ' Lieutenant, don't you 
seamen, killing one man and wounding thirteen, know me?' I then saw that it was Sergeant 
of whom lour subsequently died from their in- Burke, and remarked : ' What does this mean, 
juries. There are soimd reasons for the belief this uniform.' He replied : ' You now know 
entertained by Confederate officers that a Fed- what I have been at the past few weeks.' 'Yes,' 
eral spy had penetrated within their lines, and I said, ' a spy.' He smiled, and said : ' Lieut- 
informed Federal commanders of their move- enant, if yoii want protection or aid you will get 
ments and of the location of torpedoes. Lieut. it by reporting to General Canby. I made a list 
(t. a. Arnold, Assistant Enrolling Officer at Mo- of deserving citizens for his use," and your name 
Viile in March, ISliS, relates that there was fre- heads the list. Good-bye.' I have not seen 
(juently seen about Confederate headquarters Burke since, nor have I any knowledge of what 
at that time a soldier known as Sergeant Burke, became of him. Burke was a sharp, intelligent 
of tlie Army of East Tennessee, whose ostensible American Irishman, and I now have reason to 
business was to gather up all the men of that believe that he furnished Farragut with a great 
army absent without leave and forward them to deal of valuable information." 
their commands. Burke appeared to be very A Southern correspondent writing from Far- 
zealous in the Confederate cause, but the day ragut's fleet at the time, .said that the man who 
after the surrender Arnold was approached near laid the torpedoes in Mobile channel had been 
Canby's headquarters by a man in Federal iiui- employed to take them up. 



THE CONFEDERATE STATES NAVY, 591 

to making any proposition to surrender: and there is not a 
scintilla of evidence to support the assertion made by Farra- 
gut, and reiterated by Admiral Porter in "The Naval History 
of the Civil War," that any part of the destruction took place 
after he had opened negotiations for capitulation. It was en- 
tirel}^ proper for him to cripple the fort prior to those negotia- 
tions, and in so doing he made the last demonstration that 
was permitted him of his fidelity to his government, for he 
was thenceforward held a prisoner until the close of the war. 
But if there were any doubt about the matter, it would be re- 
moved by the decision of the Federal Council of War, con- 
vened at New Orleans, September 1st, and consisting of Major 
Gen. S. A. Hurlbut. Brig. Gen. James Totten, and Lieut. Com- 
mander S. R. Franklin, U. S. N., which sat for two weeks ex- 
amining the charges against Gen. Page and reported that 
no public property was destroyed after the white flag was 
hoisted on the glacis of Fort Morgan. ' 

With Forts Morgan, Gaines and Powell in their hands the 
Federals had absolute control of Mobile Bay, but they made 
no attempt for the time being to move against the city itself, 
which was defended by an inner line of works, the principal 
of which was Spanish Fort, on the eastern bank of the Apal- 
achee River. ^ Other defences were Fort Blake and Batteries 
Huger, Tracy, Mcintosh and Gladden, the Tower battery, the 
Alexis battery on Choctaw Point, and a line of piles and 
torpedoes across the channel. It was anticipated that after 
the surrender of Fort Morgan the Federals would push on 
to the city, and Gen. Maury took command there in person 

1 While Gen. Pa^e was a prisoner in Fort La- competent to pronounce on the matter. I am 

fayette, in December 1864, he addressed the content to abide their oijinioii. Immediately 

following to the editor of the New York Tribune: after the capitulation of Fort Morgan, certain 

"Sir : lu your issue of yesterday was the fol- false and injurious reports were circulated, im- 
lowing paragraph: 'The rebel General Page, puting some irregularity and unfairness on luy 
captured near Fort Morgan, applied by letter part in the surrender of the work. By a couu- 
lately to his old classmate. Commodore Eodgers, cil of war, ordered by Gen. Canby, and com- 
for assistance in getting exchanged.' The reply posed of ofBcers of the Federal army and navy, 
was: 'lean do nothing for you. You neither I was, after a most seai-chiug and protracted in- 
defended your post like a man, nor surrendered vestigation, promptly and entirely acquitted of 
like an officer.' all and every of these imputations. The opinion 

"It does me great injustice; and though a and findings of this council were officially pub- 

prisouer of war, in the hands of your govern- lished in the New Orleans papers; and it would 

ment, I do not hesitate so far to presume on have been agreeable to my desire to have had 

your sense of right as to solicit a correction of the whole ' proceedings ' laid before the public, 

the misstatements involved in the aforesaid which I yet hope at some future day may be 

paragrajih. The facts of the case are just these: done. 

^5ome time ago, while ill and suffering, I sent a "Your obedient servant, 

private note to Commodore John Kodgers, an old " R. L. Page, 

comrade and former friend, requesting him, if "Brig. Gen., C. S. army. 

he thought proper, to second an application I ''Fokt Lafayette, Dec. 27th, 1864." 
had addressed to the Union authorities for a 

parole or a transfer to a warmer climate (which - The streams entering into the bay of Mobile, 

transfer I may add' in jiarenthesis, the surgeon near the city, virtually form a delta system. The 

of the post had stated to be essential to my Mobile Kiver is formed by the confluence of the 

health}. To this communication I have never Alabama and Tombigbee, and has below the city 

received any reply (written nor verbal], nor has a branch called the Spanish River. The Tensaw 

any ever passed through the official channel of River branches off from the Alabama thirty 

correspondence with the inmates of this prison. miles above the city, and emiities into the bay 

As to whether the fort, of which I had com- through two mouths, the Tensaw and- the Blake- 

mand, was properly fought and defended, this ly. The Tensaw and Spanish Rivers come to- 

is a question on which it becomes not me to gether about a mile from the city, so that there 

speak. My own government, and they with is shoal water navigation between all these 

whom I shared the perils of the fight, are alone streams without entering the bay. 



51)2 THE CONFEDERATE STATES NAVY. 

to superintend the defence. He brought together a force of 
about 6,000 men, only 1,000 of whom had ever been under 
fire. Brig. Gen. Higgins, who was in command of the harbor 
defences, issued an order forbidding any officer commanding 
any fort or battery in and around Mobile to hold any com- 
munication, by flag of truce or otherwise, witli the land or 
naval forces of the enemy without authority from headquar- 
ters. This prohibition was designed to prevent the examples 
of Williams and Anderson from being imitated, and Gen. 
Higgins added that '' the forts and batteries of this command 
must and shall be held to the last extremity." 

The city probably had more women and children in it 
than at any time since the war began, but they and the non- 
combatants generally were removed in large numbers to the 
interior towns, and the planters along the Tombigbee and 
Alabama valleys were asked to send in all the provisions 
they could spare, and to allow their negro slaves to work 
upon the fortifications. All the male residents capable of 
bearing arms were organized into military companies, and 
the city was pjaced under martial law. The people were still 
full of confidence in the future, and when the theatre was 
opened in the first week of September numerous audiences at- 
tended upon the dramatic performances. 

Commodore Ebenezer Farrand, who had been in charge of 
the naval station at Selma, was assigned to the naval com- 
mand at Mobile in place of Admiral Buchanan, and Major 
Gen. Frank Gardner was placed in command of the defences. 
and Major Gen. J. M. AVithers in command of all the reserves 
of Alabama. Col. A. S. Herron was charged with the duty 
of organizing the Louisianians and the battalion of -employes, 
and Col. T. J. Judge with that of organizing all other troops 
that might respond to his call. 

The squadron left to Farrand was only nominally formid- 
able. It consisted of the Tuscaloosa, Hiuifsville, Nashville, 
Morgan and Baltic. The two first-named were called iron- 
clads, and were intended to be vessels of the same general 
plan as the Tennessee, although smaller; but they were only 
partly armored and their engines were still more defective 
than that of their famous prototype, while neither had a full 
complement of guns. The obstacles that impeded the Con- 
federate government in the construction and equipment of 
men-of-war were daily growing in magnitude, and it was sadly 
acknowledged to be out of the question to complete these 
two ships. The Nashville was a side-wheel steamer, with 
some little iron-plating upon her. \\\e Morgan was Commander 
Harrison's old ship and the Baltic was a small river boat. 
There were at the Mobile wharves two uncompleted gunboats, 
on which work never progressed beyond their hulls. 

Farragut's lighter vessels and a couple of monitors passed 
over Dog River Bar within a week after the 5th of August, 



THE CONFEDERATE STATES NAVY. 593 

and on the 15th reconnoitred around the mouth of Mobile 
River, firing a few shots at the Tuscaloosa and HuntsviUe, 
which were replied to by the Morgan. In the second week of 
September he sent an expedition up Fish River, on the eastern 
side of Mobile Bay, which destroyed the lumber-mills, salt 
works, etc., in that vicinity, before it was driven off by Col. 
Murray at the head of a small force of Confederates with the 
loss of one officer and two men killed. 

These were the last operations around Mobile for six 
months. The winter was spent in idleness by both Federals 
and Confederates, but with the opening of spring the former 
were enabled to spare from other fields of campaign any num- 
ber of troops and ships for the final assault upon Mobile. 
Charleston and Fort Fisher had succumbed to the power of 
the Federal government and over Mobile alone of all the great 
ports still floated the flag of the Confederacy. Rear Admiral 
Henry K. Thatcher had succeeded Farragut in the command 
of the Federal fleet off the city and had had two more moni- 
tors and several gunboats added to his strength, while Gen. E. 
R. S. Canby, in command of the Federal army of the AVest 
Mississippi, was given 50,000 troops with which to undertake 
the investment of Mobile by land. 

On March 21st, 18G5, the movement against Mobile by land 
and water was begun, it being first directed against Spanish 
Fort on the east side of Tensaw River, the siege of which lasted 
until April 8th, when the garrison was bombarded and starved 
into evacuating it. Gen. Maury, in an account written within 
the past few years, says : 

" The defence of Spanish Fort was the last death-grapple 
of the veterans of the Confederate and Federal armies. They 
brought to it the experience of four years of incessant con- 
flict, and in the attack and defence of that place demonstrated 
every offensive and defensive art then known to war. It is not 
too much to say that no position was ever held by Confederate 
troops with greater hardihood and tenacity, nor evacuated 
more skilfully after every hope of further defence had gone." 

Spanish Fort was garrisoned by 2,100 men and FortBlake- 
ly, five miles above, by 2, GOO. Nearly 30,000 Federal troops 
were engaged in the siege of the former, and when it was evac- 
uated they were joined by some 12,000 inore, and the whole 
force went on to the attack on Blakely, which was abandoned 
on April 11th. Gen. Maury had most ingeniously arranged 
for the safety of these garrisons, when their positions should 
become untenable, by constructing bridges across the marshes 
and streams between them and deep water, so that when the 
abandonment was made necessary the troops were marched 
by this route to where steamers were held in readiness to 
transport them to Mobile. 

The Confederate gunboats were able to render but little 
service in these operations on the eastern side of the Mobile 

38 



59-4 THE CONFEDERATE STATES NAVY. 

waters, but they kept along the shore and did some occasional 
execution upon the intrenched lines of the enemy. In this 
work the Morgan was conspicuous. The Federal craft were 
very actively employed, and no less than eight of them were 
sunk by torpedoes. On March 28th. the monitors Winnebago, 
Osage, Kickapoo, Chickasaw, and Milwaukee, and the gunboat 
Octorara steamed toward Spanish Fort to shell a Confederate 
transport, and as they were returning to the fleet the Milivau- 
kee struck a torpedo, and in three minutes was on the bottom 
in ten feet depth of water. All her people escaped to the other 
vessels. She was one of the largest and strongest of the Fed- 
eral iron-clads, having two turrets and two fifteen-inch and 
two eleven-inch guns. The next day the deadly effectiveness 
of the Confederate torpedo service was proved upon the Osage, 
a turtle-back iron-clad, which was sunk on the edge of the 
channel. Four of her crew were instantly killed, and six 
wounded, of whom two subsequently died. The destruction 
of these heavy ships caused much exultation among the Con- 
federates, which found expression in salutes from Spanish 
Fort and the guns of the Nashville. To the Federals the two 
disasters, one following the other so closely, were depressing. 
As they had swept the channel for torpedoes regularly, and 
had taken up 320 within a few days previously, they concluded 
that those which had wrecked the Milwaukee and Osage were 
floating instruments of destruction let loose from the rear of 
the Confederate obstructions to sweep down with the tide, and 
with this fresh peril confronting them they doubled their vig- 
ilance, a detail of boats being constantly on duty as torpedo 
searchers. Notwithstanding these precautions, however, the 
iron-clad Rodolph was sunk on April 1st, while towing a scow 
with apparatus for raising the Milwaukee, and four of her 
crew were killed and eleven wounded. Subsequent to the 
surrender of Mobile, the gunboats Ida, Sciota and Althea, a 
launch of the monitor Cincinnati, and a second launch were 
blown up by torpedoes while on search duty, their combined 
losses amounting to fourteen killed and wounded. Thus, be- 
ginning with the destruction of the Tecumseh, the Confederate 
torpedo service in the Mobile waters made the remarkable 
record of sinking nine vessels, large and small, of the enemy, 
and of killing 144 men and wounding twenty-five in addition 
to the five killed and eight wounded in handling the torpedoes 
dredged from the channel just subsequent to the capture of Fort 
Morgan. Nowhere else in the Confederate ports did this service 
accomplish such valuable results, and if the officers in charge 
of it had possessed the material for manufacturing torpedoes, 
primers and fuses that in every instance would have resisted 
the action of the water, the calamities to the Federal ships 
must necessarily have been much greater than they were. 

Batteries Huger and Tracy had been evacuated on the 
same day as Blakely (April 11th), and on the 12th Admiral 



THE CONFEDERATE STATES NAVY. 595 

Thatcher convoyed with his gunboats 8.000 troops under com- 
mand of Gen. Granger to the front of Mobile, and sent in a de- 
mand for the immediate andunconditional surrender of the cit}". 
"Thecity," wrote Mayor R, H. Slough in reply," hasbeenevacu- 
ated by the military authorities, and its municipal authority is 
now within my control. Your demand has been granted, and 
I trust, for the sake of humanity, all the safeguards which we 
can throw around our people will be secured to them." 

When the fall of the city was seen "to be inevitable. Com- 
modore Farrand sunk the unfinished iron-clads Huntsville 
and Tuscaloosa in the main channel of Mobile River, but by 
moving through the Blakely and Tensaw the Federal gun- 
boats avoided all the obstructions, and anchored with their 
guns bearing upon the city. With the remainder of his squad- 
ron, some river steamers, and several blockade-runners that 
had been shut up at Mobile after the port was sealed, Farrand 
started up the Alabama River, hoping to reach Selma, where 
a further defence might have been made; but that city, and 
the naval station, had been surrendered already to the Federal 
land forces, and on April 27th was occupied by a Federal 
squadron commanded by Lieut. Commander Harmony and an 
army under command of Major Gen. Steele despatched from 
Mobile. Commodore Farrand was now closely blockaded in 
the Tombigbee River, and on the night of May 4th he made 
to Admiral Thatcher written propositions for surrender, and 
asked for a conference with the latter at which terms could be 
settled upon. The two commanders met at Citronelle, a 
point about twenty-five miles above Mobile, and Farrand's 
proposals were accepted on the same basis as granted by Gen. 
Grant to Gen. Lee, Gen. Sherman to Gen. Johnson, and Gen. 
Canby to Gen. Richard Taylor, which last surrender was made 
at the same place and time. The memorandum of surrender 
was as follows: 

'■'Memorandum of the conditions of the surrender of the Confederate naval 
forces serving under the command of Commodore Ehenezer Farrand 
in the waters of the State of Alabama, made at Sidney, Alabama, May 
4th, 1865. 

" First: The oflficers and men to be paroled until duly exchanj^ed, or 
otherwise released from the obligations of their parole, by the authority 
of the government of the United States. Duplicate rolls of all officers and 
men suiTendered to be made, one copy to be deUvered to the officer ap- 
pointed by Acting Rear Admiral H. K. Thatcher, and the other retained 
by the officer appointed by Commodore E. Farrand ; officers giving their 
individual paroles, and commanders of vessels signing a like parole for the 
men of their respective commands. 

'"'Second: All vessels of war, their guns and equipments, all small- 
arms, and ammunition and stores on board the said vessels, to be delivered 
over to the officer appointed for that purpose by Acting Rear Admiral 
Thatcher. Duphcate inventories of the property surrendered to be pre- 
pared; one copy to be retained by the officer delivering, and the other by 
the officer receiving it, for our information. 

" Third : The officers and men paroled under this agreement will be 
allowed to return to their homes, with the assurance that they will not be 



59(3 



THE CONFEDERATE STATES NAVY. 



disturbed by the authorities of the United States so lonj? as they continue 
to observe the condition of their paroles and the laws in force where they 
reside, except that persons residents of northern States will not be allowed 
to return without special permission. 

'"'Fourth: The surrender of property will not include the side-arms 
or private baggage of officers. 

'•'Fifth : The time and place of surrender will be fixed by us, respect- 
ively, and will be carried out by officers appointed by us. 

"'Sixth : After the surrender, transportation and subsistence to be fur- 
nished by Acting Rear Admiral H. K. Thatcher for officers and men to the 
nearest practicable point to their respective homes. 

" H. K. Thatcher, 
Acting Rear Admiral U. S. iV., Commanding West &ulf Squadron. 

" E. Farrand, 

Flag Officer^ Commanding C. S. JYaval Forces in waters of Alabama.''^ 

In accordance with these stipulations Lieut. Commanding' 
Julius Myers, the officer designated by Commodore Farrand, 
on May 10th surrendered to Fleet Capt. Edward Simpson, act- 
ing for Admiral Thatcher, at Nanna Hubba Bluff, on the Tom- 
bigbee River, the Nashville, the Mor^gan, the Baltic, the Black 
Diamond and the Southern Republic, the last-named being an 
unarmed steamer on which tlie stores from the naval station 
at Mobile had been brought up the river undercharge of Lieut. 
Myers. Capt. Simpson's report states he paroled 113 officers, 
285 enlisted men and 24 marines. The paroles and signatures 
were as follows : 

"We, the undersigned, prisoners of war belonging to the Confederate 
naval forces serving under the command of Commodore Ebenezer Fari-and, 
in the waters of tlie State of Alabama, this day surrendered by Com- 
modore Ebenezer Farrand to Acting Rear Admiral Henry K. Thatcher, 
United States navy, commanding the West Gulf squadron, dohei'eby give 
our solemn parole of honor that we will not hereafter serve in the navy 
of the Confederate States, or in any military capacity whatever, against 
the United States of America, or render aid to the enemies of the latter, 
until properly exchanged in such manner as shall be mutually approved 
by the respective authorities. 

"Done at Nanna Hubba Bluff, on the Tombigbee River, Alabama, 
this tenth day of May, eighteen hundred and sixty-five." 

F. B. Dornin, Passed Midshipman. 
J. S. Wood dell. Clerk. 
John H. Pippen, Clerk. 
John E. O'Connell, 2d Ass't Engineer. 
W. B. Patterson. 3d Ass't Engineer. 
Edward Cairy, Ass't Surgeon. 
Jos. Preble, Acting Master. 

G. W. Turner, Acting Master's Mate. 
W. A. Gardner, 3d Ass't Engineer. 
G. E. Courtin, Paymaster's Clerk. 
Edward P. Herssend. 
Jos. L. Wilson, Paymaster's Clerk. 
Jas. H. Marsh, Navy-Yard Clerk. 
Benjamin G. Allen, Gunner 
J. R. Shaekett, Pilot. 
G. H. Lindenberger, Mechanic. 
W. D. Crawford. 
J.H.Hunt,A.M.M., Com'gSVr Baltic, 



L. Rosseau, Captain. 
Ebenezer Farrand, Flag-OfBcer. 
Charles W. Hays, Lieutenant. 
Julius Myers, Lieutenant. 
C. P. McGary, Lieutenant. 
Charles E. Yeatman, Lieutenant. 
F. Watlington, Lieutenant. 
E. G. Booth, Ass't Surgeon. 
N. E. Edwards, Ass't Surgeon. 
Wm. W. J. Wells, Paymaster. 
Robert C. Powell, Ass't Surgeon. 
Wm. Fisk, Jr., Chief Engineer. 
Albert P. Hulse, Secretary. 
P. U. Murphey, Lieutenant. 
J. E. Armour, Paymaster. 
Lewis W. Munro, Surgeon. 
E. Lloyd Winder, Lieutenant. 
A. L. Myers, Master. 



THE CONFEDERATE STATES NAVY. 



597 



D. R. Lindsay, Naval Storekeeper. 
Thos. (t. Lang, 3d Ass"t Engineer. 
D. B. Conrad, Fleet Surgeon. 
Geo. H. Oneal, Ass't Paymaster. 
J. M. Pear], Ass't Paymaster 
J. R. Jordan, 1st Ass't Engineer. 
S. S. HeiTick, Ass't Surgeon. 
Howard Quigley, 1st Ass't Engineer. 
H. S. Smith, Gunner. 

C. H. Mallery, Gunner, 

J. M. Smith, Paymaster's Clerk. 
George Newton, Sailmaker 
Thos. L. Harrison, Lieutenant. 
O. S. Iglehart, Passed Ass't Surg. 

D. G. Raney, Jr., 1st Lieut. M. C. 
W. G. Craig, Master P. N. C S. 
Jos. R. DeMahy, Master P. N. C. S. 
M. M. Seay, Ass't Pay'r P. N. C. S. 
N. M. Read, Assistant Sui-geon. 

G. D. Lining, 1st Ass't Engineer. 
J. R. Y. Fendall, 1st Lieut. C S. M. 
A. P. Beinre, Passed Midshipman. 
R. J. Deas, Passed Midshipman. 

E. Deljois, 2d Assistant Engineer. 
M. M. Rogers, 3d Ass't Engineer. 
P. A. Lombard, 3d Ass't Engineer. 
Chas. A. Joullian, 3d Ass't Engineer. 
J. Fulton, 3d Ass't Engineer. 

G. W. Naylor, 3d Ass't Engineer. 
Wm. Fink, Paymaster's Clerk. 

F. B. Green, Master's Mate. 
Avery S.Winston, M. Mate P. N. C. S. 
John Curney. 

Jos. M. Walker, Pilot. 

W. L. Cameron, Paymaster's Clerk. 

Lewis Williams, Engineer. 

M. L. Shropshire, Act. 1st Ass't Eng'r. 

J. V. Harris, Ass't Surgeon. 

Benj. Herring, 1st Engineer, 



Ira W. Porter, Acting Gunner. 

B. H. Weaver, Acting Ass't Engineer. 

J. W. Bennett, Lieut. Commanding. 

G. A. Joiner,! Passed Midshipman. 

Wm. Carroll, Passed Midshipman. 

G. H. Wellington, 3d Ass't Engineer. 

Z. A. Offutt, Gunner. 

J. P. Redwood, Clerk. 

E. W. Johnston, Master's Mate. 

James White, Master's Mate. 

Wm. C. Dogger, Engineer. 

Wm. P. A. Campbell, 1st Lieutenant. 

Julian M. Spencer, 1st Lieutenant. 

Jason C. Baker, 1st Lieutenant. 

W. F. Robinson, 2d Lieutenant. 

Robert F. Freeman, P'ss'd Ass't Sur. 

G. W. Claiborne, Ass't Surgeon. 

H . E. McDuffie, Ass't Paymaster. 

A. N. Bully, Master. 

W. Youngblood, Chief Engineer. 

John L. Rapier, 2d Lieutenant. 

AVm. Fauntleroy, 2d Ass't Engineer. 

Geo. J. Weaver, 2d Ass't Engineer. 

J. Thomas Maybury, Gunner. 

S. H. McMaster, Paymaster s Clerk. 

H. L. Manning, Master's Mate. 

Joseph Fry, Lieut. Commanding. 

Page M. Baker, Master's Mate. 

John G. Blackwood, 1st Lieutenant. 

Wm. H. Haynes, Gunner. 

Hiram G. Goodrich, 3d Ass't Eng'r. 

John Applegate, 3d Ass't Engineer. 

Edwin Weaver. 3d Ass't Engineer. 

Jacob H. Turner, Acting M. Mate. 

Thos. A. Wakefield, 3d Ass't Eng'r. 

J. D. Johnston, Commander, 

W. W. Graves, Ass't Surgeon. 

W. T. J. Kunsh, 3d Ass't Engineer. 

Henry D. Bassett, Act. Constructor. 



Besides the parole signed by the above commissioned and 
"warrant officers of the Confederate navy, there were four other 
papers of the same character. Acting Fleet-captain Julius 



1 Passed Midsbipmau George A. Joiner, who 
■was officer of the deck of the ^'ashville when she 
was surrendered, was appointed in the C. S. 
navy, January ■23d, 1863, and was stationed at 
the Drewry's Bluli' .batteries on the James River, 
\intil the succeeding summer, when he was 
ordered to a class on the school-ship Patrick 
Henry. In the spring of 1864, he became aide to 
Commodore W. H. Parker, in command of the 
Richmond, and was also made signal officer. In 
the movement to confront Geu. Butler's lauding 
at Bermuda Hundreds, in Blay Mr. Joiner com- 
manded a howitzer in the naval contingent, and 
afterward returned with his class to the school- 
ship, graduating in July, 1864: as No. 6 of the 
class. In the detail of midshipmen then ordered 
to report at Mobile, he and William Carroll, 
now of Pine Bluff, Ark, were siDecially designated 
as aides to Admiral Buchanan, but they did not 
reach that city until after his capture. Mr. Joiner 
■was assigned to the iron-clad Huntsvitle, Lieut. 
Commander Julius Myers, and was present at the 



various engagements of that ship with the Feder- 
al batteries during Gen. Canby's investment of 
Mobile. He was once slightly wounded, and, in 
company with a sailor named Kelly, distinguish- 
ed himself by replacing under the enemy's fire 
the ensign of the ship, which had been shot away 
in the course of an action in which her smoke- 
stack was perforated fifty-seven times. When it 
was decided to sink the Huntsvillewpon the evacu- 
ation of Mobile Midshipman Joiner was left in 
charge of the boat's crew that scuttled her, and 
was the last person to leave the deck after cutting 
the feed-pipes of the boiler. He then went to 
duty on ttie Nashville, and on May li th, 1865, re- 
ceived at the gangway of tlie vessel the Federal 
officer, Lieut. Hamilton, sent to i-eceiveher sur- 
render. Her colors had been struck, the officers 
and crew gathered on deck as they were hauled 
down and saluted them with raised caps while 
tears flowed freely. Since the war, Mr. Joiner has 
resided in his native town of 'Talladega, Ala., 
where he is engaged in mercantile pursuits. 



598 THE CONFEDERATE STATES NAVY. 

Myers gave parole on behalf of the Confederate seamen serv- 
ing on a portion of the vessels; Lieut. Josepli Fry, commanding 
the Morgan, gave parole on behalf of the 120 men of his ship; 
Lieut. J. W. Bennett, commanding the Nashville, gave parole 
for his 113 seamen; and Lieut. D. G. Raney, Jr., gave parole 
for tlie twenty-four marines under his command 

In addition to the vessels surrendered by Commodore Far- 
rand, the following river steamers in the inland waters of 
Alabama fell into the hands of the Federals: St. Nicholas, 
St. Charles. C. W. Dorrance, Jeff. Davis, Admiral, Reindeer, 
Cherokee, 3Iarengo, Sumter, Waverly, Magnolia, Robert Wat- 
son, Duke, Clipper, Senator, Commodore Farrand. and Two 
Hundred and Ninety. The blockade-runners Heroine, Mary, 
Red Gauntlet and Virgin were also among the prizes. 

So fell the curtain upon the defence of Mobile and the ad- 
jacent waters. It had been conducted with matchless skill, 
energy, and gallantry upon meagre resources, against an 
enemy whose command of men, ships, guns and money was 
measureless, and it ended without a blemish upon the honor 
and bravery of the sailors and soldiers who so long held back 
the enormously superior forces thundering at their gates. 



CHAPTER XIX 
FLORIDA WATERS. 



THE naval operations in Florida waters during the war 
were not perhaps as brilliant and far-reaching in their 
character as those in some other parts of the Confed- 
eracy, but they are not without a vivid historical inter- 
est, and had a solid importance in connection with the whole 
plan of attack upon the Southern sea-coasts and sea-ports. At 
the opening of the war, the situation in Florida was not unlike 
that in other Southern States. The Ordinance of Secession 
declaring this State "a sovereign and independent nation," 
was passed by a State Convention which assembled January 
lOth, 1861. On January 9th, a rumor of the intended seizure 
of the Pensacola navy-yard, Warrington, by the Confederates, 
reached the Federal authorities at the Pensacola works. 
Lieut. Adam J. Slemmer, then in command of the harbor de- 
fences, which consisted of Forts Barrancas, McRae and Pick- 
ens, determined to concentrate his forces, ammunition, sup- 
plies and arms at Fort Pickens, which, besides being the 
strongest fort, commanded the entrance to the bay and the 
other forts. The navy-yard, distant about two and a half 
miles, was beyond the range of the guns at Fort Pickens. On 
the morning of the 10th. the force under Lieut. Slemmer's 
command was transferred to Fort Pickens by means of boats 
from the U. S. steamer Wyandotte and the storeship Supply. 
Fort McRae was abandoned, and about 23,000 pounds of pow- 
der, together with a quantity of fuses and shot, were destroyed. 
The guns at Barrancas were spiked, and were in that condition 
when the Florida troops, under Col. Lomax, took possession 
of the fort. 

Pensacola Bay possesses rare properties as a harbor. It 
is accessible to large vessels, the bar is near the coast, and the 
channel across it short and easily passed. The harbor is per- 
fectly land-locked and the roadstead very capacious. There 
are excellent positions within for repairing, building and 
launching vessels, and for docks and dock-yards. The supply 

(599) 



600 THE CONFEDERA.TE STATES NAVY. 

of good water is abundant. These advantages, in connection 
with the position of tiie harbor as regards tlie coast, induced 
the U. S. government to select it as a naval station, and a 
place of rendezvous and rejiair. 

Pensacola Bay. fortified as it was, with all its ordnance in 
position and properly garrisoned, was deemed impi-egnable, 
except by long and hazardous siege by an overwhelming and 
well api^ointed land force; and it was said by an enthusiastic 
writer of the time, "could defy all the navies of the world 
combined till it filled the harbor's mouth with the carcasses of 
sunken ships." Fort Pickens is situated on Santa Eosa Island, 
the west point of which is at the mouth of Pensacola Bay 
and completely shuts out Pensacola from the sea. The fort 
was a first-class pentagonal bastioned work, built of stone, 
brick and bitumen, with covert ways, dry ditch, glacis and 
outworks complete. Its walls were forty feet in height by 
twelve feet in thickness, and were embrasured for two tiers 
of guns in bomb-proof and one tier of guns open or eji 
barbette. The guns from this point radiated to every 
point of the horizon, with flank and enfilading fire in the 
ditches and at every angle of approach. The work was 
begun in 1838 and finished in 1853. When on a war foot- 
ing its garrison consisted of 1,260 soldiers. Its armament in 
January, 1861, consisted of: in bastion 30 twenty-four-pound 
howitzers; casemate, 2 forty-two-pounders, (U thirty-two 
pounders, 59 twenty -four pounders; in barbette, 24 eight-inch 
howitzers, 6 eigliteen-pounders, 12 twelve-pounders, 1 ten-inch 
Columbiad mounted, and 4 ten -inch mortars in bad order. 
The possession of this work by the Confederates was, of course, 
of the first importance, for unless they could occupy it. it would 
secure to the U. S. troops a base of operations along the whole 
gulf coast, and keep open a road into the heart of the South, 
which could not be obstructed by any fixed fortifications. An 
enemy holding Fort Pickens could rendezvous a naval force 
there, and keep up a blockade of all the ports of the gulf, 
unless it could be met on the sea. The fort was only ap- 
proachable by land on one side, and, owing to the openness 
of the country, which was but a barren bed of sand, a party 
attacking from that quarter would be very much exposed. 

Fort McRae, ' after its abandonment by Slemmer, was in 
possession of the Florida troops. It was further seaward than 
Fort Pickens, and was its vis a vis across the channel, guard- 
ing the west side of the mouth of Pensacola Bay. A vessel 
entering, then, must needs run the gauntlet of its guns before 
approaching Fort Pickens, which, however, of itself effectually 
closed the harbor against the admission of an enemy of even 
very heavy force. Fort McRae was in poor condition, but was 
nevertheless a strong water battery. Fort Barrancas, also 
abandoned by Slemmer, was weU built and a powerful defence 

1 Correct name believed to be McCrea. 



THE CONFEDERATE STATES NAVY. 601 

of the entrance of the harbor, but neither its construction nor 
position was adapted to resist a strong land attack. It stood 
upon the same shore with Fort McRae, a mile and a quarter 
farther up the bay. When the Confederate troops took pos- 
session of this fort, Capt. O'Hara was put in command. He, 
by the most untiring efforts, placed it in a proper state of 
defence. It had a garrison of 300 regularly enlisted men of 
the army of the Confederate States. The guns were all 
mounted, and the troops well drilled as cannoneers. ^ 

The navy-yard is situated upon the same shore of the bay 
^th Forts McRae and Barrancas, about a mile and a half 
^bove the latter. At the outbreak of the war, it was under 
the command of Commodore James Armstrong; the next 
officer in rank at the yard being Commander Ebenezer Far- 
rand, who afterwards resigned and entered the C. S. navy. 
Tlie disposable force at the yard consisted of about seventy 
.sailors or "ordinary men," as they are termed, and forty- 
-eight marines, under the command of Capt. Joseph Watson. 
There were also at the yard, subject to the commands of Com- 
modore Armstrong, the U. S. storeship Supply, with two 30- 
pounders and thirty-eight men, and the steamer Wyandotte, 
with six 32's and eighty men. 

On January 13th, 1801, the navy-yard was surrounded by 
Florida and Alabama troops, under the command of Major 
Wm. H. Chase, formerly of the U. S. corps of Engineers, who 
had been appointed major general by Governor Perry, of 
Florida^ who demanded the surrender of the yard. Opposition 
was worse than useless, as the navy-yard itself is so situated 
that no military man would think of defending it against a 
large attacking force with the means at the commodore's com- 
mand. The Florida and Alabama troops, numbering seven 
companies, with nearly five hundred men, rank and file, 
arrived at the east entrance of the navy-yard about eleven 
o'clock A. M., and there halted. Col. Lomax, accompanied by 
Major Marks and Adjutant Burrows of an Alabama regiment, 
and Col. R. L. Campbell, aide-de-camp to Gen. Ben. Cliase, and 
Capt. Randolph, late of the U. S. army, as also Capt. Farrand 
of the yard, proceeded immediately to the office of Commo- 
dore Armstrong, commanding, for an interview, which was 
promptly accorded by the venerable chief officer of the yard. 
After the introduction of the distinguished parties, Col. Lo- 
max read the order from the Governor of Florida, by author- 
ity of which he demanded immediate possession of the yard 
and its stores of every description. Commodore Armstrong 
Tesponded, his voice trembling with emotion as he announced 
that he relinquished his authority to the representative of the 

I The Savannah Republican of the 10th of the Quincy Griiard. The arsenal contains 500,- 

Jauuary, 1861, said: " A private letter received QUO rounds of musket cartridges, 300,000 rifle 

yesterday from Bainbridge informs us of the cartridges and 50,000 pounds of gunpowder, 

•occupation of the Chattahoochee arsenal, situ- There are no arms except such as is necessary 

■ated in Gadsden county, Florida, at the June- to defend the jjroperty against ordinary con- 

iion of the Flint and Chattahoochee Rivers, by tiugencies." 



602 THE CONFEDERATE STATES NAVY. 

sovereignty of Florida. The order was immediately given by 
Lieut. Renshaw to haul down the flag of the Union, which 
was done; and instead thereof there was run up a flag of thir- 
teen alternate stripes of red and white, and blue field with a 
large white star, announcing the changed political condition 
of the State. Everything was conducted in the most orderly 
and respectful manner, attended with a degree of solemn in- 
terest which was manifested upon the countenances of the hun- 
dreds of citizens and soldiers present. Capt. Randolph was 
placed in command of the yard. The magazine, containing a 
large amount of ammunition, was taken by a detachment of 
troops as soon as they arrived at the yard. The inarines in the 
barracks, to the number of thirty -six, were made prisoners, 
together with the laborers and employes in the yard. The 
wives and children of the command at Fort Pickens had been 
previously conveyed on board the Supply. On the following 
day the store-ship, under a flag of truce, proceeded to the 
wharf of the navy-yard, where the laborers and marines were 
taken on board. Commander Walke having given his parole 
that tliey should be landed north of Mason's and Dixon's line. 
Overtures had been made to the marines to join the State 
forces, with the alternative of expulsion in case of a refusal. 
The personal property of the force at Fort Pickens, belonging 
to the officers' wives, was under flag of truce conveyed on 
board the Supply and taken North, arriving at JSTewTork, Fel>- 
ruary -ith, ISGl. 

In a letter to the New York Herald, dated at Pensacola 
navy-yard, January 29th, ]861, Lieut. B. Renshaw, until a 
short time before an officer in the U. S. navy, but who re- 
signed and entered the C. S. navy, gave tlie following account 
of the circumstances attending the surrender of the navy- 
yard : 

" I have seen in your papei* of the 23d inst. a statement, which jus- 
tice to myself as well as to the naval service of the United States, in 
which I had the honor of serving for thirty-three years, requires me 
promptly to request you to correct. The statement referred to recited 
that the Navy Department had received the resignation of Commander 
Farrand, who was attached to the Pensacola navy-yard, and who was 
among those who, in the nn me of ' Florida,' demanded its surrender, and 
also that of Lieut. Kenshaw who gave the orders to haul down the flag of 
the Union. 

" I submit the following true record of the proceedings which attended 
and resulted in the suri-ender of this navy-yard to the authorities of the 
State of Florida, and I rely upon your sense of right to do me justice by 
its publication in your columns: On the 12th instant, Flag-oificer Arm- 
strong, then commandant at the station, was informed that a commission 
appointed by the governor of Florida, with a regiment of armed men, 
were at the navy yard gate, demanding the surrender of the place. Flag- 
oflEicer Armstrong directed Commander Farrand, the executive officer at 
the yard, to conduct the commissioners to his office. The commissioners 
came accordingly, escorted by Commander Farrand. Colonel Lomax, the 
counnanding officer of the forces on the expedi'.ion, with his staff, were 
then sent for, and conducted to the flag-officer's office by Commander Far- 
rand, to meet the commissioners, who then presented their credentials to 



THE CONFEDERATE STATES NAVY. 603 

riag-offlcer Armstrong, informino: him that they had already taken pos- 
sesion of the magazine, situated about a third of a mile distant from the 
yard, and demanded the immediate surrender of the navy-yard and the 
pubHc property within. The veteran commodore declared, witla deep 
emotion, that although he had served under the flag of the United States, 
in sunshine and in storm, for fifty years, loving and cherishing it as he 
did his heart's blood, he would strike it now together witli the blue pen- 
nant, the insignia of his present command, rather than fire a gun or raise 
his sword against his countrymen, especially in circumstances like the 
present, when he was without means of defending his position, and when 
an attempt to do so would result in a useless loss of life and destruction of 
property. He accordingly ordered the executive officer. Commander 
Farrand, to cause the flag of the United States, and the blue pennant, to 
be hauled down; the order was passed, in accordance witli usage in the 
naval service, to the senior lieutenant (myself), under whose directions 
the time-honored flags were hauled down. The descent was witnessed by 
none in whose heart the regret and grief at the fate of our longly beloved 
Union were more deeply felt than in mine. 1 now became a prisoner on 
parole, and remained so for several days, when I resigned my coumiission 
in the U. S. navy, which I have held as a lieutenant for twenty years, 
and tendered my services to the sovereign State of Florida, with whose 
destiny, whether bright or adverse, I am fully identified." 

After the seizure of the navy -yard, Braxton Bragg, form- 
erly an officer of the U. S. army, was ordered to proceed to 
Pensacola and take command of all the Confederate troops 
there, and conduct the operations against Fort Pickens. The 
situation in Florida, January 24th, 1861, was such that there 
was scarcely a doubt that all the strongholds in the State in 
the neighborhood of Pensacola would within a week be in the 
possession of the State troops. There was no one so familiar 
with the fortifications at Pensacola as Gen. Chase, the com- 
mander of the State forces, most of them having been planned 
and built by him while in the United States service. While 
investing Fort Pickens he determined to guard against the con- 
tingency of a blockade of Pensacola, by providing a six months' 
supply of provisions for the State troops, and making scaling 
ladders and other preparations to attempt the capture of Fort 
Pickens. Lieut. Slemmer. its commander, in reply to the com- 
missioner who waited on him to know if he would surrender 
the fort, said " that he had orders from his government to de- 
fend the fort and that he would do so to the last extremity." 
Lieut. Berryman, commander of the Wyandotte, kept his war 
steamer at this time, (January 24th, 1861) continually moving 
opposite the yard and signalizing to the commander at Fort 
Pickens the movements of the troops. 

After the surrender of the navy-yard the Buchanan ad- 
ministration had, as early as January, sent out an artillery 
force under Capt. Vogdes, on board the steam sloop-of-war 
Brooklyn, to reinforce the garrison in Fort Pickens. The 
vessel left Hampton Roads January 35th, and stopped at Key 
West on the 31st. Great excitement existed in Florida, and 
particularly in Pensacola, relative to the expected reinforce- 
ments of the fort. Before the Brooklyn reached Fort Pickens 
the Federal government entered into a truce with certain. 



604 THE CONFEDERATE STATES NAVY. 

Oonfederate leaders, to the effect that the U. S. government 
would pursue a policy of inaction, provided the Confederates 
would make no assault on the fort. Although this agreement 
was unwritten, it was faithfully kept for a time by the U. S. 
government, and as faithfully by the Confederates. Capt. 
Vogdes' command was not permitted to land, but was detained 
on board until after the expiration of Mr. Buchanan's term. 
When the Brooklyn arrived at Fort Pickens, the provisions 
were allowed to be delivered at the fort, but she was not 
allowed to enter the harbor of Pensacola, or to land troops at 
the fort. Her commander was ordered to act strictly on the 
defensive, and to give no pretext for hostilities. 

When the change of administration took place on the 4th 
of March, and Mr, Lincoln became President, he found the 
government without extra means or authority to subdue the 
Southern States. Commander Jenkins and Capt. Wm. F. 
Smith, U. S. N., were in the winter of 1861 attached to the Light- 
house Board, the former as naval secretary, the latter as en- 
gineer secretary. Both of these officers were impressed with 
the danger which threatened Forts Jefferson and Taylor in 
Florida, and which would, if no steps were taken to prevent 
it, be likely to pass into the hands of the Confederates. They 
communicated their apprehensions to Gen. Dix, at that time 
Secretary of the Treasury, and their purpose to ascertain the 
condition of things in that quarter. Their suggestions were 
approved and Capt. Smith visited Tortugas and Key West 
under the pretext of inspecting the lights. He went to Dry 
Tortugas and Fort Taylor, saw their danger and satisfied him- 
self as to what was best to be done for their safety. From his 
communications the U. S. government saw that prompt action 
was necessary to save the stations off the coast, but more im- 
portant still was the need that Fort Pickens should be relieved 
and reinforced. Gen, Scott was much exercised and most 
anxious that Vogdes' command should be disembarked, and he 
applied to Secretary Welles for a naval vessel to convey a 
bearer of dispatches and reinforcements from the war depart- 
ment to Fort Pickens, The Crusader, Capt. Craven, and the 
Moliaivk, were selected to send to the gulf. After several days 
of uncertainty caused Ijy receiving no news from Pensacola, 
an officer, worn-out and exhausted, arrived in Washington, 
April 5th, with dispatches from Capt. Adams, in command of 
the squadron off Pensacola. The officer announced himself 
as Lieut. Gwathmey and unstrapping a belt from beneath his 
garments delivered a package to the Secretary of the Navy, 
containing the following letters: 

"U. S. Frigate ' Sabijve,' off Pensacola, April 1st, 1861. 
" Sir : I have the honor to enclose a eoi)y of a letter addressed to me 
by Capt. Vogdes, U. S. A , who is here in command of some troops sent 
out in January last to reinforce the garrison of Fort Picl^ens. I have de- 
clined to land the men as Capt. Vogdes requests, as it would be in direct 
violation of the orders of the Navy Department under which I am 



THE CONFEDERATE STATES NAVY. 605 

aetinp:. The instructions from Gen. Scott to Capt. Vofjdes are of old date 
( March 12th ) and may have been given witliout a full knowledge of the con- 
dition of affairs here ; they would be no justification. Such a step is too 
important to be taken without the clearest orders from proper authority. 
It would certainly be viewed as a hostile act, and would be resisted to 
the utmost. No one acquainted with the military assembled vinder Gen. 
Bragg can doubt that it would be considered not only a declaration, 
but an act, of war. It would be a serious thing to bring on, by any pre- 
cipitation, a collision which may be entirely against tlie wishes of the ad- 
ministration. At present, both sides are faithfully observing the agree- 
ment entered into by the U. S. government, and with Mr. Mallory and 
Colonel Chase. This agreement binds us not to reinforce Fort Pickens, 
unless it should be attacked or threatened. It binds them not to attack 
it unless we should attempt to reinforce it. I saw Gen. Bragg on the 30th 
ult., who reassured me the conditions on their part should not be violated 
AVhile I cannot take upon myself, under such insufficient authority as 
Gen. Scott's order, the fearful responsibility of an act which seems to 
render civil war inevitable, I am ready at all times to carry out whatever 
orders I may receive from the Honorable the Secretary of the Navy. 

"In conclusion, I beg you will please to send me instructions as soon 
as possible that I may be relieved from a painful embarrassment. 

" Very respectfully, your obedient servant, 

" H . A. Adams, Captain, Senior Officer present. 
" To the Hon. GiDEOisr Welles, 

" Secretary of the Navy, Washington, D. C." 



" U. S. Frigate ' Sabine,' off Pensacola, April 1st, 1861. 
" To Capt. H. A. Adams. Commanding Nacal Forces off Pensacola. 

" Sir : Herewith I send you a copy of an order received by me last 
night. You will see by it that I am directed to land my command at the 
earliest opportunity. I have therefore to request that you will place at 
my disposal such boats and other means as will enable me to carry into 
effect the enclosed order. Yours, etc., 

"J. VoGDES, Captain First Artillery, Commanding.'''' 



" Headquarters op the Army, Washington, March 12th, 1861. 

"Sir: At the first favorable moment you will land with your com- 
pany, reinforce Fort Pickens, and hold the same until further notice. 

" Report frequently, if opportunities present themselves, on the con- 
dition of the fort and the circumstances around you. 

"I write by command of Gen. Scott. 

" I am, Sir, very respectfully, your obedient servant, 

" E. D. TowNSEND. Assist. Adjutant Gen. 
" Capt. J. VoGDES, U. S. A., on board the U. 8. Hloop-of-war '■Brooklyn,'' 

" Off' Fort Pickens, Peiisacola, Florida.'''' 

The course of Capt. Adams caused great disappointment 
in Washington. It was not understood. Mr. Lincoln, and his 
Secretary of the Navy, knew of no written truce or orders of 
the character mentioned in Capt. Adams' letter, and suspi- 
cions were entertained of his fidelity to the government. In 
justice to him, however, it may be stated that he faithfully 
performed his duty and strictly obeyed the orders sent him. 
Lieut. Washington Gwathmey, the bearer of Capt. Adams' dis- 
patches, was a Virginian, deeply imbued with the theories 
prevalent at the South, but, like"^ all the naval officers from 
the South, his opinions did not prevent him from faithfully 
discharging the trust confided to him. A few days after his 



€06 THE CONFEDERATE STATES NAVY. 

arrival in Washington he sent in his resignation, which, how- 
ever, was not accepted. He was dismissed, in accordance 
with the petty policy of the new Administration, and soon 
after entered the C. S. navy. 

The day upon which Lieut. Gwathmey reached Washing- 
ton was the one upon which the expedition destined for the 
relief of Sumter was to sail. It was feared, should the Con- 
federates hear of it, that it would precipitate an attack upon 
Port Pickens before the garrison could be reinforced. It was 
determined by the U. S. government that a special messenger 
should be sent overland with positive orders to the Federal 
forces at Pensacola, directing that the troops should be disem- 
barked without delay. Lieut. John L. Worden, who after- 
wards commanded the Monitor in Hampton Roads, was ap- 
pointed to perform this duty. The order was made as brief 
as possible, as the fact that he was a U. S. naval officer, pass- 
ing through the South, not in sympathy with the people, 
might cause him to be captured. It was as follows: 

" [confidential.] 

" Navy Department, April 6th, 1861. 
*' Capt. Henry A. Adams, commanding Naval Forces off Pensacola : 

" Sir: Your dispatch of April 1st is received. Tlie Department regrets 
that you did not comply with the request of Capt. Vogdes to carry into 
effect tlie orders of Gen. Scott, sent out by the Crusader, under the orders 
of this Department. You will immediately, on the first favorable oj^por- 
tunity after the receipt of this order, afford every facility to Capt. Vogdes, 
by boats and other means, to enable him to land the troops under his 
command, it being the wish and intention of the Navy Department to 
co-operate with the War Department in that object. 
"I am, sir, respectfully, etc., 

" GriDEON Welles, Secretary of the Navy.'''' 

This order was given to Lieut. Worden unsealed; he com- 
mitted it to memory before he reached Richmond, and then 
destroyed it. He hastened on to Pensacola with the greatest 
speed, reaching there on the 11th of April. He held an inter- 
view with Gen. Bragg, stating that he had a verbal communi- 
cation from Secretary Welles to Capt. Adams, and received 
a pass to visit that officer. He communicated the orders to 
Capt. Adams on the 12th of April, and that night the boats of 
the squadron, under the command of Lieut. Albert N, Smith, 
successfully landed the artillery company of Capt. Vogdes, 
consisting of eighty-six men and a detachmentof 115 marines. 
The garrison in Fort Pickens, previously composed of only 
eighty -three men, was reinforced, and for the time made se- 
cure. 

Gen. Bragg was to have made an attack upon Pickens the 
night following that on which the fort was reinforced; but this 
additional strength to the garrison defeated this project. 
Lieut. Worden, immediately after delivering his message, 
began his return journey by land. The Confederates, when 
too late, came to the conclusion that this messenger, who had 



THE CONFEDERATE STATES NAVY. 



607 



come and gone so suddenly, was an agent of the government, 
and that he had been instrumental in the landing of the Fed- 
eral troops at Fort Pickens. A description of him was tele- 
graphed to the Confederate government, and he was arrested 
near Montgomery, Alabama, on the 13th of April. The reason 
assigned for the arrest was that he had violated a pledge given 
to Gen. Bragg, and that he had been instrumental in reinforc- 
ing Fort Pickens, contrary to an agreement with Capt. Adams. 
The U. S. government held that Worden had given no pledge, 
and that the agreement alluded to, instead of having been 
made by Capt. Adams, was an unwritten truce, mentioned in 
a communication of Secretaries Holt and Toucey, on the 29th 
of January, addressed to the naval officers of Pensacola, and 
Lieut. Sle'mmer in command at Fort Pickens. Indignation 
was severe against Lieut. Worden, in the South, and he was 
detained a prisoner for seven months at Montgomery. He was 
then exchanged for an officer in the Confederate army, and 
soon after appointed to the command of the Monitor. ' 

In regard to the communication of Secretaries Holt and 
Toucey, referred to above, Gideon Welles, in the Galaxy for 
January, 1871, says: 

" The paper or document of Secretaries Holt and Toucey is the only 
"written recognition of the truce or agreement entered into with the rebels 



1 W. H. Miirdaugli, a distinguished and gallant 
officer in the C. S. navy, was in the winter and 
spring of 1861 attached to the frigate Sabine off 
Pensacola, Fla. The latter jstirt of the time he 
was first lieutenant or executive officer The 
Confederate flag was flying on Forts McRae 
and Barrancas and the navy-yard. Fort Pickens 
was under the U. S. flag and garrisoned by a 
company of artillery commanded by Lieut. 
Slemmer, U. !S. A. The best of feeling was 
maintained by the officers of both sides. Boat 
loads of Confederate officers would come to the 
ships which were anchored outside the bar, and 
were entertained, and good lellowship always 
l^revailed, and the U. S officer.s had the run of 
Pensacola and the navy-yard. Capt. Henry 
A Adams commanded the Sabine, and was the 
senior officer afloat. Gen. Bragg and Com. 
Ingraham, the Confederate commanders, dined 
■with Capt. Adams on board the Sabine several 
times. This pleasant intercourse continued un- 
til Fort Sumter fell, wnen Gen. Bragg cut off 
communications with the squadron. On board 
the Sabine was a battalion of U. S. artillery com- 
manded by Gen. Vogdes. then a caj^tain of ar- 
tillery. Soldiers had been sent down to rein- 
force the garrison of Fort Pickens, but upon 
their arrival an agreement had been formally 
entered into by the authorities at Washington 
and the Confederate Government that the Con- 
federates would not attack Fort Pickens, and 
that the Federals would not reinforce it. This 
compact was to be observed by the Federal 
commanders, so that when their troops arrived. 
Instead of going into Fort Pickens, they were 
put on board the Sabine, where they remained 
about two months. Some two or three weeks 
after Mr. Lincoln was inaugurated, a little 
revenue cutter from Key West came in and 
anchored under the counter of the Sabine. She 
brought two army officers with dispatches for 
Capt. Vogdes. Capt. Adams, with whom Capt. 



Vogdes messed, gave up the cabin to them, he 
.and Murdaugh coming upon the deck. After 
a little while, Capt. Vogdes also came on deck 
with a paper in his hand, saying : " Captain, I 
have received orders to land my command In 
Fort Pickens." " From whom ?" asked Capt. A. 
"From General Scott," replied Caijt V. "I do 
not know Gen. Scott in this matter," said Capt. 
Adams, " and you cannot laud your men until 
I get proper orders to that effect." "Do you 
mean to say that your boats cannot land my 
men?" inquired Capt. Vogdes. "Yes, I do," 
returned Capt. Adams. "Theu I shall charter 
one or more of these fishing sloops that pass us 
occasionally, and land my jmrty," said Capt. 
V. " No." said Capt. Adams, " you do not leave 
this ship imtil I get projier orders to that effect." 
Mr. Murdaugh writes as follows concerning 
the events connected with the subsequent rein- 
forcement of Fort Pickens : " Capt. Vogdes 
asked Capt. Adams if he might send a bearer of 
dispatches to Washington to tell the condition 
of things. Capt. Adams readily consented, and 
one of Capt. Vogdes' lieutenants was landed at 
the navy-yard that night and took rail to Wash- 
ington. Not very long after this, Lieut JohnL. 
Worden, TJ. S. N., since the well-known com- 
mander of the Monitor, came on board the 
Sabine, having permission of Gen. Bragg to do 
so. After being closeted with Capt. Adams for 
awhile, I was sent for. On entering the cabin, I 
found Lieut. Worden writing at the table. Capt 
Adams asked me to remain, as he wanted me 
to be a witness to something. When Lieut. 
Worden had finished writing, he handed it to 
Capt. Adams. It was an order for him to send 
the army forces to Fort Pickens, and as many 
marines as could be spared from the squadron 
as soon as possible. At the bottom of the order 
was a certificate signed by Lieut. Worden, say- 
ing that, to the best of his knowledge and be- 
lief, the order above was a verbatim copy of a 



608 THE CONFEDERATE STATES NAVY. 

which I remember to have seen, and of the existence of this document I 
am not aware that any member of Mr. Lincohi's administration was in- 
formed when orders were sent to reinforce Pickens. I never saw it nor 
knew of it until after the receipt of Capt. Adams' letter of the 1st of 
April. It has been asserted and denied that the administration of Mr. 
Buchanan established an armistice, or entered into an arrangement with 
the rebels by which the functions of the government to suppress insur- 
rection and rebellion were suspended. Capt. Adams states the light in 
which he and Gen. Bragg viewed the communication of Messrs. Holt and 
Toucey, which I here insert: 

" Washingto]N. Jan. 29th, 1861.— Received at / 
Pexsacola, Jan. 29th, 1861, at 9 p. M. f 
" To Capt. James Gltnn, commanding the Macedoriian : Capt. W. S. 
Walker, commanding the Brooklyn, or other naval officers in com- 
mand; and Lieut. Adam J. Slemmer, First Reg. Art. U. S. A., com- 
manding Fort Pickens : 

" In consequence of the assurances received from Mr. Mallory, in a 
telegram of yesterday to Messrs. Bigler, Hunter and Slidell, with a request 
that it should be laid before the President, that Fort Pickens would not 
be assaulted, and an offer of such an assurance to the same effect from 
Col. Chase, for the purpose of avoiding a hostile collision upon receiving 
satisfactory assurances from Mr. Mallory and Col. Chase that Fort Pick- 
ens will not be attacked, you are instructed not to land the company on 
board the Brooklyn unless said fort shall be attacked or preparations be 
made for its attack. The provisions necessary for the supply of the fort 
you will land. The Brooklyn and other vessels-of-war on the station will 
remain, and you will exercise the utmost vigilance and be prepared at a 
moment's warning to land the company at Fort Pickens, and you and 
they will instantly repel any attack on the fort. The President yesterday 
sent a special message to Congress, commending the Virginia resolutions 
of compromise. The Commissioners of different States are to meet here on 
Monday, the 4th of February, and it is important that during their ses- 
sion a collision of arms should be avoided unless an attack should be 
made, or there should be preparations for such an attack. In either event 
the Brooklyn and other vessels will act promptly. Your right and that 
of the other officers in command at Pensacola freely to comuiunicate with 

disiiatcli which had been given by the Navy De- he was kept a prisoner at Montgomery for some 
partment at Washington to be delivered to Capt. time. The report in the squadron was that when 
Adams. That on hia way through the Coufeder- Worden asked leave to communicate with tbe 
ate States he had reason to think that his dis- squadron. Oieu. Bragg told him that he could do 
patch might be taken from him; he therefore so if he was not a bearer of dispatches : that be 
had opened it, committed its contents to niem- could not if he was. Commodore Ingraham, 
ory, and destroyed it. I signed this certificate who was at Pensacola at the time of these oc- 
as a witness. Capt. Adams gave me orders to currences, always maintained that Worden bad 
have everything in readiness to land the men been treated badly . . . that he bad done 
soon after nightfall. These facts are mentioned nothing to justify his imprisonment. On the 
to show that although I was then what would 25th of April, I heard that Virginia had with- 
uow be termed • a rebel,' I was doing my duty drawn from the Union, and immediately put niy 
in the .service from which I could not get away, resignation of my commission in Capt! .\dams' 
and by the authority to which I was amenable hands. Although a warm friend of mine, and 
till my resignation had been accepted. That I willing to do me any favor, Capt. Adams consid- 
was in noway suspected of any desire to neglect ered it his duty not to let me leave the squadron 
duty, nor did I suspect myself of being capable until he could hear from Washington. So for six 
of doing so, never mind how distasteful that weeks I had to do faithful but most disagreeable 
duty. I had made all preparations for hoisting duty in the U. S. navy. As a return for an honor- 
out the boats in the afternoon. Capt. Adams able course of duty on my xiart. the U S. govern- 
thought he had better hoist them out for fear ment struck my n"anie from the navy list, and 
of delays, but I told him it would attract atten- when, after the' war, I asked that my political 
tion on shore; that they could be hoisted out disabilities might be removed, I was required 
after dark, armed, and the men landed very to return to the Treasury one hundred and 
soon after nightfall. Capt. Adams let me have twenty dollars which I had drawn for services 
my way, and all went well. Worden went rendered before the receipt of my resignation, 
ashore to return to Washington on that same my dismissal, of course, being antedated. About 
afternoon. When it was known the next morn- four hundred and fifty dollars are yet due me 
ing that forces had been thrown into Fort for services honorably "discharged. I exchanged 
Pickens, Gen. Bragg had Worden arrested, and from the Sabine to the storeship Supply in order 



THE CONFEDERATE STATES NAVY. 609 

the government by special messenger, and its right, in the same manner, 
to communicate with yourselves and them, will remain intact, as the 
basis of the present instructions. 

"J. Holt, Secretary of War. 

" I. ToucBY, Secretary of the Navy.'" 

" The construction which Capt. Adams put upon what he calls the 
engagement made by Mr. Mallory and Mr. Chase with the U. S. govern- 
ment, and which restrained him for four weeks from landing troops, will 
'be seen by the following extract from a letter written by him under date 
of the 18th of March, and sent by Lieut. Gwathmey: 

' The officers and men, as I mentioned in my letter of February 19th, 
are kept in readiness to land at the shortest notice; but I have engaged 
the assurances of Gen. Bragg, who commands the troops on shore, that he 
will respect the engagement made by Mr. Mallory and Col. Chase with 
the U. S. government, and will make no disposition for the attack of 
Fort Pickens. This engagement, you are aware, binds us not to reinforce 
Fort Pickens unless it is attacked or threatened. I could easily have 
thrown any number of men in it almost any time within the last four 
weeks.' 

"This communication, written on the 18th of March, Capt. Adams 
would not trust to the mails, but withheld for other conveyance; oppor- 
tunities, however, were rare, and hence the delay in its reception." 

Four days after the arrival of Lieut. Worden at Fort Pick- 
ens with orders for the reinforcement of tliat fort, tlie trans- 
port Atlantic arrived with Gen. Brown and his force and sup- 
plies on board for the reinforcement of that post. Gen. Brown 
found the place in a miserable condition for hostilities, and in 
a "complete state of confusion, all requiring the labor of every 
man in it." The Powhatan arrived next day, the 17th of April, 
but did not attempt to run the batteries and enter the harbor, 
as had been designed by tliose who had dispatched the Poic- 
hatan to Pensacola, the army and navy commanders being 
opposed to it, as Fort Pickens was not strong enough to resist 

to get home, and arrived in New York early in than themselves. Admiral Porter commanded 

June. I was indebted to the gallant Cajit. the Pozw/tatoK in that squadron. He came there 

Foote, U. S. N., to get out of the way of arrest with a plan for the holding of Fort Pickens, of 

in New York, and so escaped customary impris- which I was entirely informed, yet he never 

oument in Fort Warren. It may seem that questioned the propriety of my retaining the 

much or all that I have written so far is irrele- position of executive otficer of the flag-ship, 

vant to the scheme in hand, but it has a bearing Political harpies in Washington measured the 

which I consider vei'y important and one which honor of men by their own possessions in that 

I confess is very dear, and that is, the standing line. The oflicers of theU. S. navy, with only the 

in the old navy of those who resigned both upon exception of some two or three of the wliole body 

and after they had tendered their resignations. that I ever heard of, were, up to the breaking 

A Yankee jsedlar spirit in those who happened out of the war, conservative men who believed 

to be in power in the times of which I write, in the Constitution and the rights of the States, 

brought forth a small and venomous expedient and greatly deplored a conditionof things which 

illegal and unjust, that of dismissing from the made it their duty to assist in coercing a i^or- 

service instead of accepting these resignations. tion of their countrymen: nobly they did that 

It v.ras a mean spirit to seek to degrade honor- duty. At the risk of seeming egotistical, I will 

able men, who, without one single exception mention, in concluding these remarks on the 

that lam aware of, did faithful duty in the ser- status of Southern officers in theU. S. navy, the 

vice in which they were engaged until relieved fact that only a coujjle of years ago Admiral 

of that duty by competent authority. Had I Mullaney, the last otficer under whom I served 

been the traitor they would have made me out in the old navy, spoke to a friend of his with 

to be, a single hue from me to Gen. Bragg, in- whom he had made acquaintance at a summer 

forming him of the orders from Gen. Scott, to resort, of what he was pleased to term my 

Capt. Vogdes, as narrated above, would have highly honorable conduct under very delicate 

resulted in the immediate capture of Fort circumstances, and gave instances of it. After 

Pickens. I am quite sure that it never entered all, he was only speaking of what any Southern 

into the minds of any of the 'loyal' officers of officer would have done in like circumstances; 

the large squadi'on off Pensacola, that I was less by accident I happened to be the man on the 

loyal to the U. S. navy while doing duty in it occasion." 
39 



610 THE CONFEDERATE STATES NAVY. 

the fires of the Confederate batteries should tlie Powhatan pro- 
voke an attack by entering. ' 

The U. S. transport Philadelphia, Capt. Kittridge, sailed 
for Fort Pickens. April 10th, and arrived there May 2d. She 
had on board a large cargo of arms and ordnance stores. She 
approached within three-quarters of a mile of the fort and dis- 
charged her cargo. During this time the Philadelphia lay 
within range of the guns of Forts McRae, Barrancas and the 
land batteries, but no disposition was manifested to attack 
her. The garrison at the fort were working vigorously at the 
traverses and all the salient points were well protected with 
sand-bags. The mortars were planted and protected in like 
manner. The Mohawk also landed heavy guns at Fort Pickens, 
going up with several small boats and a scow in tow near the 
fort, but outside the harbor. She lay within the range of guns 
at Fort McRae, but no demonstration was made against her. 
The fleet off Pensacola at the time consisted of the U. S. ship 
Sabine, steam sloop-of-war Brooklyn, steam sloop Powhatan, 
and steamer Water Witch; also the storeship Supply, trans- 
port Illinois, steamer Wyandotte and schooner Oriental. The 
Philadelphia left Fort Pickens in May, having on board Lieut. 
Slemmer and his command on their way to Fort Hamilton, 
New York. 

May 4:th, the schooner Oriental, Lieut. Brown command- 
ing, overhauled two steamers that flew the Southern flag; but 
as nothing contraband of war was found on them, the}^ were 
permitted to enter the harbor. On May 7th, two Confederate 
vessels, bound from Mobile to Pensacola, were captured by the 
Powhatan. They were taken possession of and searched, but 
neither arms nor ammunition were found. They were laden 
with provisions for Pensacola, and as they were private prop- 
erty, Capt. Adams did not feel authorized to take them as 
prizes, but permitted them to return to Mobile. 

May 0th, a number of small vessels inside the harbor, 
passed to and from the forts and Pensacola, taking down large 
bodies of men and munitions of war. The blockade of the 
port was proclaimed on the Gth of May, and was rigidly en- 
forced. No vessels, except those in ballast, were permitted to 
enter the harbor. 

At Key West, Commodore Mervine created some anxiety 
by the publication of the following proclamation : 

" To all whom it may concern : 

"I, William Mervine, Flag-officer, coamianding: the U. S. naval forces 
composing the Gulf Squadron, give notice that by virtue of the power 

I On the 12th of March, 1861, at a Naval Gen- Navy, and he was found guilty by the court 

eral Court Martial convened in Washington, of both charges. The following sentence was 

Captain James Armstrong of the navy was tried pronounced against him: " That Captain James 

on the charge of neglect of duty and disobedi- Armstrong be susjiended from duty tor the 

ence of orders and conduct unbecoming an ofti- term of five years, with loss of pay for the 

cer, at the surrender of the navy-yard at War- tirsthalf of said term, and be reprimanded by 

rington, Florida. The charges were preferred the Honorable Secretary of the Navy in general 

against him by direction of the Secretary of the orders." 



THE CONFEDERATE STATES NAVY. 611 

and authority in me vested, and in pursuance of the proclamation of his 
Excellency, the President of the United States, promulgated under date 
of April 19th and April 27th, respectively, an effective blockade of the 
port of Key West, Florida, has been established, and will be rigidly en- 
forced and maintained against any and all vessels (public armed vessels 
of foreign powers alone excepted) which shall attempt to enter or depart 
from said port of Key West, Florida. 
"Given at Key West, June 8th, 1861. 

"William Mervine, 
" Flag-officer Mississippi Ghilf Blockading Squadron.'''' 

This order took the people of the town by surprise, for if 
it was rigidly enforced they would be unable to feed them- 
selves. The island was almost a barren, rock-bound desert, 
and if vessels on their way from New York with supplies for 
the merchants were ordered off, and the opportunity of leav- 
ing the island taken from them, they were fearful of starving. 
When this state of affairs became known to Commodore Mer- 
vine he modified his proclamation as follows: 

"The declaration of blockade of this port, made by me the 8th inst., 
is so far relaxed in its terms as to allow legitimate trading between this 
port and the ports of the loyal States. Trading between Key West and 
the Island of Cuba, and any of the West India Islands, so long as it is 
confined to lawful objects of commerce, may be carried on under such re- 
strictions as may be imposed by the naval commander stationed off this 
port. 

" Wm. Mervixe." 

A few days after the above publications, the collector of 
the port of Key West, Charles Howe, issued the following- 
notice: 

"By order of Commodore William Mervine, commanding the Gulf 
Blockading Squadron, the masters and owners of all vessels and boats 
are required to renew their registers or enrollments and licences on and 
after this date, as they arrive in port, and take the oath of ownership, 
according to law. 

" And before any vessel or boat will be permitted to leave the harbor 
of Key West, they must obtain a clearance and permit from the Custom 
House, setting forth the object of their voyage, excepting pilot boats, on 
their regular daily cruising grounds, •which clearance and permit to be 
approved by the officer in command of the port. And if any such vessel 
or boat is found without such clearance, etc., they will be dealt with as 
violating the blockade. By order as above, 

" Chas. Howe, Collector.'''' 

Several small trading vessels were captured, between the 
1st and 24th of July, and the U. S. District Judge at Key 
West was swift to condemn them as prizes. 

On the 10th of May, 1861, the Confederate steamer Spray 
captured off Cedar Keys, the U. S. naval schooner William 
C. Atwater, Capt. Henry Allen commander. The Spray was 
armed with small arms, and had a crew of thirty-one men. The 
Atu'ater was taken to Appalachicola, where her officers and 
crew of eight men were confined, until sent to Richmond and 
exchanged. The Atwater was confiscated and sold at Appala- 
chicola, and her name changed to the Lizzie Weston. She was 



G12 THE CONFEDERATE STATES NAVY. 

loaded with 300 bales of cotton, and on the 17tli of January, 
1863, attempted to run the blockade, but was captured by the 
U. S. gunboat Itasca, Lieut. Caldwell commanding. 

The Confederates at this time had a small sand battery at 
the West Pass entrance to Appalachicola, and eight guns were 
mounted on the island of St. Vincent, with a garrison of 400 
soldiers under the command of Col. Hopkins. 

The gunboat R. R. Ciujler was blockading the entrance 
to Tampa Bay. The U. S. steamship Moufgomerij appeared off 
the West Pass bar on the 11th Jul,v, and on the 12th her com- 
mander, Capt. Shaw, formally notified the city authorities of 
the existence of the blockade. The port of St. Marks was not 
blockaded until about the 1st of August, by the U. S. steamer 
Mohaivk. On the the 14tli, she scuttled and sunk, across the 
channel, where it was very narrow, a captured sloop. 

In July, the siewcnev Massachusetts captured the schoon- 
ers Fanny. Bassude and Three Brotliers, of New Orleans, and 
Olive Branch, of Mobile, and sent them as prizes to Key 
West. When off Cedar Keys, they were recaptured by the 
Florida forces, and Lieut. Sawyer and nineteen seamen taken 
prisoners and sent to Tallahassee. 

In September, Major French, the commanding officer at 
Key West, issued tlie following order, which was a great 
hardship to all those who sympathized with the South. Its pro- 
mulgation caused a large number of the leading citizens of 
the town to leave with their families, and take up their resi- 
dence at Tampa and other towns in Florida: 

Headquarters United States Troops, } 
Key AVest, Fla., Sept. 6th, 1861. f 

ORDER NO. 82. 

1. Within ten days from this date all male citizens of the Island of 
Key West who have taken the oath of allegiance will send their names 
to these headquarters to be registered. 

2. Witlain thirty days from this date all the citizens of this island are 
required to take the oath of allegiance to the United States. 

3. At the termination of sixty days, all citizens of this island who 
have failed and refused to take the oath of allegiance to the United 
States will be removed from Key West. This will also apply to the fami- 
lies of those who have left the island to join the rebel forces. 

Wm. H. French, Commander. 

During the summer of 1861, the Confederate naval officers 
at Pensacola were busily engaged in constructing batteries 
and otherwise aiding the army officers in defending the port. 
The batteries extended over a semi-circle of four and a half 
miles. They commenced at the navy-yard and terminated at 
the water battery, beyond McRae. At short intervals, for two 
miles and a half, there was an uninterrupted line of batteries 
along this semi-circle. A new battery was constructed one and a 
half miles from Fort Pickens, named the Quitman, consisting 
of two thirty-two pounders and one howitzer. It was between 
Fort Barrancas and Fort McRae, and commanded the eastern 



THE CONFEDERATE STATES NAVY. 613 

entrance to the channel. Besides the two forts, there were 
nineteen batteries on the Confederate side, between Pensacola 
and Fort McRae. The batteries were masked, so that they 
were not visible from the sea or bay, and had strong bomb- 
proofs. There was a continuous line of batteries between the 
navv-yard and Barrancas, and between Barrancas and 
McRae. 

The dry-dock, lying at the Warrington navy-yard, was re- 
moved by the naval officers into the channel and partly sunk, 
the object being to intercept the passage of vessels into the 
bay in case of an engagement. A plan was afterward formed 
to pump out the water, raise and float it further down to a 
position opposite Fort McRae, where the channel was very 
narrow, and where, if it were sunk, it would effectually bar 
the passage inward of any vessel of size. It was afterwards 
burned by the enemy. 

On the loth of September a boat expedition, consisting of 
one launch and two cutters, with a force of about 100 men, 
officers, sailors and marines, was fitted out by Commodore 
Mervine of the U. S. flagship Colorado, to destroy the schooner 
Judali, which laid off the Pensacola navy-yard, supposed 
to be fitting out as a privateer, and to spike a gun in bat- 
tery at the southeast end of the yard. Lieut. John H. Rus- 
sell had charge of the expedition, and with Lieut. Blake was 
to attack the schooner, while Lieut. John G. Sproston and 
Midshipman Steele spiked the gun. 

In his exaggerated official report of the affair, Commo- 
dore Mervine, U. S. N., says: 

" The attack was made on the morning of the 14th insfc., at half-past 
three o'cloek. The schooner, named the Judah, was found moored to the 
wharf, under the protection of a battery and field-piece, and to be armed 
with a pivot and four broadside guns. Her crew were on lier, and prepared 
to receive our forces, pouring in a volley of musketry as the boat neared 
the vessel. A desperate resistance was made from the decks of the schooner, 
but her men were driven off on to the wharf by our boarders, where they 
rallied and were joined by the guard, and kept up a continued fire upon 
our men. 

" In the meantime the vessel was set on fire in several places. That 
which finally consumed her was lighted in the cabin by Assistant Engi- 
neer White and a coal-heaver, Patrick Driscoll, who went as a volunteer. 
She burned to the waters edge, and has since, while burning, been set 
free from her moorings and has drifted down opposite Fort Barrancas, 
where she sunk. 

" Of the party assigned to the spiking of the gun, only Lieut. Sproston 
and Gunner Boreton were able, after considerable search, to find it, the 
party becoming separated in the darkness. No opposition was made to 
their landing ; Midshipman Steele, with his command, had gone to the 
aid of those on the schooner, where he performed valuable service. Very 
fortunately, only one man was found in charge of the gun, and he imme- 
diately levelled his piece at Lieut. Sproston, but was shot down by Gun- 
ner Horton before he could obtain certain aim. Both pieces exploded 
simultaneously. The gun, which was found to be a ten-inch Columbiad, 
was immediately spiked, and, bringing off its tompion, these two officers 
returned to their boat. 



C14 THE CONFEDERATE STATES NAVY. 

" The work proposed having thus been well and thoroughly done in 
the short space of fifteen minutes, and the whole force of the enemy in 
the yard -reported by deserters as over 1,000 strong— being aroused, our 
boats pulled away, and rallying at a short distance from the shore, fired 
six charges of canister from their howitzei-s into the yard, with what re- 
sult it is impossible to say. Three of the enemy are known to have been 
killed, and our officers are confident the number is much larger. The 
boats then returned to the ship, arriving there about daylight. 

" But, sir, I am grieved to report that this brilliant affair was not un- 
attended by loss on our side. I have to report as killed by shots from the 
crosstrees of the schooner, while the boats were approaching. Boatswain's 
Mate Charles H. Lamphere, and John R. Herring, seaman and captain of 
the howitzer, two of the best men in our ship, and marine John Smith — 
the first man to board the schooner, and who behaved most gallantly— 
who was, by a sad mistake, having lost his distinguishing mark, killed 
by one of our own men. We have wounded, probably mortally, sea- 
man R. Clark and E. K. Osborn ; severely, nine other seamen. Capt. 
Reynolds received a severe contusion on his shoulder, and Midshipman 
Higginson had the end of his thumb shot off. Lieuts. Russell and 
Blake had narrow escapes, the flesh of each being grazed by one or more 
musket balls." 

The U. S. blockading steamer Montgomery, Capt. T. Dar- 
ragh Shaw, entered the harbor of Appalachicola, with another 
steamer, on the afternoon of August 27th, and captured the 
ship Finland and schooner New Plan, taking the masters and 
crews of the vessels prisoners. Finding it difficult to secure 
both vessels, the captors set fire to the Finland, but brought 
the other away. 

In October Gen. Yulee commanded at Fernandina. where 
batteries had been erected and guns brought from St. Au- 
gustine mounted. St. John's had a battery of five old guns ; 
Nassau's battery mounted four old guns, and to bar the en- 
trance to Brunswick there was a battery on St. Simon's Island 
of three guns. On Jekjd Island there was a battery con- 
structed of railroad iron and palmetto logs. There was a battery 
on Amelia Island which commanded the channel to Cumber- 
land Islands. Nearly all of these defences at Fernandina, 
which were afterwards highly commended by Admiral Dupont 
and some of the best officers of the Union army, were designed 
and superintended by Lieut. Wm. A. Webb of the C. S. navy. 
In March 1862, Fernandina was evacuated and most of the 
Confederate property was removed. 

On the 22d of November, the bombardment of Fort McRae 
by the Niagara, and of Fort Barrancas and the navy-yard by 
Fort Pickens, began. The object of the attack was to destroy 
the navy-yard and to batter down tlie fortifications of the Con- 
federates.*^ The action resulted in the Federal forces making 
terrible breaches in Fort McRae. reducing the village of War- 
rington to ashes and setting fire three times to the navy-yard. 
This the Confederates succeeded in extinguishing. The walls 
of Fort Pickens were badly breached and the Niagara was 
much damaged. The Richmond was obliged to haul out early 
in the action, having received serious damage. 



THE CONFEDERATE STATES NAVY. 



615 



Col, Harvey Brown opened fire from Fort Pickens on Jan- 
nary 1st, 18G3, upon the Confederate steamer Times wliile load- 
ing coal at the Pensacola navy-yard. The fire was gallantly 
responded to and continued all clay from the batteries of Gen. 
Bragg. The firing w^as kept up until three in the morning, but 
as the guns from Fort Pickens did not respond, the fire from 
the Confederate batteries was suspended. 

For some time previous to 186:2, the Confederates at Pen- 
sacola were busily engaged in removing the commissary stores, 
munitions of war. guns and everything of value from that 
place. This having been completed, at midnight on May 9th, 




DESTRUCTION OF PENSACOLA NAVY- YARD. 



1862., the navy-yard, forts and public buildings were set on fire 
and the town evacuated. All the public property, excepting 
the custom house, was destroyed, but all moveable Confeder- 
ate property was saved. When the enemy discovered what was 
going on, they opened a furious bombardment, which was kept 
up during the confiagration, but without doing much damage 
to anybody at Pensacola. A correspondent of the Mobile 
Regisier, under date of May 10th, gives a brief but graphic de- 
scription of the burning of the navy-yard, which we append : 

"The scenes of last night closed the long campaign of Pensacola— of 
its history you are sufficiently familiar. The order for the destruction of 
the Warrington navy-yard, and all public property at that place and Pen- 
sacola that could not be moved, was successfully carried into execution, 
and thoroughly executed at the yard and Pensacola, 



616 THE CONFEDERATE STATES NAVY. 

"About 31:30 o'clock the signal beino: given by Brig. Gen, Thomas 
Jones, in an instant the torch was applied at every point, and in a few 
minutes the wood-work, gun-carriages, etc., in Forts Barrancas and McRae 
and the hospitals, together with all the other buildings in the navy-yard 
proper, in the villages of Woolsey and Warrington, were in flames. At 
the same instant the torch was applied to the oil factory and all the govern- 
ment buildings in the city of Pensacola, also to the steamers at the wharf. 
The scene was grand, thrilling, and sublime. The whole bay was as light 
as midday, while the murky clouds overhead reflected back an apparently 
liquid sea of fire. Fort Pickens could be plainly seen, and its garrison 
seemed to have suddenly aroused, astounded and surprised. In a short 
while, however, Pickens opened with shot and shell. Our boys, not rel- 
ishing the compliment, instantly returned it from one or two smooth-bore 
44s and 32s, which quickly cleared the ramparts of Pickens of all sight 
seers. Whether anybody was 'hurt,' is not known. Pickens seemed to 
be, and must have been, perfectly ignorant of our movements, and from, 
the heaviness of its fire was in a paroxysm of wrath and rage. 

" The task of dismantling the forts and batteries, and the removal of 
everything worth transporting, even to small bits of copper and lead, in 
the face and very teeth of the enemy, was one of a most difficult and 
delicate nature. This has been most admirably executed by Gen. Jones. 
The Fede-rals can now^ take possession of an unhospitable sand beach. " 

The greater portion of the population of the city of Pen- 
sacola, as well as of the settlements above, on Blackwater 
Creek and river, and on Escambia Bay, left their homes and 
sought the interior with their negroes and such of their mov- 
able property as they could transport. The Fulton, that was 
on the stocks in the navy-yard, was burned, as was also the 
iron-clad that was building on the Escambia River. 

Early the next morning the Harriet Lane, a Federal war 
steamer (afterwards captured at Galveston, Texas), came up 
and anchored in front of the city, and the Commodore dis- 
patched a messenger to the mayor of the city with the follow- 
ing comnlunication: 

" U. S. Steamer ' Harriet Laiste,' off Peis-sacola, May 8th, 1862. 
"Sir: I wash to confer with the authorities of this i^lace, whoever 
they may be, civil or military, in regard to preserving good order, in case 
there should be any disposition to commit excesses on unoffending and 
loyal citizens; and I wish to obtain information relating to late events 
and the destruction of public property. 

"I take this opportunity to say that any abusive or disrespectful 
conduct from mobs or other parties in this town towards the persons be- 
longing to the naval vessels of the United States, will be treated as an 
inimical act, and will be resisted as if it was assault and battery. 

"No one need fear any interference with their rights or property as. 
long as they conform to good order. 

" Very respectfully, your obedient servant, 

" D. D. Porter, Commanding Mortar FleeV 

To which the Mayor replied: 

" Mayoralty of Pensacola, Pensacola, May 10th, 1862. 
"Sir: Tour communication of the 8th inst., expressing a desire to 
confer with the authorities of the city, is to hand. 

" In reply, I would state that I am ready to confer with you, either 
at my office or on board your vessel, in regard to the subject matter of 
your communication. Very respectfully, your obedient servant, 

" Francis B. Bobe, Mayor.'''' 



THE CONFEDERATE STATES NAVY. 617 

On the same day a large force landed from the Federal 
fleet and forts and took possession of Pensacola. 

On June 13th, 18G1, the Confederate vessel Forest King 
was captured at Key West by the U. S. S. Crusader. The 
Forest King entered the harbor for supplies, her commander 
having been told by officers on the U. S. vessels Sabine, South 
Carolina and Huntsville, that she could do so; but on enter- 
ing she was seized and the vessel and cargo were sent to New 
York. On the 11th of March, 1863, the town of St. Augustine 
was surrendered to Commander C. R. P. Rodgers, of the U. S. 
flag-ship Wabash ; and on the 12th, Jacksonville was peace- 
ably surrendered by the authorities to Lieut. T. H, Stevens, of 
the gunboat Ottawa. This expedition of the South Atlantic 
squadron resulted in the possession of the whole coast of 
Georgia from South Carolina to Florida. The harbors were 
good, and almost any vessel of size could enter and find safe 
anchorage. This alone made the capture valuable to the United 
States for the establishment of naval depots. 

In May. 1863, the schooner Fashion, at anchor in the Chat- 
tahoochee River, twenty-five miles above Appalachicola, was 
loading with cotton, with the intention of running the block- 
ade. She had received sixty bales, and was waiting to com- 
plete her cargo, when information was conveyed to the block- 
ading fleet off Appalachicola. The enemy sent nine launches 
with armed men up the river, captured the schooner with the 
cotton on board and towed her to the fleet. When the news 
reached Lieut. Commander John J. Guthrie, of the C. S. gun- 
boat Chattahoochee, at Blountstown, Fla., on May 30th, he de- 
termined to pass the obstructions in the Chattahoochee, and if 
possible steam down and relieve the Fashion., 

The Chattahoochee was lying at anchor with only seven 
pounds of steam on. Lieut. Guthrie ordered steam to be raised, 
when in a few moments her boilers exploded with the most 
disastrous results, sixteen persons being killed, many others 
severely scalded, and the vessel sunk. The disaster happened 
immediately after cold water had been put into the boilers. 
A correspondent of the Columbus Sun says : 

" The magazines of the ship were within three feet of the boiler, and 
the shell-room as near. As soon as the exjalosion occurred a panic com- 
menced, the men jumped overboard, fearing the explosion of the maga- 
zme and shell-rooms. At this point the gunner, Mr. John A. Lovett, in 
the absence of the first lieutenant, took charge and displayed great energy 
and courage m saving life and pi'operty and in reassuring the panic-sti*icken 
men. 

" The ship was found to be filling, when the poor wounded and burned 
sufferers were landed, together with the personal effects of the crew and 
oflQcers. It was raining and blowing very hard, and the bank was very 
muddy upon which the wounded were landed. The poor fellows lay 
writhing and groaning in the mud for some time before they could be got 
to a cotton-gin near by. 

" The ship was hauled in near the shore and has sunk to her deck, 
settling firmly on the bottom. The powder and shells are a total loss. 



618 THE CONFEDERA.TE STATES NAVY. 

" The guns have been landed, and the nine-inch and rifle are already 
in position at a strong point, and although the loss of the vessel and the 
brave men is much to be deplored, yet with the guns ashore, manned liy 
the splendidly-drilled crew of the late Chattahoochee^ ih.e river is much 
safer than ever before. 

"Midshipman Mallory died at the Ladies' Hospital, in this city, on 
yesterday evening at five o'clock. He is the same gallant little fellow who 
pushed his way first aboard the U. S. frigate Congress, at Hampton Roads, 
after she had struck her colors to the Virginia.'''' 

Those killed by the explosion were: Midshipman Mallory, 
Assistant Engineers Henry Fagan, Euclid P. Hodges and Fred- 
erick W. Arents; Eugene Henderson, Paymaster's Clerk ; 
W. B. Bilbro. Pilot; Charles H. Berry, Quartermaster; four 
landsmen, two firemen, one coal-heaver and one seaman. 

The officers of the Chattahoochee were: Lieutenant Com- 
manding, J. J. Guthrie; Lieutenant, G. W. Gift; Surgeon, 
H. W. W. Washington; Assistant Surgeon, M. R. Ford; As- 
sistant Paymaster, L. E. Brooks; Masters, H. H. Marmaduke, 
James McC. Baker; Midshipmen, W. J. Craig. W. R. May hew, 
C. K. Mallory; Passed Midshipman, Daniel Trigg; Engineers 
— First Assistant, John W. Tynan; Second Assistant, Henry 
Fagan; Third Assistants, John H. Dent, E. P. Hodges; Gun- 
ner, John A. Lovett. 

The Chattahoochee was a strong wooden gunboat of light 
draft, and carried a battery of four broadside and two pivot 
guns, one foward and one aft. She had made two efforts 
previous to her explosion to attack the enemy's vessels off 
Appalachicola, but each time her machinery became so de- 
ranged she was obliged to retire. 

When the Federals heard that she was sunk in the river, 
disabled, they made an attempt to pass the obstructions at the 
head of the narrows on the Appalachicola River to destroy 
her. Her guns were mounted in battery on the river bank, 
and steps were taken by Gen. Cobb to drive the enemy back. 
A section of Echol's battery and other reinforcements were 
sent down the river for her defence, and the enemy hearing of 
the measures adopted did not make an attack, but abandoned 
the enterprise. 

In a short time the Chattahoochee was raised, her machin- 
ery repaired, and under the command of Lieut. George W. 
Gift' she did efficient service in keeping the Chattahoochee, 
Flint, and Appalachicola Rivers clear of the enemy. 

In the spring of 1864, Lieut. Gift and his officers deter- 
mined to make a desperate effort to capture one or more ves- 
sels blockading Appalachicola. At this time the coast was 

1 Lieut. Commander Gift was born near Nash- ston and other distinguished officers from Cali- 

ville, Teun., on March 1st, 1833. In 1846 he was fornia. and entered the Confederate service, 

sent to the Naval Academy at Annapolis, and first in the army and afterwards in the navy. He 

after two years was assigned as midshipman to entered the navy on the 18th of March, 1802, and 

tbe Pacific Squadron. He resigned from the was assigned to the iron-clad Arkansas, then 

navy in 1852 and went to California, where he building at Memishis, Tenn. He was a brave 

established a banking house at Sacramento. At and daring ofticer, and took a distinguished part 

the breaking out of the war, he came overland in several gallant exploits of the war. He was 

byway of Texas, with Gen. Albert Sydney John- one of the boarders that captured and burnt the 



THE CONFEDERATE STATES NAVY. 619 

"blockaded by the U. S. steamers Somerset and Adela, and the 
plans of the officers of the Chattahoochee were to board in 
small boats one of these vessels, man her and attempt to 
capture the other, and if successful, break the blockade, and 
run the vessels into Mobile or burn them. About seven boats 
■WQVQ fitted with muffled oars, grapnels, incendiary materials, 
signal flags, lanterns, compasses, medical stores, provisions, 
etc., and manned by the officers and crew of the Chattahoochee, 
numbering about seventy men, and about twenty volunteers 
from Company F, Bouneau's battalion of Confederate sol- 
diers. The officers and men were armed with rifles, muskets, 
shot-guns, revolvers and cutlasses, with over 1,000 rounds of 
ammunition . Everything being made ready, the boats proceeded 
down the Appalachicola River on their hazardous enterprise. 
Pilots having been secured, when the boats arrived in St. 
George's Sound, they proceeded across the bay to East Point, 
to await a dark night before making the attack. The officers 
of the party were : Lieut. Commanding, George \V. Gift; 
Passed Midshipmen, Samuel P. Blanc, Henry L. Vaughan, 
George W. Sparks; Midshipmen, J. Thomas Scharf, Wm. S. 
Hogue; Assistant Paymaster, Marshal P. Sotheron; Assistant 
Surgeon, Marcellus Ford; First Assistant Engineer, Loudon 
Campbell; Third Assistant Engineer, A. De Blanc; Master's 
Mate, Carman Frazee; Volunteers: Colonel D. P. Holland, 
aide to the Governor of Florida; Surgeon Cherry, first Georgia 
regulars; A. G. Sparks, Signal Officer, and Capt. Blunt, in 
command of the volunteers from Bouneau's battalion. 

The expedition landed in the night at East Point, near 
the east pass of St. George's Sound, which the U. S. steamer 
Adela was blockading. The plan was to remain under cover 
at this point until a favorable dark or stormy night, when the 
party was to row to the blockading vessel, and attempt her 
capture by boarding. Lieut. Gift and his men waited patiently 
for a favorable opportunity to make the attack, but they were 
doomed to disappointment. The nights were clear and the 
sea smooth, and the dipping of the oars in the phosphorescent 
water emitted a luminous light which shone brightly some dis- 
tance beyond. In the meantime the provisions of the party gave 
out, and it was necessary to secure a supply from the town. 
Intelligence was also received from the Confederate scouts, 
that information of the contemplated attack had been commu- 
nicated to the enemy's vessels by Unionists in Appalachicola. 

Under these circumstances Lieut. Gift determined to 
abandon the enterprise and push across the sound and hasten 

V. S. steamer Underwriter, at Newbern, N. C, and of his death, on February 11th, 1879, he was editor 

took a prominent part in the defence of the ^c- of the Napa City Reporter. He left a wife and 

kansas in her various desperate struggles with four children. The writer was his executive 

the Federal tleets on the Yazoo and Mississippi officer in the launch he commanded at the time 

Bivers. He married Miss Shackleford of Florida the Underwriter was captured at Nevyhern, and 

while he was stationed on the Chattalioochee, and was In command of his boat in St. George's 

some time after the close of the war he returned Sound during his illness when cast on St. 

to California and settled at Napa. At the time George's Island. 



620 THE CONFEDERATE STATES NAVY. 

up the Appalachicola River, before the enemy knew of his- 
departure. 

The Confederates embarked in their boats with the inten- 
tion of crossing the sound to Appalachicola, but, as a storm 
was approaching, only two of the boats — the one containing- 
Lieut. Gift, Midshipman Scharf and the volunteer officers, 
and the other manned by ten soldiers — attempted to cross the 
sound, while the others hugged the shore. The latter party, 
under the command of Passed Midshipman De Blanc, reached 
the town in safety, while the boat containing the soldiers was 
swamped; but the men in it were rescued by Lieut. Gift, who 
was driven fifteen miles across the sound to St. George's 
Island. The storm raged for several hours, and the heavily 
ladened boat of Lieut. Gift made vain efforts to reach the 
town, from which direction the wind was blowing a terrible 
gale. Lieut. Gift being taken suddenly ill, the command of 
his boat devolved upon Midshipman Scharf. At this time the 
boat was half filled with water, with seventeen men inside and 
ten men from the swamped boat hanging on the outside, and 
the sea washing over her. The boat was two miles from shore, 
and all expected every moment would be the last. Finding 
that it would be impossible to reach the town in the face of 
the storm. Midshipman Scharf informed Lieut. Gift that their 
only hope for safety was to turn round and go to sea before 
the wind. The commander instructed him to do what he 
thought best, and immediately Midshipman Scharf informed 
his men of his determination. There was great fear of swamp- 
ing in the trough of the sea in turning, but having confidence 
in his judgment the crew were ready to obey his commands. 
He ordered the boat to be lightened, and all the guns, ammu- 
nition, baggage, lanterns, water-casks, etc., thrown overboard. 
Six of the nearly exhausted men were taken in from the out- 
side and stowed in the bottom of the boat. When everything 
was ready the order was given and the boat was headed for 
the Gulf of Mexico as a large wave struck under her quarter, 
nearly lifting her out of the water. The four men, who were 
still hanging on the outside, having become nearly exhausted, 
were taken in the already over-ladened boat, and the storm- 
driven Confederates proceeded to sea, hoping, if possible, to 
reach St. George Island off the coast. When the boat ap- 
proached St. George Island the breakers were heard roaring 
over the beach, and the pilot gave up all hope of reaching the 
shore in safety. The men prepared to swim for their lives 
in the event of the boat being swamped by the breakers, by 
throwing off all surplus clothing. Fortunately, the boat 
passed through safely and reached the island, where the party 
remained for two days in a starving condition, sustaining life 
only by eating "palmetto cabbage," "alligators," oysters, etc. 

In the meantime, the remainder of the boats reached Ap- 
palachicola in safety, and took up quarters in the town, to 



THE CONFEDERATE STATES NAVY. 631 

await intelligence from Lieut. Gift. The enemy meanwhile, 
receiving- information of the dispersing of the expedition, 
landed a force and drove Midshipman DeBlanc and his com- 
mand to the swamps. In his report, Lieut. Com. Wm. Budd of 
the U. S. steamer Somerset, West Pass, St. George's Sound, 
May irjth, 1864, said : 

" I have the honor to report, that on the night of the 12th inst. I sent 
the hght-draft boats of this vessel and of the U. S. schooner Chambers 
to land a detachment of troops under command of Lieut. Hunter, 110th 
New York Vols., a few miles below the town of Appalachicola. After land- 
ing the troops the officer in charge of the boats (Acting Ensign E. H. 
Smith) Avas instructed to proceed slowly along shore, so as to be in 
communication with them during their march and approach to the toAvn, 
in the rear of which the whole force was to arrive at daybreak. Taking 
two launches from this ship, I arrived in front of the place about the same 
time, and discovered a force of about seventy or eighty of the enemy at- 
tempting to embark in boats from the upper end of the wharves. The 
rapid approach of the first launch caused them to abandon that project 
and retreat through the town, which movement was hastened by a couple 
of shells from our howitzer. They passed within a short distance of a por- 
tion of our troops under Lieut. Hunter, who unfortunately thought that 
they were part of his command, and permitted them to gain and escape 
T)y the up-river road without molestation. We followed them about 
two miles, but the density of the undergrowth and number of paths lead- 
ing through the woods in all dii-ections rendering any further pursuit un- 
wise and futile, we returned to the boats. 

" Ascertaining that the commanding officer of the expedition (George 
W. Gift, Lieutenant C. S. N.), was on the sound with about thirty men, 
I dispatched my boats and troops after him, but the swiftness of his boat 
and the approach of night enabled him to escape, having been chased by 
our first launch, under command of Acting Ensign C. H. Brantingham, 
who captured one of his small boats and three of his party. * * * We 
captured six of their boats (all they had except one), four prisoners, a 
quantity of small arms, (rifles, cutlasses, etc. ) 1,000 rounds of ammunition, 
all their compasses, signal flags, blankets, haversacks, medical stores, etc. 
They abandoned everything. * * * Had it not been for the unfortunate 
mistake of the officer in command of our troops, we should have captured 
or destroyed the entire force." 

In a subsequent report dated May 21st, 1864, he said : 

" I send down by the U. S. steamer Honduras, as prisoners, Thomas 
McLean, Anthony Murray and James Anderson, citizens of Appalachicola. 
These men were engaged in active co-operation with the enemy when cap- 
tured. McLean enacted the role of a scout or spy. Mistaking our troops 
for those of the enemy, he gave them information respecting my force and 
position in front of the town on the morning of the 13th inst. Murray 
and Anderson were acting as scouts for Gift, keeping open his communi- 
cations and supplying him with provisions when he was absent from the 
main body of his command. When taken, they were carrying soldiers 
from the islands back to the main. Heretofore all of them have enjoyed 
immunity from us as citizens. Their local knowledge makes them dan- 
gerous to us and very useful to the enemy ; for the latter they act as 
scouts, spies and pilots, and in this case they wei'e caught in the act. 
They pretend to have been forced into Gift's service, but I know them 
well, and earnestly request that they will not be permitted to return to 
Appalachicola." 

The enemy captured Andrew McCormick, Sergeant of 
Company F, Bouneau's battalion, Napoleon Terry and Louis 



622 THE CONFEDERATE STATES NAVY. 

Gay, privates, and Joseph Sire, Captain after-guard of the 
Chattahoochee. 

Before Midshipman DeBlanc and his command retreated 
to the swamps, he sent Thomas McLean, Anthony Murray, 
and James Anderson, citizens of Appalachicola, with a supply 
of provisions to search the islands along the coast for Lieut. 
Gift and his two boats' crews. The relief party found the 
wrecked crews, and as soon as the storm abated they returned 
with them to Appalachicola, where they learned for the first 
time that their comrades had been driven from the town. 
Lieut. Gift then hastened up the river to avoid the enemy, 
who were searching the islands for him. He carried his boat 
some distance up the river, then sank it in a bayou and 
traveled over-land with his command until he joined the re- 
mainder of his party above the obstructions in the Appalachi- 
cola River. 

Upon the abandonment of the river by the Confederates 
the Chattahoochee was destroyed, together with the iron-clad 
gunboat Columbus, which had been building for a long time 
at Columbus, Ga., under the direction of Lieut. Andrew Mc- 
Laughlin. A torpedo boat, nearly completed, was also 
destroyed at Columbus, together with the navy-yard, machine 
shops, etc. 



CHAPTER XX 
GEORGIA AVATERS. 



FROM the time South Carolina seceded to the secession 
of Georgia on January 19th, 1861, the relations of the 
States with one another were peaceful. Neither the 
Federal government, nor any competent authority, had 
recognized the existence of a breach between sections of the 
Republic outside of the competency of Congress and the Ex- 
ecutive to heal. But day by day, Mr. Seward was piloting 
the country with accelerating rapidity towards the " red 
battle " issue which he declared would be the last act of his 
"irrepressible conflict." 

The first act that paved the way for open hostilities be- 
tween members of a confederation which, only a few months 
before, were bound together by ties it was fondly hoped could 
never be sundered, was the uncalled-for, unwarrantable, 
and illegal seizure of the property of Savannah merchants 
in the harbor of New York. This grave and momentous 
event in the progress toward civil war and military despot- 
ism, occurred as early as the 22d of January, 1801. On that 
day the republican Governor of New York assumed the re- 
sponsibility of ordering the police of New York City to in- 
vade vessels lying in the harbor, and to seize upon such wares 
as, in their discretion, they might deem to be '"contraband 
of war." Superintendent Kennedy proceeded on board the 
steamer Monticello, at Pier 13, North River, and seized 
twenty-eight cases of merchandise, which were found to con- 
tain 950 muskets. The seizure created the greatest excite- 
ment in Savannah, to which port the Monticello was bound, 
and immediately afterwards, ex-Senator Robert Toombs, of 
Georgia, addressed a telegraphic dispatch to the Mayor of 
New York, protesting against what had been done, and 
alluding to the inevitable consequences of such lawlessness. 
Mayor Wood disavowed participation in it, and declared 
that it met with his own disapproval, and was reprobated 
by the vast majority of the people of the city of New York. 

(623) 



624 THE CONFEDERATE STATES NAVY. 

In a few days another dispatch was received by telegraph 
by Governor Morgan of New York, from Governor Brown of 
Georgia. The latter simply demanded that the property be- 
longing to his citizens should be handed over to G. B. Lamar, 
the president of the Bank of the Republic. Governor Morgan 
replied by sending back a telegraphic answer that the subject 
was too grave a one to reply to cursorily, and that he must 
wait a more detailed communication from Governor Brown 
by mail, before giving it his attention. " This was, of course," 
says the New York Herald, of February 10th, 1861, " equiva- 
lent to an endorsement of the robbery which the Metropolitan 
police had committed, with an attempt at evasion, and to gain 
time, similar to those which have characterized every public 
leader of the Seward school of Massachusetts politics, since 
the beginning of the crisis under which the country is laboring. " 

In retaliation for the illegal seizure by the New York 
police, under pretence that they were contraband of war, of 
goods belonging to individuals of that State, the authorities 
of Georgia, on February 9th, seized, in Savannah, the barks 
D. Colden Murraij, the W. R. Kibby, Golden Lead and Ad- 
juster, and the schooner Julia A. Hallock. They were the 
property of citizens of New York. This was tlie first act of 
reprisal at the South, against aggression in the non-slave- 
holding States, and it was tantamount to a decree of non- 
intercourse. 

"Every sober-minded, intellif?ent, patriotic American citizen [said 
the New York Herald] will be startled and alarmed by it, and will shrink 
back with horror from the prospect of blood, carnage and internecine 
strife which it threatens to inaugurate. Gov. Brown will find an abund- 
ant justification of the act he has ordered, in the responsibilities of his 
position, and in the necessity of indemnifying private citizens, who are 
his constituents, for an unwarrantable robbery committed by our police, 
for which they could obtain no other redress. It is the very nearest thing 
to the beginning of a civil war; but let the blame rest where it belongs, 
upon the Republican Executive of the State of New York, whose atrocious 
usurpation of powers that do not belong to him has led to such a sad 
result." 

The seizure of the vessels by the authorities of Georgia 
also created considerable excitement in Washington among all 
parties. In the House of Representatives, Hon. John Cochrane 
offered a resolution calling on the Secretary of the Treasury for 
information on the subject, but the proposition was objected 
to and it went over to the following Monday. In the mean- 
time, later in the day, the arms w^ere restored to the agent of 
the owners, or it was said they were, and the vessels seized in 
Savannah were released. On the 23d of February Supt. Ken- 
nedy refused to give up ten cases of the merchandise referred 
to, until the legality of the seizure was determined by the 
'•proper tribunals." This unjustifiable act roused the ire of the 
Georgians, and Gov. Brown showed their spirit of retaliation 
by holding three vessels belonging to New York, as a surety 



THE CONFEDERATE STATES NAVY. G25 

for the safe return of their property which they contended had 
been taken from them without any just cause or reason. The 
vessels seized were the ship Martha J. Ward, bark Adjuster 
and bark Harold. In consequence of the cargo of the bark 
Adjuster belonging to the subjects of Great Britain, she was 
released, but the other vessels seized in reprisal by the Georgia 
authorities were advertised to be sold on the 25th of March. In 
the meantime, on March U»th. in consideration of the release of 
the arms by the New York police, the vessels seized in Savan- 
nah were released. ' 

At the release of the arms in the keeping of the police of 
New York, the U. S. revenue officers instituted a strict sur- 
veillance over vessels leaving that port to prevent provisions, 
ammunition and weapons of war from being forwarded to the 
Southern States, and to stop suspected vessels that it was 
thought might engage in privateering for the Confederacy. 
The Secretary of the Treasury, in May, gave orders to the 
Collector of St. Louis to examine the manifests of all vessels 
sailing South, and Collector Barney of New York, and the col- 
lectors of all ports north of the Potomac, were ordered to make 
a careful examination of every vessel leaving their respective 
ports. In this way a complete blockade was maintained in all 
the collection districts. The revenue cutter Harriet Lane was 
at first used for this purpose at the port of New York, but hav- 
ing been called away, in accordance with the proclamation of 
Mr. Lincoln, to assist in the blockade of the Southern ports, it 
became necessary to procure other vessels. Collector Barney 
therefore impressed into the revenue service three of the ves- 
sels engaged in the U. S. coast survey. These were located at 
three different points to command the several outlets from the 
harbor of New York. The Vixen was placed in Throgg's Neck 
and guarded the passage from the East River into Long Island 
Sound. On an average 120 vessels passed this point every day 
during the flood tide in May, 1801. and each of these had to be 
boarded and have their papers examined. The Corivin was 
stationed inside the Narrows, where all the large steamers and 
vessels of extensive tonnage pass out into the ocean. At least 
fifty vessels a day were boarded at this point. The Bihh was 

1 The following is a copy of a letter sent by The before-mentioned indemnity read as fol- 

the owners of the Martha J. Ward to Mr. Ken- lows : 

nedy which helped to bring about the desired i^ consideration that John A. Kennedy will, 

result : ^^ ^^^j. i.e^^ygt^ deliver ui? ten eases of arms 

J. A. Kennedy, Esq.: seized on board the steamer Monticello, a.\i(i. in 

Dear Sir: We are the owners of the ship consideration of one dollar to us paid, we here- 

Marlha J.Ward, now under seizure at Savannah, by agree to pay all costs and damages and ex- 

as stated, in reprisal for the arms seized by you. penses that may be recovered against him for 

We have made every effort to save our isroperty, such seizure. Dated this 15th day of March, 

valued at over S46,000 and find that without 1861. j E. Ward & Co. 

your Iriendly aid, we shall be unable to do so, 

and must submit to such enormous sacrifice. The above indemnity was required of the 

If, in consideration of our iinfortunate position, owners of the sXiv^ Martha J. Ward by Suijerin- 

you will deliver the arms to us, we will indem- ten'dent Kennedy. Upon giving it, the arms 

nify you against all damages and costs which were delivered to the owners of the ship, who 

may be recovered against you for such seizure. transmitted them to Savannah to be delivered 

James E. Ward & Co. to Governor Brown. 
40 



636 THE CONFEDERATE STATES NAVY. 

located at the mouth of the Raritan River, in tlie vicinity of 
Perth Amboy, and prevented all suspicious looking vessels 
from passing through Kill von Kull. No vessel was permitted 
to pass without having a proper clearance, and also undergo- 
ing an examination, where it was deemed necessary. The 
surveyor also detailed officers to visit daily every vessel lying 
at the wharves, and report the appearance of affairs every 
twenty-four hours. In addition to this a coast-guard was de- 
tailed on botli sides of the river to prevent the loading of ves- 
sels at night, and no vessel was allowed to leave between sun- 
set and sunrise. The steam tug Mercury was employed to ply 
between New York and the revenue cutters. ' 

These precautions were forced upon the Federal govern- 
ment by the necessity of intercepting the very profitable trade 
in war material for the South that was being carried on by 
manufacturers, merchants and shippers in the North, who 
suffered from an obsession of their "'loyalty to the old flag" 
that was coincident with the offer of Southern agents to pay 
remunerative prices for anything in the line of guns, ammu- 
nition, or army goods that might be useful to the nascent 
Southern Confederacy. 

" We have been accustomed [says Judge Cowley], to berate the 
commercial classes of Grreat Britain lor exporting goods to the Confeder- 
ate States in violation of the blockade; but probably more goods were 
carried into the Confederate States through the instrumentality of mer- 
chants in the United States than by all the merchants of Europe. More 
secrecy was observed by those residing in New York who engaged in the 
business than was observed in running the blockade of Mexico; but it is 
none the less true that in the civil war, as in the Mexican war, the muni- 
tions of war were furnished in very large quantities by the citizens of the 
United States to the enemies of the United States." ' 

Mr. Greeley's well-known lament, in "The American 
Conflict," over the greed of New York commercial men who 

1 The following is a complete list of the vessels mond. D. & W. Currie & Co.; 20, bark Nonim- 

owned or partly owned bj' residents of the South- bega, New York, J. H. Brewer & Co.; 21, bark 

ei-u States which were seized by Surveyor An- Wiuefred, Richmond, J. Currie & Co.; 22, bark 

drews. of the joort of New York, in accordance General Green, Charles'n, W. G. Armstrong ; 23, 

with the U. S. Confiscation Act of July 13th, bark Pioneer, Kichniond, E. D. Vosa & Co.; 

1861: 24, brig Leni, Alexandria, Lambert ; 25, brig 

No. 1, steamer Marion, belonging to New York; Cyrus Starr, 26, brig Champion, Pictou, N. S.. J. 
ownei's or consignees, Spofford, Tileston A: Co.; 2, Ketchune ; 27, brig Fannie Currie, Richmond, 
steamer Roanoke, New York, N. Y. & Va. S.S. Co.; J. Currie ; 28, schooner Emily Kieth, New Or- 
3, ship Ohio, N. Bedford. E. Howland ; 4, ship leans, J. B Lockwood ; 29, schooner Ned, New 
J. W. Fannin, New York, J. H. Brower & Co.; 5, York, E. a Powell; 30, schooner Marshall. Rich- 
ship W.B.Travis, New York, J. H. Brower&Co.; mond, J. Curry, 31, schooner Crenshaw, Rich- 
6, ship Wm. H. Wharton, New York, J. H. Brow- mond, D. & W. Currie & Co.; 32, schooner Man- 
er & Co.; 7, ship Crest of the Wave, Thomaston, Chester, Richmond, D. & W. Currie & Co ; 33, 
M. R. Ludwig ; 8, ship St. Charles, New York, schooner Lynchburgh, Richmond, D. & W. 
W. T. Frost; 9, shr\) Harriett, Boston, H. L. Currie & Co.; 34, schooner Haxall, Richmond, 
Richardson & Co.; 10, ship Roger A. Hiern, New D. I't W. Currie & Co.; 35, schooner Forest King, 
York, J. & N. Smith & Co.; 11, ship Trumbull, Fairhaven. Fish, Robbins & Co.: 36, schooner 
New York, J. &N. SmithiSi Co.; 12, ship North Claremont. New York, H. Finch & Co ; 37, 
Carolina, Norfolk, Hardy Bro.; 13, bark Clai-a schooner Ha'h M. Johnson, Greenport, John 
Haxall, Richmond, J. Currie & Co.; 14, bark Wells. Recapitulation: Steamers, 2; ships, 10; 
Virginian, Richmond, D. Ciirrie ; 15, bark Sally barks, 11 ; Brigs, 3 ; Schooners, 11. Aggregate 
Magee. Richmond, D. Currie & Co.; l(i, bark value, $750,000. 
Mary Lucretia. New York, J. T. B. Maxwell ; 17, 

bark Bounding Billow, Boston, A. Pickering iV: 2 " Leaves from a Lawyer's Life Afloat and 

Co.; 18, bark Fame; 19, bark Parthian, Rich- Ashore," p. 112. 



THE CONFEDERATE STATES NAVY. 627 

sacrificed, patriotism to pelf, lends additional force to the observ- 
ations of Judge Cowley in the same line of comment. These 
dealings by Northern men in war material consigned to South- 
ern ports were so open and flagrant early in 1861 that they were 
denounced by Judge Smalley, then presiding in the U. S. Cir- 
cuit Court for New York. On January 14th, in charging the 
Grand Jury for the term, he delivered an address which has 
not been preserved in any history of the war written from a 
Northern standpoint, perhaps because it was too scathing a 
criticism of the traffic which it became convenient to forget 
when contractors afterwards found the most lucrative market 
in their engagements with the War and Navy Departments of 
the Federal administration. He spoke of their earlier busi- 
ness as embodying "the highest crime known to the law of 
any civilized country " — that of high treason — in furnishing 
aid and comfort to an enemy in rebellion against the govern- 
ment; and he extended the charge so far as to include within 
the offence of misprision of treason all persons who, knowing 
of the shipments of war material to the States which had se- 
ceded, failed to give information thereof to the Federal au- 
thorities. It is plain that he meant to throw out a drag-net 
in which he might catch the money-seekers to whom Georgia 
and other Southern States were so much indebted, but he 
failed to intimidate them. They continued to sell the South 
whatever it wanted until the firing upon Fort Sumter drew 
the line against their Southern business, and then they plunged, 
with equal eagerness, tlieir arms elbow-deep into the over- 
flowing treasury at Washington. ' 

Georgia — the ''Empire State of the South" — was far re- 
moved from the theatre of battle until the war was six months' 
old. In the meantime she had sent thousands of fighting men 
to the armies under Beauregard and Johnston in Virginia, 
but had scarcely given to the establishment of a naval force 
the consideration that it deserved. Her ordinance of secession 
was passed on January 19th, 1861; but, by the order of Gov- 
ernor Joseph E. Brown, the State troops took possession of 
Fort Pulaski, a casemate and barbette fortification at the 
mouth of the Savannah River, on January 7th, and within the 
next three weeks all tlie U. S. military posts in Georgia were 
surrendered by the officers in charge of them without inviting 
the compulsion of shot and shell that was used in the argu- 
ment with Major Anderson at Fort Sumter. The only U. S. 

1 Charles Hallock, in an article on " Bermuda from New York labelled ' Paris,' and good old 

and the Blockade," in the Galaxy for April, Irish whiskey from New Jersey; for there were 

1867, speaking of the blockade trade at Ber- many articles that could be purchased cheaper 

muda, says : " British goods were always in in the United States than in Euroije, and the 

great demand for the blockade-runners, for laws of trade are inflexible — • the longest pole 

they would have no dealings with Yankees. breaks down the most persimmons.' And so 

Accordingly, in the shops could be found bush- quantities of the goods found place in blockade 

els of Connecticut pins and cases of Massachu- cargoes, to the great x^rofit of shrewd sjjecu- 

setts shoes marked 'London,' elegant felt hats lators at the North." 



628 THE CONFEDERATE STATES NAVY. 

vessel in the port of Savannah was the revenue cutter ./. C. Dob- 
hiti, which on the night of January 1st was seized by a party 
of citizens of Savannah dressed in civic clothes, but armed 
with muskets and revolvers. They announced to the officer 
in charge that they had come to take the vessel in the name 
of the State of Georgia; as they numbered ten times as many 
as his crew he made no resistance, and they raised the Pal- 
metto flag, saluted it, sent the officers and crew below and 
closed the hatches on them, and finally ran the vessel ashore. 
The leader in the seizure was C. A. Greiner. who afterwards 
went North, and on April 39tli was arrested in Philadelphia 
on a charge of having committed treason in the Dobbin affair 
and in the subsequent capture of Fort Pulaski by the State 
troops. 

Succeeding this incident it was not until the advent of 
Commodore Josiah Tatnall at Savannah, that public and offi- 
cial attention was seriously turned toward naval affairs. ^ 
Then the presence of an officer who had attained the highest 
rank in the U. S. navy, compelled the authorities and the peo- 
ple to think of what Georgia might do toward fighting the 
battles of the Confederacy on water as well as on land. On 
February 28th, Governor Brown accepted the tender of the ser- 
vices of Commodore Tatnall to his native State, and appointed 
him senior flag-officer in the navy of Georgia, which does not 
appear then to have consisted of a ship or a gun. Tatnall's 
commission was merely honorary until March, when he was 
appointed a commander in the provisional navy of the Con- 
federate States, and assigned to the command of whatever 
navy existed or might be created in the waters of Georgia and 
South Carolina. He was expected to form a marine force un- 
der the Confederate flag, and with the material which he could 
reach it was a task almost akin to making bricks without 
straw. He eventually got together a semblance of a naval 
flotilla by arming a river steamer and a few small tugs that 
were lying idle at the Savannah wharves with whatever guns 
he could pick up; and with this " Mosquito Fleet," as it was 
called, he went into action against the massive frigates and 
heavy gunboats of the enemy at the battle of Port Royal, only 

1 Josiali Tatnall was born at tbe family estate nean. In 1828 lie was assigned to tbe corvette 
of Bonaventure, near Savannah, November 9th, Erie of the West India squadron, after which 
1795, and was appointed midshipman in the he made the surveys of the site of fortifications 
U. S. navy, Ai^ril Ist, 1812, and in August was or- on the Tortugas Eeef, and in 1831 took com- 
dered to the frigate Coiisfflhition. He partici- mand of the schooner Grampus. In 1835 he 
pated in tbe rejiulse of the British boat expe- escorted back to Mexico Gen. Santa Anna, who 
dition by the battery on Craney Island, below had been captured by the Texaus, and turned 
Norfolk, which was manned by seamen, June over to the U. S. government. Three years later 
22d, 1813, and subsequently served on the Eper- he was commissioned commander, and placed in 
vier. Constellation and Ontario, all attached to charge of the Boston navy-yard, from which 
the Mediterranean squadron. In Ajiril, 1818, he was detached to command the corvette 
he was promoted lieutenant, and assigned to Fairfield; then to the Saratoga, and in 1846 to 
the frigate Macedonian on the Pacific Station. the steam gunboat Spitfire, on which he served 
In 1823 he was first lieutenant of the schooner d\iring the war with Mexico. After being again 
Jackal in Commodore Porter's squadron, ope- for two years in command of tbe Boston navy- 
rating against the jiirates in the West Indies. yard be was made captain in 1850, and ordered to 
and from 1824 to 1826, was on duty on the the steam frigate Saranac. Between that year 
Constitution and Brandyimne in the Mediterra- and 1857 he also commanded the Independence 



THE CONFEDERATE STATES NAVY. 629 

to be forced to retire before the swift and strong ships which 
Commodore Dupont had sent to cut off or destroy his flotilla, ' 
but which failed to execute the duty with which they were en- 
trusted. It was the one great draw^back to the completeness 
of the Federal victory at Port Royal that Tatnall did not per- 
mit his squadron to be captured, but preserved it intact for 
future operations. His instructions from the Navy Depart- 
ment at Richmond, were to "distribute" it along the coast 
from Port Royal to the sounds south of the mouth of the Sa- 
vannah River, with the special purpose of rendering assist- 
ance to vessels expected from England with munitions of war 
for the Confederacy; but as there were many more sounds 
than he had vessels, it does not appear on record that he w^as 
able to " distribute'' his force sufficiently to aid any of the in- 
coming steamers. 

Their success at Port Royal enabled the Federals to run 
their light-draft gunboats into the sounds, rivers, inlets and 
bays that intervene between the Sea Islands and the mainland 
of South Carolina and Georgia, on the approaches to which the 
Confederates had established earthworks without having 
either the men or guns sufficient to arm them. Expeditions 
were sent through Ossabaw, Warsaw. St, Helena and Cum- 
berland Sounds all the way down to Fernandina, and as the 
Confederates had no means of opposing the passage of these 
squadrons, they retired from their weak fortifications as the 
enemy drew nigh, and soon the latter were in possession of 
the whole coast line southward from Port Royal except Sa- 
vannah and the entrances thereto. Not being then pre- 
pared to attack the forts — Pulaski, Jackson and Causton — 
protecting the Savannah River, they advanced only as far 
as Tybee Island, at the embouchure of the river, which 
was occupied on November 24th. by Commodore John 
Rodgers, with a squadron embracing the steamers Pocahon- 
tas, Seneca, Flag and Augusta, mounting in all about 40 
guns, including 11-inch shell guns, and 6-inch rifles. The re- 
port of Flag-officer Dupont to Secretary Welles states that 
Rodgers was sent to make " a preliminary examination of the 
bars, and for the determination of the most suitable place for 
sinking the proposed obstructions to the navigation of the 

a,iia the naval station on the lakes. In the chanan as commander of the naval defence of 
latter year he was created tlag-officer, and as- Virginia in Marclj, 18(52, but returned to Georgia 
sumed command of the naval forces in the in July, and in March, 1863, was relieved from 
East India and China seas. He assisted the the command afloat and limited to shore duty 
English and French allied squadrons in their at the Savannah Station, and the work of naval 
attack on the Chinese forts at the mouth of construction. He was paroled as a i^risoner of 
the Pei-ho, June 25th. 1859, and the next year war May 9th, 1865, and from 1866 to 1870 
hrought the Japanese Ambassadors to the resided in Nova Scotia, near Halifax. He then 
United States. He was in command of the returned to Savannah in much reduced cir- 
naval station at Sackett's Harbor, N. Y., when cumstances, and the city created for him the 
Georgia seceded, and resigning from the U. S. office of Inspector of the Port, at a salary of 
navy was, on February 28th, 1801, appointed $1,200 yearly. His death occurred June 14th, 
senior flag-olficer of the navy of the State of 1871. 
Georgia In March he accepted a commis- 
sion as captain in the C. S. navy and the com- i See for particulars of Tatnall's fleet the nar- 
mand of the naval defence of Georgia and rative of the battle of Port Royal in chapter 
South Carolina. He succeeded Admiral liu- ui)on South Carolina Waters. 



630 THE CONFEDERATE STATES NAVY. 

river." He was instructed to push his reconnoissance so far as 
*• to form an approximate estimate of the force on Tybee Island, 
and of the possibility of gaining access to the inner bar." He 
found the island abandoned, and placed a detachment in the only 
fortified position, a martello tower, with a battery at its base, 
but his vessels went no further up the stream: as, to use the 
language of Dupont. "'the rebels themselves have placed 
sufficient obstructions in the river at Fort Pulaski, and thus by 
the co-operation of their own fears with our efforts the harbor 
of Savannah is effectually closed," 

The occupation of Tybee Island was not so uneventful as 
the Federal naval commander represents it. Accounts printed 
in the Savannah papers state that the enemy first shelled the 
martello tower and the battery, and obtaining no response, 
sent several hundred men in a long train of boats on shore. 
After dark, Captain Read, C. S, A., commanding a company of 
Irish volunteers in Fort Pulaski, crossed over to Tybee with a 
squad of his men with the intention of burning the hospital, 
but found the Federals too numerous around it to warrant him 
in making the attempt. They were hunting for cotton and 
rice, with which they expected to pay the expenses of the ex- 
pedition; as they are said to have done at Port Royal and Beau- 
fort, where the}^ captured a very large quantity of these com- 
modities. Captain Read burned the rice and cotton on several 
plantations, and withdrew in safety to Cockspur Island, on 
which Fort Pulaski is situated. Commodore TatnalFs four 
steamers laid in Cockspur Roads near the fort, and on the.2Gth 
he slipped his cables, and running down within range of the 
enemy's gunboats, o[)ened fire upon them. As they came on he 
slowly moved backward, hoping to draw them within reach of 
the guns of Pulaski, but they perceived his purpose and with- 
drew from the engagement when they w^ere still too far distant 
from the fort for any of its shot to reach them. The skirmish 
between Tatnall and the foe continued for an hour, and some 
forty or fifty shots were exchanged, but the fire was ineffective 
on either side. For several days afterwards the Federal gun- 
boats pitched shells at long range towards Pulaski, but on 
December 3d they evacuated Tybee and sailed to the north- 
w^ard, thus relieving the apprehensions which prevailed at 
Savannah, that an attack upon the city was meditated then. 
It was so fully expected that the Federal fleet would attempt 
to fight its way up the river that every preparation w^as made 
to receive it. General Robert E. Lee, then an engineer officer 
in the military department, visited all the works, attended 
personally to strengthening them and the posting of the garri- 
sons, and made ready for the anticipated combat, but the 
Federals had accomplished the business upon which they were 
then bent and which did not include any serious fighting. 

On December 20th TatnalFs squadron — consisting of the 
steamers Savannah, flag-ship, Commodore Tatnall ; Resohitey 



THE CONFEDERATE STATES NAVY. 631 

Commander Jones ; Sampson, Commander Kennard ; the Ida, 
and Bartow — made an excursion down the river which is not 
recorded except in the biography of the Commodore, prepared 
by Charles C. Jones, Jr. " With the view," the author says, 
"to testing the range of some rifle guns lately received on the 
station, and to afford his men some practice, the Commodore 
attacked with his flotilla the enemy's blockading vessels then 
lying in the mouth of the Savannah River. Retiring before 
his fire, the enemy stood out to sea. After a pursuit of several 
miles, and having demonstrated the inefficient character of 
the guns, the Confederate flotilla returned to its anchorage." 

The business which had brought the Federals to Tybee, 
and which is alluded to in Commodore Dupont's report already 
quoted from, was a part of the scheme of the Federal govern- 
ment to permanently obstruct the entrances to several Southern 
ports, of which Savannah was one. by sinking in the channels 
the hulks of whaling ships bought from the thrifty mariners 
of the decadent Massachusetts ports. One portion of " the 
stone fleet" was dispatched to Savannah after the reconnois- 
sances by Commander Rodgers' boats had indicated the places 
at wliicli the hulks should be sunk to obstruct the entrances to 
the harbor. The plan pursued was the same at Savannah as 
at Cliarleston. The blockaders had failed to effectually close 
these ports, and the notion of sealing them up by sinking ships 
in the channels was the desperate expedient to which Mr. 
Lincoln's government resorted. To Savannah were sent some 
twenty of the hulks, w^hich, after being loaded with stone, 
were scuttled in the river near Tybee and in the navigable 
water courses adjacent. This method of compensation for 
the deficiencies of the legal blockade commanded immense 
approbation at the North, and was somewhat more sucessful 
at Savannah than at Charleston.' What effect it produced 
upon the great maritime powers of Europe has been spoken of 
elsewhere in this work. The hulks sunk around Savannah 
barred egress and ingress for a time, but in the end they were 
washed out or burrowed deep in the sands, and the channels 
were once more opened. 

The campaign afloat and ashore in the Savannah vicinage 
grew brisk as the old year gave way to the new. After the 
Federals had closed up the river they were intent upon dis- 
covering a route into it above its mouth from Port Royal by 
way of the inside passages, their primary aim being to take 
Fort Pulaski in the rear. On Christmas day 18G1. an exploring 

1 " And if there be any more practical water seaboard cities of the South shall have been 

approaches to Savannah, they can be treated in closed up. The rebels will soon begin to re- 

the same way. This done, there will be no need alize that the wiping out of all their seaboard 

for vessels of our blockading squadron to be towns, the annihilation of their commerce, and 

kept on duty there. A gunboat or two. to look the general distress and ruin which they have 

in occasionally to see that there is no iuterfer- brought upon themselves, make their secession 

ence with the barricade, is all that will be whistle altogether too expensive an affair, 

necessary. The work then commenced will be Fools must be treated according to their folly." 

continued until the water channels to all the — jV. I'. Herald, Sov. 29lh. 



632 THE CONFEDERATE STATES NAVY. 

expedition, under command of Lieut. Wilson, chief of the U.S. 
corps of Topograpliical Engineers, started from Hilton Head 
and pushed through Calibogue Sound and the creeks back of 
Dawfuskie, Turtle and Jones Islands, until they came out into 
the Savannah River between Fort Pulaski and the city. On 
the strength of their report of the practicability of the route 
a stronger party was sent down to survey it. They found that 
the entrances of the inlets into the river had been obstructed 
by barriers of piles which must be removed before the gunboats 
could get through. This was attempted by putting at the work 
first a number of men who, obscured from the Confederate 
sentinels by the tall reeds that grew thick and rank in the 
marsh, sawed off piles near the edge of the water. Then light 
draft steamers equipped with derricks and windlasses were 
brought up, and under cover of the night they fastened chains 
around the piles and dragged them up. They had nearly 
cleared the passage before they were detected, but they were 
finally observed by a sentry on duty at Pulaski. Word was sent 
to Commodore Tatnall, who came down to the mouth of Wright 
River with three gunboats and with a few shells drove off their 
working parties. ^ 

Thus foiled on the north side of the Savannah River, the 
Federals went to the south side and discovered a new' passage 
leading from Warsaw Sound through Wilmington River and 
St. Augustine Creek to the Savannah just below Fort Jackson; 
and Dupont and Sherman mutually concluded that this was 
the avenue that was most accessible for the consummation of 
their project of reducing Fort Pulaski. Tatnall had foreseen 
that an attack on the interior lines of communication would be 
made, and, besides holding his squadron in readiness, he gave 
his aid to the construction of a battery on a small island oppo- 
site Fort Jackson, which, in honor of Dr. Cheves, who super- 
intended its erection, was called Battery Cheves. A part 
of its armament consisted of some long 32-pounder ship's 
guns furnished by the Navy Department from the Norfolk 
navy-yard upon the requisition of the Commodore. This 
work enfiladed the approach by the river channel above Fort 
Pulaski and its tenure and defence were confided to the 
navy. Fire-rafts were also prepared, at Tatnall's suggestion, 
and placed in the Savannah near Fort Jackson. One of these 
rafts was completed by Christmas, on which clay it, without 
being ignited, floated down to the Tybee beach, near the 
Federal position, where its appearance was explained by 
a deserter from the Confederate lines, who, on coming into 
the Federal camp, announced that lie had cut its moorings 
and allowed it to go down with the ebb tide. 

1 This is til e version of the affair published Northern paper from an incautious letter written 
■by the Savannah papers, but according to a by a Federal army officer to a relative exposed 
statement contributed by Lient. Thomas Hall, the scheme to the Confederates. Official re- 
Flag-officer Dupont'.s chief signal officer, to the ports that might be useful in clearing away the 
" Aunals of the War," a publication made in a doubt are lacking. 



THE CONFEDERATE STATES NAVY. 633 

The attack on Fort Pulaski was not, however, attempted 
.as soon as the Federals opened an inside passage. It had to 
wait upon the designs of Commodore Dupont to take possession 
of Fernandina bv the route which carried him across the Sa- 
vannah River to cross into Warsaw Sound. On January 26th, 
1862. Fleet Capt. Charles H. Davis and Commander C. P. R. 
Rodgers. with the gunboats Ottawa, Seneca, Isaac Smith. Po- 
tom>ska, Ellen and Western World and the armed launches of 
the frigate Wabash, accompanied by transports conveying 
2.400 troops under the command of Gen. Horatio G. Wright, 
passed into the Tybee, and as it was supposed by the Confed- 
erates that they meant to attempt a dash upon Fort Pulaski, 
the garrison and the squadron were put in order to resist them. 
On the 27th, Davis' gunboats came to anchor in Tybee Roads 
within sight of the Confederate flotilla, which stood off in con- 
tiguity to the fort. Davis had no intention of bringing on an 
engagement at the time, and the Confederates probably would 
not have provoked it if tliey had known that Fort Pulaski was 
not immediately to be besieged. But under the belief that the 
fort and the safety of Savannah were threatened, it became of 
the utmost impDrtance that the garrison in the fort should be 
provisioned for a long siege. It could not be denied that the 
possession by the enemy of the interior water courses virtu- 
ally isolated the fort, and that it must either surrender or be 
defended against the Federal sliips and the batteries which the 
Federals had established on Tybee Island after their return to 
it about the middle of January. When Davis' squadron seemed 
to menace it provisions were running short, and the quantity 
of ammunition in the magazines was so small that it could not 
hold out against a siege unless the commissariat was replen- 
ished and a new supply of powder, shot, shell, etc., brought in. 
Commodore Tatnall was requested to convoy a six months' 
stock of provisions and ammunition to the fort, and undertook 
to execute the task. He started down the river on January 
28th with his flagship the Savannah, the steamer Resolute, 
Capt. Jones, and the steamer Sampson, Capt. Kennard, escort- 
ing the steamer Ida, steamer Bartow and a scow laden with 
the desired supplies. They were placed in a very peculiar po- 
sition as they neared Fort Pulaski. On the northern side of 
the Savannah River was the Federal squadron commanded by 
Capt. John Rodgers, and on the south side that commanded 
by Capt. Davis, both of which had their guns trained upon the 
channel through which Tatnall must run down to the fort. 
The distance between the two Federal squadrons was not over 
three miles, and without any great elevation their guns would 
carry across the marshy islands which intervened. For Tat- 
nall it was a veritable running of a gauntlet, in which the 
chances were a hundred to one against his gunboats and their 
convoy reaching the fort without being cut to pieces or sunk. 
"That they escaped such a fate was due to the blunder of the 



634 THE CONFEDERATE STATES NAVY. 

Federals in foregoing the advantage which they had in hand^ 
in the hope of destroying the whole Confederate squadron at 
one blow. Tatnall's order of movement down the river was- 
with the transports in advance and the armed steamers a short 
distance in the rear. He passed within range of the Federal 
fleet without a shot being fired at him, Davis and Rodgers evi- 
dently supposing that after they had let him get below they 
would run into the Savannah River, cut him off from the city, 
and easily capture or sink all his vessels by their superior 
force. But Tatnall did not propose to be caught that way. 
After the transports were beyond the range of the Federal 
guns he left the Sampson to accompany them to the wharf of 
Fort Pulaski and headed the Savannah and the Resolute back 
up stream toward the enemy's ships. It will be understood 
without further explanation that he was prepared to venture 
a fight with these two feeble vessels against the thirteen gun- 
boats of the squadrons of Davis and Rodgers in order to pro- 
tect the SanijJson and her convoy. As he proceeded up the 
river again the enemy attacked him ferociously, Davis on the 
left and Rodgers on tlie right, and the singular spectacle was 
presented of a triangular naval engagement in'which the three 
squadrons concerned were each in a different river, and each, 
in order to reach the enemy, was obliged to fire across land. 
Says the Savannah Republican of January 29th : 

"No sooner had the two steamers turned then* bows up stream, than 
the Federal fleets, seeing they were about to be cheated, opened a terrific 
fire upon them, winch was gallantly returned. A regular battle ensued, 
and for forty minutes the shot and shell rained around our little fleet, the 
latter often exploding directly over them, and the solid shot passing within 
a few feet of the men on deck. The fleetkept up a return fire with its rifled 
cannon and other guns of long range, but with what effect could not be 
asceitained over the wide space of marsh that intervened on either side. 
Many of the enemy's shot passed some distance over and beyond our ves- 
sels. Strange as it may appeal', not a vessel or man on our side was dam- 
aged. The fleet rode safely through the fire, and the fort is now fully 
provisioned for six months. * * * The return trip of the Sampson 
and the two unarmed steamers was as perilous as that of their predeces- 
sors. The Yankee fleets poured their iron hail and fire upon the little 
craft, but with all steam up and hurling defiant shots at the enemy in re- 
turn, they passed gallantly for two miles or more under the missiles of the 
enemy. * * * The *S'a;«7:>.yo/?, passed through a terrible ordeal, but 
without serious damage. She was struck by four Englisli rifled shells, two 
passing through her, a third lodging on her deck, and a fourth exploding 
in her store-room, bi'eaking up things around generally, but damaging 
no one. Her machinery was unhurt and she plowed gallantly through. 
In good time they all came up to their wharves and were welcomed by 
the immense crowds that filled up the dock and balconies, throughout 
the day." 

A small torpedo corps had been organized and had 
planted some torpedoes in the channels navigated by the Fed- 
eral gunboats, but they failed to inflict any harm upon the 
enemy. Several were discovered on February 13th. by Lieut. 
Bankhead, in charge of boats surveying the river, who at first 



THE CONFEDERATE STATES NAVY. 



635' 



supposed them to be empty tin cans. A further examination 
satisfied him as to their real nature. They were buoyed in 
the stream and connected by wires. Each can contained 
thirty pounds of powder, and five cans were set in battery, 




MAP 

SHO^^T^iTr THE CEtXSCES QZ 

SATAHTfAIEr 

WILBINCTON wiD SAVANNAH RIVERS, 

CEORCIA. 



the group being connected by wires. The firing apparatus 
was a friction tube leading from the head of the can into the 
powder chamber. The arrangement was very defective, for 
Federal gunboats and launches passed over the torpedo line 
before it was discovered, without causing an explosion. 



•G36 THE CONFEDERATE STATES NAVY. 

The enemy improved the time by constructing on the 
shore of Tybee, at Venus Point, and on Oakley Island, breach- 
ing batteries for an attack on Pulaski, which had become ut- 
terly isolated. Towards the end of February, Gen. Lee, com- 
manding the military department, conferred with Tatnall 
upon the possibility of relieving the fort, and they agreed 
that it could only be accomplished by a successful assault on 
the Federal battery at ( Jakley Island — a forlorn hope in view 
of the numbers of the Federal men-of-war and troops in the 
near neighborhood. But while they did not differ in their 
judgments that the attempt would be entirely too hazardous, 
Tatnall came very near making it. The story, as told by his 
biographer, is not devoid of interest: 

"Stung [writes Mr. Jones] by some remarks attributed to Gren. 
Lee, and repeated by some one to the flag-officer, the latter determined 
to lead his entire force in open boats in an assault vipon the battery on 
Oakley Island. Early on the morning preceding the night upon which 
this assault was to be made, Gen. Lee, learning the flag-officer s determi- 
nation, called at Commodore Tatnall's quarters in the city of Savannah, 
and expressed a desire to see Capt. Tatnall of the marines, one of the 
flag-officer's aides. To this officer Gen. Lee addressed himself very 
warmly, and asked how he had best approach Commodore Tatnall in 
order t^o attempt to dissuade him from making an attack prompted per- 
haps by a wounded professional pride, and which if unsuccessful would 
leave the river approaches to the city practically open to the enemy. 
The aide responded: he believed the contemplated attack to be very des- 
perate in its character; but, as it would be his duty to accompany the 
flag-officer, such fact rendered it out of the question for him to take a step 
toward preventing its execution. Subsequently the General sent a mes- 
senger to the flag-officer asking a confidential interview. During that in- 
terview Gen. Lee gave distinct utterance to his fears for the fate of Sa- 
vannah in the event that the attack failed of the desired result. After 
hearing the General, Commodore Tatnall so far modified his plans as to 
confess himself willing to be governed by the views of such officers of the 
navy and army as he should assemble and consult in council." 

This council met on the flag-ship Savannah on February 
2Sth. It was composed of Lieuts. Commanding John Rut- 
ledge, J. S. Kennard, J. Pembroke Jones, O. F. Johnston, 
Wm. P. A. Campbell and Philip Porcher, of the navy, and 
Major Edward C. Anderson, of the artillery. They made this 
report to Tatnall: 

" Having been requested by you to express our opinion as to the ad- 
visability of an attack by the vessels of your squadron, assisted by 200 
men of the army in boats^ on the battery at Oakley Island, we I'eport as 
follows : 

'• ' The boats and vessels would be subjected to a heavy fire of grape 
and canister at short range from the battery, supported by a cross-fire 
from the gunboats and battery opposite, andwe are of the opinion that 
the result would in all probability be a failure, attended with great loss 
of life and vessels. In that event, our prf^rw/; preparations for the de- 
fence of Savannah would be thrown away, and a fearfully depressing 
moral effect produced. Should such an expedition prove fiuccessfnl, it 
would result in the spiking of a few of the enemy's guns and a slight re- 
tardation in their advance, with such a loss of men and arms on our side 
as in the result to decrease our means of defending Savannah, which we 
deem the all-important object, both on shore and afloat.' " 



THE CONFEDERATE STATES NAVY. 637 

The contemplated attack was consequently relinquished, 
and Fort Pulaski was perforce left to its fate. On the morn- 
ing of April 10th, Gen. David Hunter, the Federal commander, 
summoned Col. Charles H. Olmstead, the commander of the 
fort, to surrender. ••! am here to defend the fort, not to sur- 
render it," was the brief and plucky reply of Olmstead. He 
withstood a savage bombardment of two days, and capitulation 
was then decided upon after consultation with all the officers 
of the garrison. 

It need hardly be said that the fall of Fort Pulaski threw 
Savannah into consternation, but it produced at least the one 
good effect of stimulating the effort to provide a naval squad- 
ron that would not be so feeble as the few steamers with 
which Tatnall had performed his operations. He was sent on 
March 2oth, 1862, to Norfolk to take command of the Virginia 
after the wounding of Commodore Buchanan in the battle 
with the Monitor, and Avas succeeded at Savannah by Capt. 
Richard L. Page. The history of the work done there to 
create a formidable navy is rather one of effort than of 
achievement, but whatever were its failures they must be 
charged to the utter inability of the Confederacy to build the 
vessels designed by their constructors. 

Five Confederate steamers outside of the Mosquito Fleet 
made matter for history in the waters of Savannah. They 
were the Nashville, the Atlanta, the Georgia, the Savannah, ' 
the Macon, and the Milledgeuille. The Xashville was the first 
vessel that was commissioned as a public armed cruiser of the 
Confederate States. She was a fast side-wheel steamer and had 
been originally purchased by the Confederate government to 
convey abroad Messrs. Mason and Slidell, the envoys to Great 
Britain and France. 

In July, 1862, she ran into Savannah with a cargo of arms 
and was thenceforth blockaded until her destruction, which 
occurred eight months later during the attack of the Federal 
iron-clad fleet upon Fort McAllister. This fortification was 
situated on the Ogechee River, about sixteen miles south of 
the mouth of the Savannah River, and six miles from Ossa- 
baw Sound. It stood on the mainland directly above the 
river bank, and commanded the river for a mile and a half on 
each side. The bluff upon which it was erected was known as 
Genesis Point. In February, 1863, the Federal monitor 
Montauk was sent into the Ogechee to renew the attack upon 
the fort, at which time the Nashville was in the river waiting 
an opportunity to run to sea. The report of Capt. George W. 
Anderson, Jr., commanding Fort McAllister, dated February 
28th, and relating the events of the day, says: 

" At 7:25 A. M. three gunboats, one mortar-boat and an iron-clad came 
in sight of our batterJ^ The iron-clad anchored between 800 and 1000 

1 This ship was the iron-clad Savannah, and of the same name that served Commodore Tat- 
must be distinguished from the armed steamer nail as a flagship in the early days of the war. 



'638 THE CONFEDERATE STATES NAVY. 

yards abreast of our battery, and directed her entire fire at the Rattlesnake 
(jyashville),^ which was aground about three-fourths of a mile from her. 
* * * At 7:40 o'clock the Rattlesnake was set on fii'e— whether by her 
commander (Capt. Baker) or by the shells of the enemy, I am unable to 
say. If by Capt. Baker, I think it was entirely unnecessary, circum- 
stances not demanding her destruction." 

Capt. Baker did not deserve the implication of censure 
contained in Capt. Anderson's report. He had been seeking 
an opportunity to go to sea past the blockaders, and not think- 
ing it safe to try to evade them on the Savannah River he had 
resolved to try the Ogechee route, with the result of reaching 
Fort McAllister just as the Federal fleet were making the at- 
tack. He steamed a little to the north and west of the fort, and 
in so doing ran hard and fast aground in a position affording 
to the enemy as desirable a target as they could ask for. The 
reports of Commodore Dupont and of Capt. Worden, the com- 
mander of the Montauk, are fairly descriptive of her destruc- 
tion, although, in obedience to the virulent and absurd theory 
•of Secretary Welles, they spoke of her as a ' 'privateer," notwith- 
standing that they were well informed that she was a ship-of- 
war of the Confederate States, and entitled to tlie privileges 
of a belligerent nation already accorded by the United States, 
Great Britain and France. Worden wrote : 

"By moving up close to the obstructions in the river, I was enabled, 
although under a heavy fire from the battery, to approach the Nashville, 
still aground, within the distance of 1,200 yards. A few well-directed shells 
determined the range, and I soon succeeded in striking her with 11-inch 
and 15-inch shells. * * * i soon had the satisfaction of observing that 
the Nashville had caught fire from the shells exploding in her in several 
places, and in less than twenty minutes she was in flames forward, aft and 
amidships. At 9:20 A. M. a large pivot-gun mounted abaft her foremast ex- 
ploded from the heat, at 9:40 her smoke-chimney went by the board, and 
at 9:55 her magazine exploded with tremendous violence, shattering her 
in smoking ruins ; nothing remains of her." 

Except for the destruction of the Nashville the attack on 
Fort McAllister was sterile of beneficial results for the Federals. 
In this and in other engagements the fort repulsed them, and 
her cannoneers shared with those of Fort Sumter the honor of 
demonstrating that the monitors could be whipped and driven 
off by heavy ordnance and sharp-shooting gunners on shore. 

While the Nashville was in quest of an opportunity to 
escape to sea, the British steamship Fingal was being con- 
verted into the Confederate iron-clad Atlanta in the harbor of 
Savannah. She was a vessel bought in September, 1861, on 
the Clyde, in Scotland, by Capt. James D. Bulloch, the Euro- 
pean agent of the Confederate States. ^ " She was," says Cap- 
tain Bulloch, " a new ship; had made but one or two trips to 
the north of Scotland, was in good order, well-found, and her 
log gave her speed as thirteen knots in good steaming weather," 

iThesbip was sometimes called the i?<!?<iesnate, • "The Secret Service of the Confederate 

but the official records of the C. S Navy Dept. States in Europe." — James D. Bulloch, pp. 109, 
give her no other name than that of the .A'a«/aii7/e. 151. 



THE CONFEDERATE STATES NAVY. 639 

Moreover, she was the first ship to attempt to run the block- 
ade inward for tlie account of the Confederate government, 
and her cargo was valuable enough to warrant the taking 
the most perilous risks. It consisted of 10,000 Enfield rifles, 
1,000,000 ball cartridges, 2.000,000 percussion caps, 3.000 cavalry 
sabres, 1,000 short rifles and cutlass bayonets, 1,000 rounds of 
ammunition per rifle, 500 revolvers and ammunition, a couple 
of large rifled cannon and their gear, two smaller rifled guns, 
400 barrels of cannon powder, and a lot of medical stores and 
material for clothing. " No single ship," Captain Bulloch 
states, "ever took into the Confederacy a cargo so entirely 
composed of military and naval supplies, and the pressing 
need of them made it necessary to get the Fingal off with 
quick dispatch, and to use every possible effort to get her into 
a port having railway communication through to Virginia, be- 
cause ihe Confederate army, then covering Richmond, was 
very poorly armed and was distressingly deficient in all field 
necessaries." 

The Fingal passed through many adventures in her first 
voyage under Confederate ownership, of which Captain Bul- 
loch has left an exciting narrative. The passengers beside 
himself were Col. Edward C. Anderson, of the Confederate 
army ; Messrs Charles Foster, and — Moffatt, two residents of 
Charleston, who desired to return to their homes, and Dr. 
Holland, an ex-surgeon of the U. S. army. For obvious reasons 
the ship was kept under the British flag, which made it neces- 
sary to employ a captain holding a Board of Trade certificate 
to clear her outward, and to ship the crew in accordance with 
the Merchant Shipping Law. The second officer was John 
Low, who made a most honorable record in the Confederate 
navy. About October 8tli or 9tli, 1861, the Fingal sailed from 
Greenock, Scotland, with Messrs. Foster and Moffatt on board, 
and with instructions to call at Holyhead, where Bulloch, 
Anderson and Holland were waiting to join her. Running in- 
to Holyhead on a dark and stormy night she collided and cut 
down the Austrian brig, Siccardi. The character of her mis- 
sion would not permit delay, and her three passengers going at 
once on board, she was out of the harbor before the accident 
was known to any one who would have had authority to stop 
her, Bulloch first leaving on shore a letter for Eraser, Tren- 
liolm & Co., the Confederate financial agents in England, 
which enabled them to trace the owners of the Siccardi, 
and make proper compensation for the loss of that vessel. 
On November the 2nd the Fingal arrived at St. George, 
Bermuda, where she found the Nashville in port and re- 
ceived from her a pilot, John Makin, for the Southern coast. 
She had been cleared for Nassau, but was headed from 
Bermuda for Savannah; and as this necessitated an under- 
standing with the British crew, Bulloch called them aft, 
explained that his true object was to run the blockade, and 



640 THE CONFEDERATE STATES NAVY. 

offered to put into Nassau if any of them objected to continu- 
ing with the ship. Tliey unanimously consented to go vOn with 
the voyage, and he tlien told them that although the Fingal 
still flew the British flag, he had her bill of sale in his pocket; 
that he was empowered at any moment to take her from the 
captain on behalf of the Confederate Navy Department, and 
that if they would stand by him he would do this and be ready 
to fight any U. S. blockading ship of equal strength that might 
intercept him. Not a man backed out and he set them at work 
to arm the ship. Two 4i-inch rifled guns were hoisted out of 
the hold and mounted in the forward gangway ports; a couple 
of boat howitzers were put in position on the quarter-deck; the 
men were equipped with rifles and revolvers, and a few old 
man-of-war's men among them were set to drilling their fel- 
lows, and the peaceful merchantman was thus metamor- 
phosed into a capable fighting ship. On November 12th 
she came upon the Georgia shore in a dense fog, and while 
Bulloch was reasonably sure that he was off Warsaw Inlet, 
Pilot Makin did not wish to run in on any uncertainty. 
He bore away for Savannah and made the entrance with- 
out catching a glimpse of a blockader. The cargo of arms 
was sent to the necessitous armies, and it was decided that the 
Fingal should be loaded with cotton on account of the Navy 
Department and that Captain Bulloch should endeavor to take 
her back to England. He returned to Savannah on Novem- 
ber 2od and found the ship empty and virtually blockaded in 
the river by the enemy's gunboats and their occupation of 
Tybee Island. The cotton and coal needed were slow in coming, 
and he informed Secretary Mallory that if it was desired to send 
the ship to sea haste should be made to run her out through 
the Warsaw passage before that was closed by the Federals. 
He was instructed to take command of the ship, load her with 
cotton and resin, sail her to a British port and there tninsfer 
the command to Lieut. G. T. Sinclair, C. S. N., who would go 
out from Savannah with him. By December 20th, the cotton 
was stowed away in her hold and she dropped down to Wil- 
mington Island seeking an opportunity to evade the blockad- 
ing fleet, being accompanied by Connnodore Tatnall's squad- 
ron. The Chatham artillery battalion, of Savannah, was sent 
to Skidaway Island to assist in case there should be a conflict 
with the Federals. On the 23d, the Fingal and the squadron 
ran down near the enemy's gunboats, which they found in such 
strong force that they were compelled to retire after an inter- 
change of fire. Tatnall's flagship received a shell in her wheel- 
house and was assisted off by the Resolute. It was too late 
now to hope to get the Fingal out; every channel was vigi- 
lantly patrolled by the enemy's gunboats, and a pilot sent out 
to see if escape could be effected by way of the Romerly marsh 
narrowly avoided capture, and reported that five ships-of-war 
were watching for the Fingal in that locality. So close a 



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THE CONFEDERATE STATES NAVY. 641 

look-out warranted the suspicion tliat spies had informed the 
federals of lier movements, a belief which was strengthened 
by the desertion of two seamen who accompanied the pilot on 
his search for an unguarded channel. Just at that time, too, 
the stone hulks were sunk in the approaches to Savannah, 
and late in January, 1803, Capt. Bulloch reported to Secretary 
Mallory that the port was closed and that he could see no 
prospect of carrjdng the ship out. By the Secretary's orders 
he turned her over to Lieut. Sinclair and returned to Europe 
by way of Wilmington. 

Available no longer to the Confederacy as a cruiser or 
lilockade-runner, the Fingal was converted into an iron-clad 
of the familiar type followed in all the Confederate armored 
:ships. Her extreme length w^as 204 feet, breadth of beam 41 
feet, draft of water 15 feet 9 inches. She was cut down 
to the main-deck, which w^as widened amidships and overlaid 
with a foot of wood and iron plating, and upon this founda- 
tion was built the casemate, the sides and end inclining at an 
angle of thirty degrees. The top of the casemate was flat, 
and the pilot-house rose above the roof about three feet. The 
sloping sides and ends of the casemate were covered with four 
inches of iron plates in two layers, secured to a backing of 
three inches of oak and fifteen inches of pine. A ram was at- 
tached to the bow, which was also fitted with a spar to carry 
a percussion torpedo. Her armament was tw^o 7-inch Brooke 
^uns on bow and stern pivots, and two 6-inch Brooke rifles in 
broadside. The larger guns were so arranged that they could 
be w^orked in broadside as well as for fore-and-aft fire, and the 
ship could therefore fight two 7-inch and one 6-inch piece on 
either side. When completed she was renamed the Atlanta, 
and about the same time the iron-clad battery Georgia was 
finished, but proved to be worthless on account of defects in 
her construction. She was 250 feet in length and sixty feet 
breadth of beam, with a casemate twelve feet high. Her ma- 
chinery was of very little use, and whenever she was moved 
it was by means of tow boats. She carried seven guns and 
was under the command of Lieut. J. Pembroke Jones, C. S. N. 
The ladies of Savannah made large contributions to the cost 
of building her, in the same manner that those of Charleston 
aided the construction of the iron-clad Charleston. 

Lieut. Charles H. McBlair, C. S. N., was first placed in 
command of the Atlanta, which, on July 31st, 1862, first 
showed herself to the Federal fleet. She steamed leisurely 
down the Savannah toward Fort Pulaski and then returned to 
the city. It is instructive to learn now of the alarm with 
which the Federals regarded her. " Unless some monitor 
€omes to our succor," wrote the correspondent of the New 
York Herald, on August 2d, "the fair weather j^achts now 
reposing on the placid bosom of Port Royal Bay have before 
them an excellent opportunity of learning what it is to be 



643 THE CONFEDERATE STATES NAVY. 

blown out of the water. The rebels have completed their ram. 
It has been manned and armed and is now ready for sea." 

There was no necessity at the time for the extraordinary 
perturbation evinced by the Federals, as the Atlanta was 
merely on lier trial trip, which developed the fact that she 
steered badly, in consequence of the increased draft caused by 
her weight of armor and ordnance, and the alteration of form 
resulting from the projecting overway, which extended seve- 
ral feet below the water line. As a merchant ship, she had 
made easily twelve knots an hour, but as an iron-clad six to 
seven was the most that could be got out of her. Believing her, 
however, to be a miracle of formidableness, the Federals 
thereafter kept several monitors constantly in the vicinity of 
Savannah, and on March 3d, 18(33, again bombarded Fort 
McAllister and were again repulsed. In the meantime the 
Atlanta underwent some slight changes that failed to correct 
her defects. The whole work of constructing her had been 
entrusted to John A. Tift, and when Commodore Tatnall re- 
turned to the naval command at Savannah in July, 18G3. he 
found that he was not permitted to have anything to do with 
the building of the ship. "* Mr. Tift," he wrote to Secretary 
Mallory, " called at my office and showed me his authority from 
yourself giving him the sole control of her construction, and 
in reply to a question, he stated that it was intended that the 
commandant of the station should have nothing to do with 
her. I, of course, abstained from interfering in any shape 
whatever." 

In January, 18G3. Tatnall proposed to attack the block- 
aders with his fleet, but it was found impossible to get the At- 
lanta through the south channel of the Savannah River, until 
the obstructions placed there had been removed. The Navy 
Department was urging him to make a demonstration against 
the enemy, and his failure to do so was the cause of his re- 
moval, in March, from the command afloat; but he was im- 
peded by difficulties that were not fully appreciated at Ricli- 
mond, or generally in the South, where the people had accepted 
the Northern opinion of the power of tlie Atlantaas an engine 
of destruction, and were impatient that she should do some- 
thing to realize their hopes that she would raise the blockade, 
and perhaps bombard the Northern seaports. The old com- 
modore's letter of April tiith. 1863, to Secretary Mallory, is a 
cogent explanation of his intentions in January previous, 
and his failure to execute them, although he wrote under a 
sense of indignation at being removed from the command 
of the squadron. When he resolved on the attack in Janu- 
ary, a day was selected when the first high spring tide would 
enable the Atlanta, which drew nearly sixteen feet of water, 
to pass out of the Savannah; but when she dropped down to 
the obstructions, it was only to be held back by the inability 
of the engineer officers to remove them. It was actually a 



THE CONFEDERATE STATES NAVY. 643 

month before the passage couki be cleared, and Tatnall then 
prepared to go through on the next spring tide, whicli oc- 
curred on February 4th, By that date the monitor fleet had 
gathered in Ossabaw Sound for the assault of Fort McAllis- 
ter, and Tatnall anchored the Atlanta off the Causton's Bluff 
forts, having been requested by Gen. Mercer to cover that 
point from an attack by the enemy while a change was be- 
ing made in the position of the guns of the forts. Continu- 
ing his letter to Mr. Mallory, the Commodore wrote that upon 
the return of the Federal monitors to Port Royal, he took 
his ship to the head of Warsaw Sound, with a view of run- 
ning to sea when the enemy made the anticipated attack on 
Charleston. 

" In that event [he said], I had two projects in view— either to at- 
tack him at Port Royal, sliould the force left there justify it, or, sweeping 
the sounds to the south of the Savannah, push on to Key West in the 
hope of surprising some of the enemy's vessels in that port. While at 
this anchorage, however, and when the tides were at the lowest, two of 
the enemy's ironclads anchored in the mouth of the Savannah, where 
none of that class had ever shown themselves before. They could in an 
hour have attacked the Oeorgia, and, beyond a, doubt, destroyed her, for 
I could not have aided her. Nothing could have prevented this disaster 
but ignorance of her force and condition. I ordered the return of the 
ship to the Savannah as soon as possible, which could not be, however, 
sooner than the 3d of April, and four days before that time I transferred 
the squadron to Commander Page. It was my purpose not to have left 
the Savannah River again until the enemy should have fully committed 
himself in an attack on Charleston, and then to have gone to sea and exe- 
cuted my plan." 

Tatnall feared that the Atlanta would not be a match for 
the monitors at close quarters, and his judgment was vindi- 
cated by the events, and while he was ready to obey any posi- 
tive orders given him by the government, he would not rush 
into a conflict with them upon suggestions from Mr. Mallory 
that left him a latitude of action. Then Lieut. Wm. A. Webb, 
C. S. N., was ordered to the command of the ship, the implied 
condition of his appointment being that he should ''do some- 
thing" with her, and on June 17th, 1863, he got under way 
before daylight and entered Warsaw Sound. Admiral Dupont 
had sent the monitors Weehawken, Capt. John Rodgers, and 
Nahant, Commander J. Downes, into the sound for the ex- 
press purpose of meeting the Confederate ram. ' They were 
two of the strongest vessels of their class, armored with ten 
inches of iron on the turret and carrying two 15-inch and two 
11-inch guns. Webb was desirous of fighting at close quarters, 
as he thought that under such circumstances he might pierce 
the monitor turrets or disable their guns with his rifled shot. 
He was about 600 yards distant from the Weehawken when 
the ^^^a;i/a went aground and was backed off with some diffi- 
culty, but inside of five minutes she again grounded — this 

1 Report of Admiral Dupont to Secretary Welles. 



C44 THE CONFEDERATE STATES NAVY. 

time so hard and fast that tlie extreme exertions of her en- 
gines were powerless to move her. ' In this position she was 
at the mercy of the enemy. With the utmost deliheration the 
Weehaivken came up to within 300 yards and opened fire. The 
first shot struck the Atlanta upon the side of her casemate, 
knocking a hole in it and scattering over the gun-deck great 
quantities of wood and iron splinters, wounding sixteen men 
and prostrating forty more insensible from the shock. A 
second shot struck the top of the pilot-house, crushing and 
driving down the bars on the top and sides, wounding both 
pilots and one helmsman and stunning the other helmsman. 
Other shots smashed a port shutter and started the joint 
of the casemate with the deck. Eight shots were fired from 
the Atlanta, no one of which struck the Weehaivken, and the 
Nahant did not come into the fight at all. It was impossible 
for Webb, with his ship fast on the bottom, to bring his guns 
to bear, and in fifteen minutes it was manifest that the en- 
emy's huge projectiles must soon pierce the casemate and 
cause fearful slaughter. The Nahant was bearing down upon 
him, and in a few moments would have joined her destructive 
fire to that of her consort. Webb hoisted the white flag, sent 
Lieut. J. W. Alexander to inform Capt. Rodgers that he had 
surrendered, and made the following address to his crew: 

"I have surrendered our vessel because circumstances over which I 
had no control have coniiDelled nie to do so. I know that you started 
upon this expedition with hig^h hopes, and you have been disappointed. 
I most earnestly wish that it had happened otherwise, but Providence, 
for some good reason, has interfered with our plans, and we have failed 
of success. You all know that, if we had not run aground, the result 
would have been different, and now that a regard for your lives has in- 
fluenced me in this surrender, 1 would advise you to submit quietly to 
the fate which has overtaken us. I hope that we all may soon be returned 
to our homes, and meet again in a common brotherhood." 

The Federals made prisoners of 105 men (officers and 
crew) of the Atlanta, including 28 marines. " With the excep- 
tion of the wounded, they were sent to prison at Fort 
Lafayette in New York harbor. The survey ordered by 
Admiral Dupont reported that the ship could be easily repaired, 
and she was sent to the navy-yard at Philadelphia, whence 
she returned in February, 1804. to Fortress Monroe to form 
one of the Federal North Atlantic squadron,. 

1 In a statement made to a Savannah paper, A. Webb, Commander; J. W. Alexander, First 
Oeorge W. Hardcastle, carpenter ot the Atlanta, Lieutenant ; Alplionse Barbot, Second Lieuten- 
said that upon nearin^ the Weehaivken Capt. ant; George H. Arledge, Third Lieutenant; 
Webb asked the pilots if there was water enough Thomas L. Wragg, Master ; B. J. Freeman, 
for the Atlanta to make a dash at her. He was Passed Assistant Sin'geon; E. J. Johnson, First 
informedtbat there was, and he then ordered all Assistant Engineer; William B. Micou, Pay- 
steam up, in order to run into her and blow her master; William J. Mon-ell, Second Assistant 
Tip with his torpedo. In a few moments after she Engineer; Leslie King, Second Assistant Engi- 
had got under full steam she brought to upon a neer ; J. A. G.Williamson, Midshipman; J. A. 
sand-hank and careened over, which rendered Peters, Midshipman; William McBlair, Master's 
her guns useless, and placed the >4 Manta at the Mate; Thomas B. Travers, Gunner; James 
mercy of her two antagonists at short range. Thurston, First Lieutenant of Marines; G. W. 

Carey, Paymaster's Clerk: James M. Fleetwood, 

2 The list of officers was as follows: William Pilot; J. S. West, Second Assistant Engineer. 



THE CONFEDERATE STATES NAVY. 645 

It was felt throughout the South tliat the loss of the 
Atlanta was a distressing blow to the Confederacy, and in 
the thoughtless anger of the moment Lieut. Webb and his 
officers were harshly spoken of; for the unwarrantable public 
reports of her fighting capacity had deluded thousands into 
the opinion that nothing but treachery or incompetency could 
prevent her from vanquishing the Federal monitors. The 
nev/spapers, or some of them, had led the Southern people 
astray in this matter, and those which had pronounced the 
vessel the greatest achievement ever accomplished in the way 
of a battle-ship held to their notion that she could not have 
been properly defended. "It is painful to hear such a tale," 
exclaimed the Richmond Examiner in commenting on the 
early reports of the engagement, "nor is the pain alleviated 
by learning that the unhappy commander, after making a 
brief address to his crew of Georgians, in which he advised 
them to be resigned, fainted away upon his quarter-deck." 
But Lieut. Webb did not faint on his quarter-deck or anywhere 
else, and his behavior on this occasion was as gallant and sea- 
manlike as when he carried the cockleshell gunboat Teaser 
into action on the James River. His stranded ship would have 
become a slaughter-pen under a few more of the Weeliawhen's 
shots; his men were demoralized, and he had lost the service 
of his pilots. The crew were in no sense reliable. Out of 140 
odd of them only some two-score were indifferent sailors, the 
remainder having been selected from Georgia infantry, and 
without experience at sea or any knowledge of naval gunnery, 
which may be a partial explanation of their failure to inflict 
any punishment upon the enemy. 

After the loss of the Atlanta efforts were made to build at 
Savannah other and superior iron-clads under contract with 
Mr. Willink, a proficient naval contractor. He built the Savan- 
nah, an armored ship of the casemate type, and had the Mil- 
ledgeville, another vessel of the same class, nearing comple- 
tion when the city was evacuated; but although the former 
was armed and manned she never saw any hostile service. 
The blockade of the port continued uninterrupted. On August 
8th, 1803, the Confederate steamer Robert Habersham, on duty 
as a guard-boat, exploded her boilers, killing and wounding 
many of her crew, and on November 8th the crew of a picket 
boat in the Savannah River made a prisoner of their com- 
manding officer. Master's Mate Samuel A. Brockinton, of the 
Sampson, and deserted to the Federals. 

The most spirited incident of the last year of the war in 
Georgia waters was the capture of the U. S. gunboat Water 
Witch, a fine side-wheel steamer, mounting four guns, and 
having a crew of about eighty men. She was a favorite ship 
in the navy, having taken part in the Paraguay war of 1855, 
and fought in Commodore HoUins' attack on the fleet in the 
Mississippi Passes in October, 1861. As a blockader she was 



646 THE CONFEDERATE STATES NAVY. 

very valuable on account of her speed and handiness. Her 
station in 1804 was in Ossabaw Sound, south of the Savannah 
River, and as after the withdrawal of the Federal monitors 
from attacks upon Fort McAllister she was usually alone in 
that locality, a plan was arranged to capture her or some other 
one of the squadron on the coast by a boat expedition operating 
at night. Capt. W. W. Hunter, ^ commanding the Confedei'- 
ate States' naval forces afloat at Savannah, detailed seven 
boats, fifteen officers and 117 men from the squadron, and 
placed the expedition in charge of First Lieut. Thomas P. 
Pelot, with Lieut. Joseph Price second in command. They 
left the iron-clad Georgia on the afternoon of May 31st, arid 
were towed to the Isle of Hope battery, from where they rowed 
to Beaulain battery, on Vernon River, where they camped for 
the night. The next day scouts reported one of the enemy's 
vessels at anchor in the Little Ogeechee River, close under Ra- 
coon Key, and she was selected for attack. The report of 
Lieut. Price to Flag-officer Hunter says: 

" At 8 o'clock p. M., the expedition got under way and formed two 
columns. Boats Nos. 1, 3, Sand 7, composing the port column, Nos. 2, 4 
and 6 the starboard column; Lieut. Thomas P. Pelot commanding, with 
Second Assistant Engineer Caldwell, C. S. N., and Moses Dallas i colored) 
pilot, led in boat 1; Lieut Price, with Master's Mate Gray and Second 
Assistant Engineer Fabein, in No. 2; Midshipman Minor, with Master's 
Mate Freeman, in boat No. 3; Midshipman Trimble, in boat No. 4; Boat- 
swain Seymour, with Masters Mate Baccalay, in boat No. 5; Master's Mate 
H. Golder, with Assistant Surgeon Thomas, in boat No. 6; Master's Mate 

1 Commodore William Wallace Hunter was naval officer. His subsequent service was for 
the son of Dr. George Hunter, a distinguished years on the West Indian and Pacitic oceans. He 
physician of Edinburgh, Scotland. Emigrating was the inventor in 1847 of a mode of propulsion 
to America early in life, he rendered his adopted of vessels familiarly known as "Hunter's 
country eminent service as an officer in the Ke- Horizontal Wheel," which was applied to the 
volution, and as a member of the society of the first iron ocean steamer of the U. S. This vessel, 
Cincinnati. His son, the subject of this sketch, which was called the Alleghany, was constructed 
was born in the city of Philadelphia, in 1803. at Pittsburgh, Pa., according to plans and de- 
This was about the period of the purchase of signs originated by Hunter and under his per- 
Louisiana by the United States, and Dr. Hunter sonal supervision. The Alleghany was corn- 
was api)oinled by President Jetferson to take manded by the commodore for over seven years, 
charge of the new acquisition. The greater part She passed from Pittsburgh to the ocean, and 
of his youtli was spent on the sea, and that, too, over the falls of the Ohio, her keel never touch- 
ctintrary to the wishes of his father, who was ing the ground. She was a 1,040 ton vessel, and 
then a man of wealth and position and who had her battery, which consisted of four 9-inch 
planned for his son a far different line of pur- pivot-guns, each weighing 10,000 pounds, had a 
suit in life. He made many voyages to Europe range entirely around the compass without 
on commercial vessels, and his first work on changing the position of the vessel 
board ship was as cabin boy. Dr. Hunter be- In 1861, he resigned his commission in the 
coming satisfied that young Hunter was deter- U. S. navy, being then in charge of the Baltimore 
mined to adopt a seafaring life, wrote to his station, and almost at the head of the list of 
friend Hon. James Monroe, then President of commanders. Simultaneously with his resigna- 
tiie United States, with regard to the boy, and tion in the U. S. navy, he tendered his services 
the result was that the future commodore was to the Southern Confederacy at Montgomery, 
on May 1st, 18'22, given an aijpointment as mid- and was immediately given the rank of captain, 
shipnian in the U. S. navy. He performed his with a station at New Orleans, embracing the 
first service in the .squadron of Commodore command of the coast of Texas to Mexico. Sub- 
David Porter, which had been organized for the sequently he was ordered to the batteries of the 
suppression of piracy in the West Indies. In R:(v>pahanock, where he served four months ; 
the course of that service he was captured by after which he was ordered to Richmond and 
the pirates, but suceeded in securing his es- thence to Savannah to command that .station, 
cape under circumstances which reflected the Nine vessels were under Commodore Hunter's 
greatest credit on his courage and ingenuity. It command at Savannah, two of which were iron- 
was under Commodore John Rodgersi then com- cliuis. After the surrender Commodore Hunter 
manding the U.S. naval forces in the Mediter- went to Virginia, where his family at the time 
ranean, andon the flagship xVortA Carotoirt. that were residing. He is now (1887) an honored 
young Hunter acquired his chief training as a citizen of New Orleans, La 



THE CONFEDERATE STATES NAVY. 647 

Rostler, with Assistant Surgeon Jones, in boat No. 7; and proceeded with 
muffled oars to the spot where we supposed the enemy's vessel to be. On 
arriving, we found that slie had either shifted lier anchorage or that we had 
been mistaken as to her position. After searching in vain till nearly day- 
light, Lieut. Pelot ordered Boatswain Seymour, with one man, to remain 
on Racoon Keys as scouts, and the expedition to return to camp at Beau- 
lain battery. 

"On the next day (June 3,) at 9 o'clock P. M., we got under way and 
proceeded to Racoon Keys, where we took on board our scouts, who re- 
ported that one of the enemy's vessels was lying in Ossabaw Sound, about 
three miles fi-om where we then were. After waiting there until midnight 
we were ordered to get under way and pull cautiously. The night 
being dark and rainy, we got close aboard of her without being dis- 
covered. On being hailed, Lieut. Pelot answered we were 'rebels,' and 
gave the order to ' board ' her. The vessel having steam up at the time, 
as soon as the alarm was given, commenced turning her wheels backwards 
and forwards rapidly, thus thwarting the earnest efforts of Boatswain 
Seymour and Master's Mate Rostler to get on board with the entire boat's 
crew. 

'' The port column, led by Lieut. Pelot, boarded on the port side; star- 
board column, led by Lieut. Price, boarded on the starboard side. In 
coming alongside, the enemy's fire with small arms was quite severe; in 
fact it was during that time, and while the boarding netting, which was 
triced up, was being cut through, that the most of our loss in killed and 
Avounded was sustained. After a sharp hand-to-hand fight of some ten 
minutes, the ship was taken. Lieut. Pelot was the first to gain the deck, 
and while bravely fighting was shot and instantly killed. In his death 
the country has lost a brave and gallant officer," and society one of her 
highest ornaments. 

" The command then devolved upon me, and I proceeded forthwith 
to extricate the vessel from the position she was then in to avoid recap- 
ture by the enemy. Our pilot having been killed before the boats reached 
the side of the ship, I sought for the enemy's pilot and found that he was 
too badly wounded to assist me, but finally procured one of the quarter- 
masters, whom I compelled to pilot me to the upper end of Racoon Key, 
where, at the top of high water, the ship grounded. I then found it neces- 
sary to lighten her, which I did by throwing overboard some barrels of 
beef and pork, a few coils of hemp rigging, the remainder of the chain, 
which I had slipped as soon as we took the vessel, and lowering two of 
the guns in the boats. On getting ashore I immediately landed the killed, 
wounded and prisoners at Beaulain battery. At 4 o'clock P. M., having 
in the meantime olitained a pilot from the shore, I succeeded in getting 
off and anchored her at 7 o'clock P. M., under the guns of Beaulain bat- 
tery above the obstructions, when Lieut. W. W. Carnes, C. S. Is., by your 
order, arrived on board and assumed command. 

" In the darkness and confusion on board it was imiDossible for me to 
observe each and every man; but I will state, with pride, every one, officers 
and men. did their duty most gallantly. I would state, however, that I 
owe my life to E. D. Davis, ordinary seaman of the C. S. steamer Savannah, 
he having cut down every opponent when I was sorely pressed by them. 

"Boatswain's Mate J. Perry, of the steamer Savannah, and Boat- 
swain's Mate W. S. Johnston, of the steamer Sampson, rendered me most 
valuable assistance in lightening the vessel and general duties on board. 
The former, although severely wounded, remained on deck as long as he 
could." 

The Federal reports amplify the modest narrative of 
Lieut. Price, and confer additional honor upon the officers 
and men of the Confederate navy engaged in the capture of 
the Water Witch. Acting Master's Mate E. D. Parsons was 
in charge of the deck when the boats approached in the 



648 THE CONFEDERATE STATES NAVY. 

midst of the storm, flashes of lightning only casting illumi- 
nation upon the scene. Whether Parsons was panic-stricken, 
or merely lost his head in the confusion, is uncertain, but he 
was charged in the reports of Lieut. Commanding Pendergrast 
and Master Charles W. Buck with taking refuge below deck, 
without giving the order to slip the cable and start the engine 
or calling all hands to repel boarders. Pendergrast and Buck 
were in their bunks, and when the fighting began rushed on 
deck to find it already partly in possession of the enemy. Such 
of the crew and officers as had tumbled up from below were 
opposing the Confederates with pistols and cutlasses, the latter 
using similar weapons in a hand-to-hand desperate conflict. 
Buck endeavored to train a howitzer upon them, but was 
struck down before he could apply the primer. Pendergrast, 
it is said, came face to face with Lieut. Pelot and their swords 
crossed. Pendergrast received a cut which knocked him 
senseless upon the deck, but at that moment Billings, the 
paymaster of the Water Witch, caught a glimpse of the Con- 
federate commander by the glare of the lightning, and shot 
him dead. So well organized were the boarders, however, 
that the loss of this able and gallant officer did not cause any 
confusion or delay, Lieut. Price taking his place and leading 
them on to victory. In a very short space of time they had 
driven below most of the people of the Wat&r Witch, a few of 
whom, mostly cfficers, were continuing the fight in little de- 
tached squads about the deck. The crack of pistol-shots and 
the clash of sabres alone broke the silence of the night, for it 
is the testimony in all the descriptions of the engagement that 
after the first hail and answer there was an almost entire ab- 
sence of the shouts and cheering usually characteristic of close 
combat on shipboard. Lieut. Price was badly hurt by a sabre 
blow on the head, but continued fighting on the quarter-deck 
until he had cleared it, after which it was the task of an in- 
stant to send his men below and secure his prisoners. The 
condition of things he discovered there was discreditable ta 
the U. S. navy; he found scores of cowering men who courted 
nothing so much as a chance to surrender. 

"The men [wrote Lieut. Pendergrast in his report], seemed para- 
lyzed with fear, and remained under the hurricane deck witliout giving 
the officers the least support, though they were ordered out by Paymas- 
ter Billings and Ensign Hill. I found it impossible to discover the where- 
abouts of all the men, owing to the darkness, and there was but little 
opportunity for the officers to give many orders, as all were engaged in 
combat the moment they reached the deck, and continued to fight until 
struck down. I regret to say the watch below evinced no desire to come 
on deck and defend the ship. Had the crew but emulated the noble ex- 
ample shown them by their officers, the result would have been different. 
* * * I regret to say the engineers acted in the most cowardly manner. 
They were the only officers wlio surrendered, and that to one man. Had 
they obeyed my orders to work the engine, the enemy would have been, 
unable to board us; but, so far from fighting the rebels, they surrendered 
at the first summons, and thereby lost the ship." 



THE CONFEDERATE STATES NAVY. 649' 

This condemnation of the engineers is corroborated by 
Surgeon W. H. Pierson, who reported that when a Confede- 
rate officer came into the ward-room, Engineer Genther called 
out : " I surrender, we surrender, the ship surrenders." The 
poltroonery of some of tlie officers and crew is stated to have 
been in revenge for not having been sent home when they ex- 
pected. For nearly all the men, their terms of enlistment had 
expired, and they "were dissatisfied because still detained on 
the ship. But while Lieut. Pendergrast had so many excuses 
to offer for his defeat, they neither lessened the merit of the 
Confederate achievement nor satisfied his government. He 
was tried by court martial for culpable inefficiency in the dis- 
charge of duty in not taking proper precautions to secure his 
ship against surprise and attack, was found guilty and was 
sentenced to be suspended from duty for two years, on half- 
pay, and with loss of rank from the date of suspension. 

" The fighting on the deck of the Water Witch was close 
and deadly while it lasted. Besides Lieut. Pelot, the Confed- 
erates lost in killed Pilot Moses Dallas (colored), Quarter-gun- 
ner Patrick Lotin, and seamen W. R. Jones, James Stapleton, 
and - — Crosby; while their wounded were Lieut. Price, Mid- 
shipman Minor, Boatswain Seymour, Surgeon's Steward Har- 
ley, and seamen J. R. Rice, J. Barnett, A. McDonald, E. J. 

Murphy, E. Lee, A. Williams, T. King, and Champion. 

Of the Federals, two were killed and twelve wounded. Only 
one man escaped from the ship. He was a negro named 
Mcintosh, who jumped overboard in the darkness and swam 
a mile to the south end of Ossabaw Island, where he was next 
day picked up by the U. S. ship Feniandina The alarm was 
communicated to other blockaders, and Lieut. Price was thus 
disappointed in his expectations that by remaining in the 
sound with the Water Witch he might effect the capture of 
other vessels that should come into those waters in ignorance 
of her fate. Half a dozen Federal gunboats were sent in pur- 
suit of her, but by placing a pistol at the head of the Federal 
quartermaster whom he called upon to pilot her, Price brought 
her safely under the guns of Beaulain. The prisoners cap- 
tured numbered 77. The wounded were attended by Dr. Pier- 
son, the Federal surgeon, and Dr. C. Wesley Thomas, surgeon, 
C. S. N. , of whom Pierson says in his report, that " should he 
ever fall into our hands, I bespeak for him the courtesy due 
to an honorable and gentlemanly adversary."^ The Water 

1 Admiral Porter's "Naval History of the Although such a practice as this existed to some 

Civil War "accuses the Confederates of " having extent during the war, there was no binding 

departed from the usages of war and practiced agreement between the belligerents concerning 

unnecessary cruelty on their prisoners "— the it, and when Dr. Pierson's case was referred to 

officers and" men of "the Water Witch. This reck- Secretary Mallory he replied that the surgeon 

less indictment has no other foundation than should be treated as any other prisoner of war 

the fact that Surgeon Pierson "understood" when his attention on the Federal sick and 

that there was an arrangement between the Fed- wounded in the Savannah hospital ceased. As 

erals and the Confederates that medical officers to the treatment he and his patients met with 

taken prisoners should, after attending to their there, be speaks for himself thus in his repnrt 

own wounded, and their being no necessity for to Admiral Dahlgren: " My patients were placed 

their further services, be allowed to depart. under my care at a hospital called the Savannah 



650 THE CONFEDERATE STATES NAVY. 

Witch was enrolled in the Confederate naval force and was 
destroyed when Savannah fell into the hands of the enemy. 

With this incident, so thoroughly demonstrative of the 
fearlessness and energy of the men of the C. S. navy, ended 
the hostile activities in which they were permitted to engage in 
the waters of Georgia. No more surprises of the blockaders 
were possible ; their vigilance forbade another Water Witch 
affair, and while the naval establishment was maintained at 
Savannah, and the construction of iron-clads continued, no 
opportunity again presented itself for attack or defence. The 
remainder of the war history of the Georgia metropolis is 
much like that of Charleston and Mobile — it could hold out in- 
definitely against a foe approaching from the sea. but in its 
landward rear it was open to the enemy. Unlike Charleston, 
however, it suffered no Federal bombardment, and the naval 
officers and men on the station did not enjoy the privilege of 
their mates of Charleston of serving in the land batteries or 
in combats around the city. The tedious routine of harbor 
guard was their lot until December, when the march of Sher- 
man's army threw against the city an irresistible power. Its 
military defences on the land side consisted merely of some 
slight earthworks, behind which were a few thousand of Gen. 
Hardee's troops, and as there were no men to spare to reinforce 
him, the evacuation of the city was an event not to be long 
staved off. On December 10th, Secretary Mallory telegraphed 
to Commodore Tatnall: " should Savannah fall do not permit 
our vessels under construction or any of the public property 
in your charge to fall into the hands of the enemy. Destroy 
everything when necessary to prevent this." 

On the lotli, Gen. Sherman captured Fort McAllister by 
sending against it a division of his army, and on the 18th he 
demanded from Hardee the surrender of the city, to which the 
latter replied that be held his two lines of defence, was in com- 
munication with his superior authority, and could hold out for 
an indefinite period. The Confederate general was in fact 
playing for time in which to save the public property or de- 
stroy that which he could not carry away. Sherman resolved 

Naval Hospital, under the charge of Surgeon Jef- nah, I tabled with the rebel surgeons in the 
fery, C.S.N. This hospital was devoid of some hospital, and that during all my stay there, 
of the luxuries which may be found in North- nearly six weeks, we had coffee never, tea only 
ern hospitals, but was airy and comfortable, about five or six times, butter about as often; 
and the patients there received every care and and to the credit of the surgeons be it said that 
comfort which the somewhat limited resources while they denied themselves the luxuries of 
of the country ijerniitted. I myself was treated tea at |30 to $40 per pound, they had it fur- 
with gentlemanly consideration by Dr. Jeffery nished to our wounded, and generally fed them 
and the assistant surgeons, as well as by the better than they fed themselves. Afterwards, 
numerous rebel officers who frequently called at Charleston, our rations were somewhat bet- 
there." As for the alleged semi-starvation of ter, the meal being bolted, and wheat flour and 
jjrisoners at Macon, whither they were removed fresh beef being issued occasionally. At Macon, 
from Savannah, Dr. Pierson speaks of the food as well as at Charleston, we had the opportunity 
as being meagre in quantity and wretched to buy of sutlers within our quarters " Tbislan- 
iu quality, but immediately adds: " We were guage of Dr. Pierson is a complete exculpation 
told by the guard, to console us, that this of the Confederate authorities from the accusa- 
ration was the same as they got themselves, tion brought by Admiral Porter, who made no 
and I think it likely enough that they quotations from the surgeon's report, although 
told the truth. I know that while at Savan- he seems to have had it before him as he wrote. 



THE CONFEDERATE STATES NAVY. 651 

on a siege or assault, as should be necessary, and as Dahlgren 
had been informed that Commodore Tatnall meditated a dash 
seaward with his squadron, he placed seven monitors in the 
Savannah River and thereabouts to intercept him, while his 
remaining ships cannonaded Battery Beaulain and other works 
on the Ogeechee, Ossabaw and Vernon waters; which were 
evacuated by the Confederates on the 31st. Sherman's army 
liad appeared before the earthworks on the land side of Savan- 
nah on the 8th of December, and on the 10th some sharp fight- 
ing occurred. Several strong assaults were made, in which 
the Federals were signally repulsed. Attacks were intermit- 
tently made and repelled until Hardee had perfected his plans 
for the abandoment of the city. On the 20th the Confederate 
iron-clad Savannah, Commander W. T. Brent, moved up the 
river near Hutchinson's Island and vigorously shelled the en- 
emy's left, while the batteries within range joined in with her 
fire. This was done to cover Hardee's retreat and effected its 
purpose. Under cover of this fire he crossed his troops to 
Hutchinson's Island and thence by the Union causeway into 
South Carolina territory. On the next day Sherman entered 
Savannah and received the surrender of the city from Mayor 
Arnold. 

Commodore Tatnall had proceeded on the night of the 20th 
to execute his orders regarding the ships and naval property 
at the port. The Georgia was set on fire and blown up at the 
moorings where for two years she had laid practically useless 
for any purpose of warfare. The iron-clad Milledgeville, which 
had recently been launched, was burned to the water's edge 
and sunk in the middle of the river. A ship partially con- 
structed was burned on the stocks at the yard of Kenston 
Hawkes. The navy-yard and a large quantity of valuable 
ship-timber were destroyed by fire, and the captured gunboat 
Water Witch, Acting Master Vaughn, which had been lying 
at Thunderbolt, was also burned. 

While Sherman's army was surrounding Savannah, Com- 
modore William Wallace Hunter, C. S. N., received instruc- 
tions from Gen. Hardee to proceed up the Savannah River 
with a sufficient force and destroy the Charleston and Savan- 
nah Railroad bridge, to prevent Gen. Sherman from sending 
a portion of his army across the river into South Carolina to 
prevent the escape of the retreating Confederates from Savan- 
nah. With his flag-ship, the Sampson, and the gunboat Maco7i, 
and a small transport steamer laden with supplies, Commodore 
Hunter proceeded up the river to tlie bridge. On the 
Georgia side of the river the smoking ruins along Sher- 
man's line of march could be seen in every direction. Not a 
single house was spared, not even a church. Vandalism 
marked the progress of the Federal army, and along the river 
banks were only encountered helpless women and children 
fleeing from the enemy. The arson of the dwelling houses of 



652 THE CONFEDERATE STATES NAVY. 

non-combatants and the robbery of their property, extending- 
even to the trinkets worn by women, made the devastation of 
Sherman's army as relentless as savage instincts could suggest. 

Arriving at his destination during the night. Commodore 
Hunter sent armed boats with combustible materials on the 
bridge and soon it was a mass of flames from one end to the 
other. Remaining alongside to see it completely destroyed, 
in the morning the gunboats proceeded down the river to take 
position on the right of Hardee's lines at Savannah. The en- 
emy having received intelligence of the return of the gun- 
boats, lined the river bank with the heaviest of their artillery, 
and as the vessels approached made every preparation for the 
attack. They had secured the range at various bends in the 
narrow stream, and only waited for Commodore Hunter to get 
in the line of their fire before opening the engagement. Com- 
modore Hunter had received notice from a refugee of the pre- 
parations to attempt the capture of his vessels on their passage 
down the river, and saw the enemy securing the range of the 
river at various points. The crews were called to quarters and 
final instructions given when the enemy opened fire at long 
range with rifle shot. The gunboats withheld their fire until 
they got nearly opposite, when a terrific fire was opened on 
both sides. The Federal artillery being stationed on the high 
bluffs had the advantage of position, and being light-rifled 
siege guns and field artillery could fire with great rapidity and 
precision. Commodore Hunter's two small wooden gunboats 
had their machinery and magazines exposed, and being within 
a few hundred yards of the enemy, nearly every shot from 
the latter took effect. As the gunboats approached nearer to 
the batteries, the fire of the guns of the enemy, which lined 
the river bank for some distance, was increased. In the hot- 
test of the fight the little transport steamer became disabled 
in her machinery, and she fioated ashore and surrendered. The 
Sampson and the Macofi, although struck several times, con- 
tinued the running fight for some time. The enemy, believing 
the gunboats could not pass their batteries, sent several bat- 
teries at full speed up the river to prevent their escape in that 
direction. Commodore Hunter was directing the movements 
of his vessels from the hurricane deck of the' Sampson. Mid- 
shipman Scharf, who had charge of the bow gun of the Samp- 
son, observing the attempt of the enemy to prevent the escape 
of the gunboats up the river, called the attention of the Com- 
modore to the movements of the enemy, and he gave the orders 
to retreat at full speed before the Federal batteries in his rear 
could get into position. The Sampson and Macon were turned 
up stream under a heavy fire, and with the aid of a barrel of 
bacon in the furnaces, the boats soon steamed from under fire. 

At this time there was a flood in the Savannah River, and 
Com, Hunter concluded to make an attempt to pass the ob- 
structions before Augusta, and reach that city. With his. 



THE CONFEDERATE STATES NAVY. 663 

two gunboats he reached Augustaj his vessels being the 
only ones saved of the Confederate navy at Savannah. At 
Augusta several of the naval officers received orders to pro- 
ceed to other points, but the majority of them, including 
Com. Hunter, were surrendered under Gen. Johnson's capitu- 
lation. 

When the Federal colors were raised upon the parapet of 
Fort Jackson, below Savannah, on the afternoon of December 
21st, the iron-clad Savannah v/as still in the river, and at once 
hoisted her flag and opened fire upon the enemy. She contin- 
ued this for several hours, shelling the troops in Fort Jackson 
w^ith sufficient vigor to drive them from their guns. Their 
return fire inflicted no damage upon her, and during the re- 
mainder of the day she displayed the Confederate colors in 
the face of the victorious Federals — the last emblem of the 
Southern Confederacy to float in hostility over the waters of 
Georgia. After dark Capt. Brent ran her over to the South 
Carolina shore, when he was joined by Com. Tatnall. They 
and the crew started on the march to Hardeeville, where the 
retreating Confederates were ordered to concentrate, first 
applying a slow match to the magazine of the Savannah. A 
little after ten o'clock she blew up with a tremendous explo- 
sion. A flash of light occurred and then an immense column of 
flames shot up in the air. The concussion shook the vessels 
lying in Tybee Eoads, and made houses tremble for miles 
around. 

The Federals captured at Savannah 32,000 bales of cotton, 
a large quantity of rice and some naval stores. They also 
got an uncompleted torpedo-boat and the small steamers 
Beauregard and General Lee, besides 150 pieces of ordnance 
in the fortifications. It was not until the 23d of January, 
1865, that they cleared the river of the obstructions that had 
lield back their ships. 

While the naval defence of the port was marked by no 
such stirring events as were enacted on the South Carolina 
seaboard, it is a record on the Confederate side of persevering 
and determined battling against adverse circumstances, some- 
times brightened by victories against great odds. The work 
of naval construction was more energetic and on a larger 
scale at Savannah than in any other Confederate coast city, 
but it failed to achieve important results because it was not 
concentrated. No other port was possessed of so many strong 
iron-clads as the Atlanta, Georgia and Savannah; but the 
first and last, which might have done good service for the 
Confederacy, were not in existence at the same time, and tlie 
Georgia was a rnarine abortion. It was the oft-told tale of no 
money or material to build more than one good ship at a time, 
and of the eventual bottling up of the squadron by the massive 
iron-clads of the enemy. The torpedo service, so efficient at 
Charleston and elsewhere, amounted to nothing at Savannah. 



654 THE CONFEDERATE STATES NAVY. 

A few explosive machines were placed near or in the obstruc- 
tions of the river, but they were never heard from until the 
Federals dug them up after the evacuation. Some were placed 
in the neighborhood of Fort McAllister, but the only one that 
did any duty exploded under the monitor Weehawken without 
injuring her. 

Yet there is nothing in the Confederate navai records in 
Georgia waters derogatory to the professional merit, the gal- 
lantry, or the fidelity of the officers and men of the service. 
They deserved well of their country, and they were the peers 
in every honorable attribute of those who worked and fought 
where more prominent reputations could be made. 



CHAPTER XXI. 
SOUTH CAROLINA WATERS. 



FROM the sounding of the first note of the Civil War 
a sentimental as well as practical interest was focused 
upon the attack and defence of Charleston. It was 
the metropolis, the embodiment of the intellectual power 
and impetus of the commonwealth, whose political giants 
had thirty years previously enunciated the doctrine of States 
rights that underlaid the Southern movement of 18G1 ; the 
State which held that doctrine was the first to point the way 
of independence ; it was virtually in arms almost as soon 
as the election of Mr. Lincoln became a certainty, and in 
its harbor the shot that became the signal for armies and 
navies to rise, and battle - flags to tempt tlie breeze, was 
fired. What wonder, then, that there prevailed throughout 
the North a fierce and passionate hunger that it should be 
conquered at any sacrifice of life and treasure, while Southern 
men and women chained their hearts to its fate, and during 
the two years of the siege the ragged Confederate veterans in 
field and trench and camp asked first for the news from Charles- 
ton ! In these sober days of peace the faithful history of the 
battle fury that within twenty-five years past raged around the 
spot where less than a century previous Sergeant Jasper had 
flung out the flag of the new-born American Republic in defi- 
ance of British shot and shell, brings back the stirring mem- 
ories of the long beleaguerment of " the cradle of secession" 
by ships and forts, the close and murderous conflicts on water 
and on shore, the diapason of the guns that thundered through 
more than six hundred nights and days, and the crimsoned 
pictures of the blood that was shed. No intelligent American 
can to-day pass the ocean gateways of the city without revert- 
ing, as the keel under him cuts the tossing waves of the bay, to 
the epoch when war held merciless sway over those beautiful 
waters and men died for the flag under which they served. 

The naval records of the war in South Carolina precede 
the birth of the nation which Mr, Gladstone said that Jefferson 

(655) 



<)06 THE CONFEDERATE STATES NAVY. 

Davis created. When the Ordinance of Secession was passed 
on December 20th, 1860, there were not wanting in Charleston 
men wliose thoughts had ah-eady been drawn tOAvard the sub- 
ject of naval offence and defence, and who were turning over 
in their minds sundry projects of putting ships-of-war afloat. 
After Major Anderson transferred the garrison of U. S. troops 
from Fort Moultrie to Fort Sumter on the night of Christmas 
Eve, and the talk at Washington and in the North was de- 
voted to sending a naval expedition to his relief, their ideas of 
meeting ships with ships could not but become more strongly 
fixed; and before the provisional government of the Confed- 
eracy was formed at Montgomery the palmetto flag had been 
hoisted over vessels equipped for war purposes by the people 
of South Carolina, and Governor F. W. Pickens had issued 
commissions in the naval service of the State. The destruc- 
tion of the records, when Sherman's army fired Columbia, 
swept out of existence the official documents upon which a 
full statement of these commissions, to whom issued and the 
assignments to vessels, could be based, but newspaper files 
and communications from the surviving officers supply the 
deficiency to some extent. 

The U. S. government vessels in South Carolina waters 
were taken possession of by authority of the State toward the 
close of December 1860, but they were of such small value as 
scarcely to be worth seizing. They comprised a venerable 
revenue-cutter known as the Aiken; the schooner Petrel, a 
relic of the Florida war ; the light-house tender Governor 
Aiken, and the coast-survey schooner Crawford. They were 
all sailing-vessels, and carried less than half a dozen light 
guns among them all. A river steamer called the General 
Clinch was bought in January 1861, and when mounted with 
a couple of brass cannon was put into service as the first ship 
of the South Carolina navy. 

The report of Major Anderson of December 27th, 1860, 
states that on that afternoon an armed steamer, two of which 
had been watching Forts Sumter and Moultrie, between which 
they had been passing to and fro, oi- had been anchored for 
the preceding ten nights, took possession by escalade of Castle 
Pinckne.y, Lieut. Meade, the U. S. officer in command, retiring 
without resistance to Fort Sumter. 

On January 10th, 1861, the New York agents of the New 
York and Charleston steamship line were notified that their 
steamship, the Marion, a side- wheel vessel of 800 tons burden, 
which had that day arrived at Charleston, had been taken for 
the service of the State by Governor Pickens' orders. The 
fact was that the Governor had proposed to buy the ship with 
the consent of the Charleston stockholders of the company, 
and workmen were put on board to begin fitting her out for a 
vessel-of-war; but they had done \evy little before it was de- 
cided that she was not available for that purpose and she was 



THE CONFEDERATE STATES NAVY. 657 

restored to her owners/ The anxiety of the South Carolina 
authorities to establish a naval force was increased by the 
attempt of the Federal government to reinforce Fort Sumter, 
the steamer Star of the West, with 200 troops on board, having, 
on January 9th, been only prevented from reaching the fort 
by the guns of the batteries on Morris Island. Capt. John 
McGowan, the commander of the steamer, in his report says. 
after speaking of being fired upon from the island: 

"At the same time there was a movement of two steamers from near Fort 
Moultrie, one of them towinp: a schooner (I presume an armed schooner) 
with the intention of cutting us off. Our position now became ratlier 
critical, as we had to approach Fort Moultrie within three-quarters of a 
mile before we could keep away for Fort Sumter. A steamer approaching 
us with an armed schooner in tow and the battery on the island firing at 
us all the time, and having no cannon to defend ourselves from the attack 
of the vessels, we concluded that to avoid certain capture or destruction 
we would endeavor to get to sea. * * * a steamer from Charleston fol- 
lowed us for about three hours watching our movements.'' 

The report of Lieut. Charles R. Woods, Ninth Infantry. 
U. S. A., commanding the troops on the Star of the West, 
states that the armed schooner was supposed to be the cutter 
Aiken. 

So it seems that three months before the war was begun, 
South Carolina had provided herself with vessels that could 
take some part in belligerent operations. It is also quite prob- 
able that the idea of iron-plating for forts and ships was first 
mooted in Charleston. In Januar}^, Col. C. H. Stevens, of the 
2ith S. C. Regt., then a private citizen of Charleston, began the 
erection of an iron-armored battery of two guns on Morris 
Island. It was built of heavy yellow pine timber with great 
solidity; it face was inclined at an angle of forty degrees and 
was covered with bars of railroad iron.'^ In this battery, which 
participated in the bombardment of Fort Sumter, and as a 
first experiment proved successful, we may clearly recognize 
the germ of such armored ships as the Virginia and her con- 
geners; but it does not follow that the designers of the Vir- 
ginia were prompted by the device of Col. Stevens. In Europe 
and America, speculations upon the possibility of sheathing 
ships with shot-proof metal were rife in naval circles before 
the war, and in France and England the topic had been dis- 
cussed in a desultory way ever since the allied fleets of wooden 
vessels had demonstrated that they could not endure the fire 
of the Russian forts at Sevastopol, or so much as venture an 
attack upon the defences of Cronstadt. Another invention 
tried at Charleston came much nearer than Col. Stevens' con- 
struction to the scheme of iron-clad ships. This was the float- 
ing battery that performed an important part in the Sumter 

1 This ship was afterwards boiight by the Fed- Charleston line, and all were fitted out as 
eral government, as were also the Columbia, armed cruisers for blockading purposes. 
James Adger. South Carolina and Massachusetts, 

all of which belonged to the New York and * " Charleston Year Book for 1883." 

42 



658 THE CONFEDERATE STATES NAVY. 

bombardment. It was constructed of palmetto logs and arm- 
ored with boiler iron, over which railroad iron was fastened. 
The roof was bomb-proof and it mounted four lieavy guns. 
The plating was said to have been subsequently removed to 
use on one of the iron-clad ships. The battery was designed 
and constructed by Lieut. J. R. Hamilton, of the C. S. navy. 

Shortly after the secession of the State the South Carolina 
Legislature passed a law, establishing the Coast and Harbor 
Police, of which Capt. James H. North was placed in com- 
mand. On January 23d, 1861, Wm. G. Dozier was appointed 
lieutenant in this force, and on March 13th was ordered to re- 
port for duty to Lieut. Thomas B. Hugeron the steamer Jatnes 
Grey. This vessel was a large steam-tug and was rechristened 
the Lady Davis. She was armed with a small English rifled 
cannon, of the Whitworth patent, the gift of C. K. Prioleau, 
a Charlestonian then residing in Liverpool. 

In April Capt. W.J. Hartstein took charge of naval affairs 
at Charleston with the rank of commander in the C. S. navy, 
his squadron then consisting of the steamers Gordon, Lady, 
Davis and Geiieral Clinch, the first named being his flag-ship. 
On April 5th he issued an order to Lieut. Dozier, commanding 
the Lady Davis, to prepare for sea immediately, taking on 
board ten days' provisions and as much fuel as possible. What 
was intended was manifest in the following instruction sent 
to Dozier the succeeding day: 

"The object of the present expedition under my command, consisting 
of the Lady Davis, General Clinch and Gordon, is to guard the approaches 
to this liarbor from the sea and prevent a reinforcement of Fort Sumter. 
You will tlierefore most rigidly obey all orders by signal or otherwise, using 
the utmost vigilance and giving immediate notice of any vessel or boat 
approaching. You will take station in Moffatt's Channel and keep always 
within signal distance of this vessel (the Gordo)i) in main ship channel. 
Economize your fuel, and if necessary to replenish it and if you are not able 
to communicate with me, proceed to Stono and return as soon as possible. 
If necessary to avoid the enemy, seek shelter under the guns of the neai'- 
est battery or run for Stono Inlet or Bull's Bay or Charleston if possible. 
If compelled to abandon your vessel, set her on fire to prevent her falling 
into the hands of the enemy. Be particularly cautious at night to guard 
against the approach or attack from boats, against which you will find it 
convenient and useful to use your stem by running them down, having 
small arms ready to I'epel boarders. Every morning at daylight get under 
way with me and run as far as Bull's Bay under short steam and cruise to 
and fro to observe any vessels in the bay or off shore for ten or fifteen 
miles, being certain to return to your station off the Moultrie house on 
Sullivan's Island. From dark to daylight you Avill keep a boat, if the 
weather is not bad, with two trusty men moving slowly between the Clinch 
m the Swash Channel and your vessel. Allow no lights, except signals, to 
be shown; be always ready to get under way. Examine all vessels or boats 
passing in and let none pass with an unusual number or anything suspic- 
ious. Allow nothing to pass in except in daylight; if not certain of a 
vessel's character follow her in past Sumter, keeping her closely observed." 

Much interest attaches to the above order, because it is in 
itself a lucid showing of the part which the rfaval forces were 



THE CONFEDERATE STATES NAVY. 659 

preparing' to take in the opening of the war by the bombard- 
ment of Fort Sumter. Tlie Confederate authorities were well 
apprized of the expedition being fitted out at New York under 
the command of Capt. G. V. Fox for the relief of Major An- 
derson, and Capt. Hartstein was charged with the duty of 
keeping watch for its advent. On April 10th, he wrote to 
Beauregard that he had had under his charge during the pre- 
ceding night, in addition to his three steamers, the CJiarleston, 
while the Seabrook and Catawba were also out on guard service. 
A noteworthy feature of this communication is its evidence 
of his anxiety to begin the bombardment. •' It is my opinion," 
h^ stated, " that Sumter can be relieved by boats from vessels 
outside on any niglit as dark as the last, so if we have to take 
it you had better be making a beginning. If a vessel-of-war 
is placed ofif each bar when Sumter opens, I will lose all my 
steamers, as there will be no escape for me. Therefore, before 
firing, these steamers should be called in. If the steamers are 
to guard the entrances, please send them down before dark 
that they may be positioned." 

On April 11th Gen. Beauregard made his demand upon 
Major Anderson for the surrender of Sumter, and in anticipa- 
tion of the attack that would by daylight of the 12tli follow a 
negative reply, certain work was cut out on that day for the 
naval service to perform. Lieut. Dozier was instructed to take 
the Lady Davis into the harbor, place her in charge of his first 
officer and obtain from the Quartermaster's Department two 
rafts, which he was to have towed as near as possible to the 
southwest side of Fort Sumter and anchored. After dark he 
was to set them on fire and withdraw, as soon as the Confeder- 
ate batteries opened on approaching boats or vessels. "' The 
object," Hartstein wrote, '• is to place the rafts in such posi- 
tions as to give the best light on the southwest side of Sumter, 
that the gunners may see to fire upon a party disembarking 
from vessels or boats. This service is very important, and 
much is left to your good discretion. If the rafts burn out be- 
fore davlight you must replenish and fire up, retreating as be- 
fore." 

Capt. Fox found that the bambardment had begun when 
he arrived off the bar on the 12th inst. with the gunboats Po- 
cahontas, Pawnee and Harriet Lane, and the troop-ship Baltic, 
and he refrained from any effort to succor Major Anderson. ' 
The presence of his vessels within view of the batteries was, 
however, disquieting to the Confederates, who expected them 
to make an attempt to enter. On April 13th Hartstein, writing 
from Fort Moultrie, informed Gen. Beauregard that he would 

1 Secretary Welles had ordered the steam frig- the Powhatan to attemi^t to land troops and sup- 
ate Powhatan to form part of the exijedition, \A\ea at Fort Sumter, and that without them he 
but without his knowledge President Lincoln was powerless to execute the plans of relief, 
dispatched her out of New York to relieve Fort Welles and Fox charged that the diversion of the 
Pickens under command -of Lieut. D. D. Porter. Powhatan to another jjiirpose wns brongh* about 
JFox claimed that he had relied upon the boats of by the secret machinali>-us of Secretary Seward. 



6G0 THE CONFEDERATE STATES NAVY. 

reconnoitre them that night from a small boat, but he thought 
that with good lookouts on duty and the channel lit up by the 
fire-hulks there was not any danger of their getting in. The 
Confederate gunboats did not enter the engagement, and such 
of the naval officers as could be spared from them did duty on 
shore. Gen. Beauregard, in his report to Gen. Samuel Cooper, 
Adj. Gen. C. S. A., spoke warmly of the meritoi-ious services 
of ''the naval department, especially Capt. Hartstein, one of 
my volunteer aides, who was perfectly indefatigable in guard- 
ing the entrance into the harbor; Lieut. T. B. Huger, who was 
also of much service, first as Inspecting Ordnance Officer of 
■batteries, and then in charge of the batteries on the south 
end of Morris Island ; Lieut. Warley, who commanded the 
Dahlgren Channel Battery; also the school-ship, which was- 
kindly offered by the Board of Directors, and was of much 
service; Lieut. Rutledge, who was Acting Inspector General 
of Ordnance of all the batteries, in which capacity he was of 
much service in organizing and distributing the ammunition ; 
Capts. Childs and Jones, Assistant Commanders of batteries."' 
Lieut. J. R. Hamilton. C. S. N., commanding the Point Battery 
on Sullivan's Island and also the floating iron-plated battery, 
was commended in Gen. R. S. Ripley's report for " firing 
with great precision and skill " to prevent the working of the 
barbette guns of Sumter and dismount them. ' As soon as 
the white flag was displayed from the fort on the 13th, Gen. 
R. G. M. Dunovant, commanding on Sullivan's Island, sent 
Capt. Hartstein and Surgeon Arthur Lynch, C. S. N., to ascer- 
tain whether Major Anderson had surrendered, but tliey had 
been preceded by members of Gen. Beauregard's staff, with 
whom the terms were negotiated. On the same afternoon 
Capt. Hartstein returned to the fort, in company with Major 
D. R. Jones, Capt. Wm. Porcher Miles, and Capt. Roger A. 
Pryor, to arrange with the Federal commander the means 
most acceptable to him for his evacuation the following day. 
In accordance with his desire, the Confederate steamers trans- 
ferred him and his men to the U. S. transport Baltic, one of the 
ships of Fox's squadron, and they sailed for New York. '^ 

Succeeding the surrender of Fort Sumter increased zeal 
was shown in the formation of a navy. Commissions were 
issued in May by Governor Pi€kens, making Thomas P. Pelot 

1 On April 15th, Hon. L. P. Walker telegraphed 2 Before their departure Lieut. T. B. Huger 
to Gen. Beauregard from Montgomery that if the addressed this couimunicatiou to Gen. Beaure- 
floatiug battery worked well he would order one gard : " These vessels of the enemy, which are 
for Peusafola, and asked if Lieut. Hamilton causing us some anxiety, and at any rate treat- 
could go there to construct it. Gen. Beauregard ing us with great disrespect. 1 would like to have 
answered that it worked well for enfilading, and the jileasure of driving ofl' from our port ; and 
that he wanted Hamilton for a few days. He if we cannot succeed in that at least make thenx 
decided to place it at Wappoo Cut for defence keep at a respectable distance. I volunteer for 
against boats, and Hamilton suggested that its the service. If you will allow me to put the 
arniameut should be changed to 8-inch siege rifled cannon on the iorfi/J^aris, under my com- 
howitzers. and that be could make it fairther mand, I can go out and at long range try ibe 
useful if he was authorised to enlist twenty-four effect of the shot on them. I think in this way 
seamen, and Lieuts. Grimball and John H. In- I may be able to annoy them, if not drive 
graham could be assigned to him. them off." 



THE CONFEDERATE STATES NAVY. 6G1 

lieutenant, Dr. J. N. Pelot surgeon, and J. J. Darcy second 
assistant engineer in the navy of South Carolina. Lieut. 
Stockton was phiced in command of the Lady Davis, and 
from the Messrs. Eason's foundry at Charleston a hirge num- 
ber of bolts was turned out to tit the Prioleau cannon. An- 
other vessel then added to the navy was the schooner Helen. 
Capt. Coste, which, with the schooner Petrel. Capt. Murden, 
was ordered to stations along the coast. "The declaration of 
the blockade in May, and the speedy appearance before the 
iSouthern ports of tlie fleets which the Federal government 
was building or buying with an extravagant expenditure of 
its illimitable treasury resources, spurred the Confederacy to 
every exertion within its narrow means to repel invasion by 
water. The authorities were urged to put in requisition 
every harbor steamer, every sloop, schooner and pilot-boat 
that could carry a gun, and nowhere was the demand for a 
naval establishment more urgently made than in South Caro- 
lina. Experience with the ironed floating battery in the at- 
tack on Fort Sumter had been flattering to its efficacy, and 
steps were taken to construct others on the same plan at vari- 
ous points liable to attack, while the few steamers in Southern 
ports were utilized for the hastily-improvised navy. 

Blockade-running began quickly upon the establishment 
of the blockade, and the first prize captured by the Federals on 
the So. Carolina coast was the ship General Parkhill. owned in 
Charleston, which was taken by the frigate Niagara, on May 
loth, while endeavoring to make port homeward bound from 
Liverpool. Upon observing her signals, two small Confeder- 
ate steamers ran out of the harbor to assist her, but they 
were too weak to cope with the Niagara and were constrained 
to put back. In the early days of blockade-running some of 
the craft engaged in the business were armed and commis- 
sioned as privateers, or bore letters-of-marque from President 
Davis, in order that while on their voyages they might strike 
a blow at the enemy's commerce as occasion offered. Of this 
class were the schooner Dixie and Capt. Hartstein's former 
flag-ship, the Gordon, which when renamed the Theodora took 
out from Charleston Messrs. Mason and Slidell, the Confeder- 
ate envoys to Great Britain and France. 

On October 11th, Messrs. Mason and Slidell left Charleston 
in the Theodora to take the English mail steamer at some 
point in the West Indies for their posts at London and Paris, 
but the secret of their movements was so carefully kept that 
it was not until November 2d that the fact of their departure 
was published in the city newspapers. Besides the two Con- 
federate envoys the party comprised Mr. Macfarland, secre- 
tary to Mr. Mason; Mr. Eustis, secretary to Mr. Slidell; Mrs. 
Slidell, Miss Mathilde Slidell, Miss Rosine Slidell and Mrs. 
Eustis. The steamer evaded the blockaders by sailing on a 
dark and stormy midnight, and reached Nassau on the 13th, 



662 THE CONFEDERATE STATES NAVY. 

where the envoys had anticipated taking passage on the Eng- 
lish steamer, but were deterred because they found that she 
woukl stop at New York on the way to Liverpool. Thej^ con- 
tinued on the Theodora to Cardenas and Havana, reaching the 
latter port on the 17th with the Confederate colors flying. 
Their reception there was most cordial, and the ladies of the 
Cuban city presented Capt. Lockwood of the Theodora with a 
handsome Confederate flag. The ship returned to Charleston 
and the envoys started for Europe on the steamer Trenf. which 
was overhauled by the U. S. frigate San Jacinto, Capt. Charles 
Wilkes, at sea. on November 8tli, ISGl, and the commissioners 
taken out of the Trent. This outrage created the greatest 
excitement in England, and to prevent a collision between the 
two governments the United States gave up the commissioners 
to the representatives of the British government authorized tO' 
receive them. They subsequently arrived safely in England. 
A matter which created at the time an uproar that turned 
out to be ludicrously disproportionate to its importance was- 
the effort of the Federals to close the port of Charleston, as well 
as other sea-coast cities, with the celebrated "Stone Fleet."' 
Disgusted with the failure of the ships-of-war to stop blockade- 
running, some of President Lincoln's advisers conceived the 
brilliant scheme of sealing up the Southern ports by sinking- 
in their channels hulks loaded with stone. The New England 
whaling men had plenty of worn-out ships for Avhich the gov- 
ernment thus provided them a market, and some fifty or sixty 
of such craft were purchased. Twenty vessels, carrying over 
six thousand tons of stone, were brought to Charleston on De- 
cember 20th. 18G1. and scuttled in the channels, and the Fed- 
erals exulted in the supposition that the blockade was effectual 
at last. But such a barlDarous mode of warfare as the attempt 
to close forever the avenues through which commerce must 
seek ingress to and egress from a seaport, brought from Eng- 
land and France most emphatic expressions of condemnation. 
The Ministers of those countries at Washington were instructed 
by tlieir governments to enter formal protests. Lord Lyons, 
the British representative, was directed by Lord John Russell 
to state to Secretary Seward tliat, in the opinion of her 
Majesty's government, 

" Such a cruel plan ■would seem to imply despair of the restoration of 
the Union, the professed object of the war; for it never could be the wish of 
the U. S. government to destroy cities from which their own country was 
to derive a portion of its riches and prosperity. Such a plan could only 
be adopted as a measure of revenge and of irremediable injury against an 
enemy. Lord Lyons was further told that even as a scheme of embit- 
tered and sanguinary war such a measiire would not be justifiable. It 
would be a plot against the commerce of all maritime nations, and against 
the free intercourse of the Southei'n States of America with the civilized 
world." 

The protest of France was of the same tenor, and when the 
French Chambers and the British Parliament met in Januarv 



THE CONFEDERATE STATES NAVY. 663 

and February 180-^, the subject was vehemently discussed. 
While the Washington government might have remained in- 
sensible to simple remonstrances from the European powers, it 
was confronted with their strong disposition to declare illegal 
a blockade that could not be maintained by ships afloat, and to 
establish which it was needful to resort to practices not recog- 
nized by the Treaty of Paris as legitimate between belliger- 
ents. Mr. Seward's tortuous diplomacy was strained to post- 
pone and prevent this dreaded declaration, and 'the otficial 
correspondence was still in progress when the disputation 
was suddenly terminated by the discovery that the stone fleet 
scheme at Charleston was one of the blunders of the Federal 
authorities. The sapient landsmen who invented it had never 
counted upon the power of the tidal currents of the harbor, by 
which some of the hulks were broken up and their fragments 
washed away; others settled below the ever-shifting sands, 
and such as remained in place helped, by concentrating the 
currents jetty-fashion, to scour the channels deeper. Mr. Lin- 
coln and his counsellors breathed easier after the forces of 
nature extricated them from one of the most difficult dilemrnas 
in which they mired themselves by their inordinate craving 
to disregard the laws of civilized warfare in hostilities against 
the Confederacy. 

The blockade had not been long declared by the govern- 
ment at Washington before it was perceived that it could not 
be maintained without a coaling, refitting and supply station 
at some convenient point on the Southern coast, and a joint 
military and naval expedition was formed under the com- 
mand of Gen. Thomas W. Sherman and Commodore S. F, Du- 
pont for the purpose of seizing such a location as might be 
determined upon. After discussion upon the comparative ad- 
vantages of Fernandina, Bull's Bay and Port Royal, the mag- 
nificent land-locked harbor of the latter caused it to be selected, 
and in the last week of October the fleet of men-of-war and 
transports rendezvoused at Fortress Monroe, from whence it 
set sail on the 29th with sealed orders, which were not to be 
communicated to the commanders of ships until they were at 
sea. ^ Commodore Dupont hoisted his flag on the frigate 
Wabash, and his other fighting ships were the frigate Susque- 
liannah. the sloops-of-war Mohican, Seniinole. Pawnee and Vcm- 
dalia, and the gunboats UnadiUa, Ottawa, Paulina, Bien- 
ville. Seneca, Curlew, Penguin, Augusta, R. B. Forbes and 
Isaac Smith. This was a much more formidable force than 
had attacked Hatteras Inlet in the preceding Aug.. the vessels 
mounting in all about 175 guns, many of which were 11-inch 
pieces. The troops numbered over 12.000, and were convoyed 

' Secret information of the destination of the eral Ripley at Charleston, and General Drayton 

enemy had been obtained by the Confederate at Port Royal: "I have just received inform- 

f;overument On November 1st Actint; Secre- atiou which I consider entirely reliable that 

tary of War Benjamin telegraphed from Rich- the enemy's expedition is intended for Port 

moud to (i-overnor Pickens at Columbia, Gen- Royal," 



6(34 THE CONFEDERATE STATES NAVY. 

in fifty transports. It was the largest fleet tliat liad ever been 
under the command of an American officer. A severe gale 
scattered the ships off Hatteras on Nov. 1st, but only one 
transport was lost, and the fleet assembled off Port Royal on 
the 5th, Gth and 7th. 

The Confederate defences consisted of Fort Walker on 
Hilton Head and Fort Beauregard at Bay Point, which form 
respectively the western and eastern entrances to the harbor, 
and are distant from each other nearly three miles. They 
were exceedingly Avell-built earthworks and were rather heav- 
ily armed, Fort Walker mounting 23 guns and Fort Beaure- 
gard 18. a total of 41; but 23 of these were only o2-pounders 
or lighter pieces, so that there were in fact but 19 guns fit to 
cope with the at least 100 heavy rifles and shell-guns of the 
Federal ships. Gen. Thomas F. Drayton was in command of 
both posts, with his head-quarters at Hilton Head, and Col. R. 
M. Dunovant had immediate command of Fort Beauregard. 
The defences were garrisoned by about 2,000 men, but this 
force was very deficient in trained artillerists, and a small 
supply of shot and shell forbade much practice with the 
larger guns. 

From the time that Port Royal was menaced. Commodore 
Josiah Tatnall had moved to its vicinity through the sounds 
the little squadron under his command in the Savannah River. 
It comprised the river steamer Savannah (flag-ship), impro- 
vised into a man-of-war. Lieut. J. N. Maflitt commanding, and 
the armed tugs Resolute, Lieut. J. Pembroke Jones; Sampson, 
Lieut. J., Kennard, and Lady Davis, Lieut. J. Rutledge. On 
the morning of Nov. 5th they were lying in the mouth of 
Skull Creek, a short distance from Fort Walker. The editor 
of the Savannah Repuhlican, who had accompanied Commo- 
dore TatntiU as a spectator, describes the subsequent events: 

"The Monday after his arrival, he found the enemy, forty-four sail 
strong, off the mouth of the harbor. Perceiving several of tlieir vessels to 
be engaged near the bar in taking soundings, he instantly, with his small 
force, attacked them at a, distance of but a mile and a half ; and, after a 
cannonading of forty minutes, during which he succeeded in entrapping 
thi'ee of the enemy's screw vessels under the fire of our batteries, finding 
that he had to encounter English rifled guns, he retired inside the harbor. 

"The day after (Tuesday), he again engaged the enemy at long shots 
for upwards of half an hour, apparently with some effect; the flag ship 
Savannah receiving no further injury froui the reception of two shots, 
than a temporary one to her upper works, and the i euiaining vessels of 
the squadron i-eceiving no hurt whatever. 

" Early in the evening of this day we were all much gratified bv the 
arrival of Capt. Page, C. S. N., of Virginia, the second in command to Flag- 
offieer Tatnall, of the Georgia and Carolina coast. This accomplished offi- 
cer, whose i-eputation in the old service, to which he has long been a bi-ight 
ornament, is well known, was a most valuable addition to our force, and, 
as events i>roved, to the army also, w^liich is somewhat indebted to his 
personal exertions for the satisfactory retreat made by them, when even 
their usual Ijravery, most memorably displayed as it was, failed to quite 
support them in their hour of need. 



THE CONFEDERATE STATES NAVY. 665 

" Every one on board the little fleet expected an attack from the ene- 
my durinj^ the night, yet evei-y officer and man of it was cool and collected. 
Sensible of the fearful odds which, at any moment, they might be called 
upon to encounter, and fully resolved to meet, as far as lay in their power, 
any issue forced upon them with the spirit of ' true Southern sailors,' they 
awaited, with courage in their hearts and i-esolve stamped upon their every 
countenance, the approach of a foe to whom, from old association, they 
took pecuhar pride in showing themselves ready to stand by their cause 
like men 'sans peur et sans reprocJie.' But the American fleet did not at- 
tempt an entrance, and morning dawn showed it to be in the i)osition of the 
day previous. Anol her twenty-four hours passed only to reveal the same 
mysterious inaction on the part of the enemy. 

"Thursday morning, however, at about half-past nine, their fleet was 
seen to ' get under way' and stand into the haroor in the following order: 
The Minnesota, 51, a screw, leading, the flag of Plag-ofFieer Dupont at the 
mizzen, closely followed by the paddle-wheel steam frigate Susquehanna, 
15 ; the ^ian Jacinto, 14, screw steam corvette, and a number of screw and 
paddle pelters, mounting rifled guns, one of which towed in a sailing 
'Jackass frigate,' not recognized by our officers with certainty, but sup- 
posed to have been the Ciunbedand, 24. At nine o'clock, having got with- 
in range, they opened quite a heavy lire upon the batteries, which was re- 
turned by them with spirit. 

"Flag-officer Tatnall ordered the anchor of the Savannah hove up 
when the enemy had advanced to within a mile and a half of him, and 
steaming up to \vard Hilton Head battery, took a raking position upon the 
bow of the largest American frigate, then hotly engaging it, and opened 
fire with his thirty-two's upon her, to which, however, she did not deign 
immediately to reply. 

" Our distance was too great (being that of a mile), and our guns were 
of too light a calibre to enable us to do her much, if any, injury. Several 
excellent shots were made by Midshipman B. Moses, commanding the after 
gun, but with what effect was, of course, impossiljle for us to determine. 
All this time the enemy's frigate Avas gradually nearing us for the double 
purpose of enfilading the battery and returning the respects of our little 
vessel; but the Commodore, disliking to run unless under a fire, and that 
a hot one, only gave the order to retreat when the frigate, rounding to, 
discharged her first gun at us, awdthe Susquehanna co\\\vaeuQex\ a pursuit. 

" We soon found the frigate to be rapidly gaining upon us, and that if 
we were not in the meantime blown out of the water, Skull Creek was our 
only haven of refuge from a prison in the great American metroi)olis. The 
Minnesota, evidently disposed to return our attentions of the last two 
days once and forever, dischai'ged, at a distance of 800 yards, three broad- 
-sides in quick succession against our miserable cockle-shell, but thanks to 
her poor gunnery and our luck, we were only hit once by an 11-inch shell 
that entered our port wheel-house, carrying away bulk-heads and stanch- 
ions, though hurting no one, from the fact that it did not explode, and lit 
upon the starboaixl side of the gun-deck, passing within two feet of Capt. 
Page, who was superintending the working of the forward gun. At this 
juncture we were so close to the enemy's ships that their crews could, with 
the naked eye, be distinctly seen ramming home the guns, and Flag-officer 
Tatnall, i-egretting his inability to return the high flown compliments of 
Flag-offlcer Dupont in a more satisfactory manner, ordered his blue flag 
dipped three times to him in token of his acknowledgments of the same. 

" We reached Skull Creek in safety at about eleven o'clock and went 
alongside of Seabrook's Landing, when the flag-officer instantly dispatched 
our marines, under the command of Capt. G. Holmes, of Savannah, an 
experienced officer, over the other side of the island to render assistance 
to the fatigued garrison of the battery — Capt. Page, at the request of the 
ilag-officer, superintending the debarkation. 

" They were followed an hour afterwards by Flag-officer Tatnall, Capt. 
Page and Midshipman Barron Carter, of Augusta - the flag officer's aide — 



G6G THE CONFEDERATE STATES NAVY. 

who preceded all the available seamen of the steam gun-vessels Savannah 
and Sampson, with some few marines of the latter vessel under the com- 
mand of Lieut. IMiilip Port-her, of South Carolina, ordered to make speed 
with all our naval ammunition to the battery which, at this time, appeared 
to be hard pressed. 

"I accompanied the command of Lieut. Porcher to within a half mile 
of the battery. Before reaching that point, however, the firing between 
the battery and shipping had ceased, and the lieutenant, from the 
number of straggling soldiers en route to the landing ' in search of their 
companies.'' thought things not exactly as they should be, and so re- 
marked, but he nevertheless kept on his course until informed officially 
by an army officer ot the garrison being in the enemy's possession, and 
advised him to ' make the best of his way back to his vessel.' This advice 
he partially followed by countermarching his men, in good order, at 
common time. 

" I, however, not being an active participant in the affair, but merely 
a spectator, pushed further on to learn the fate of the flag-officer and 
Capt. Holmes' command, and met them at a distance of a quarter of a 
mile frt)m the battery. Capt. Holmes ATas missing. He, upon his near 
approach to the fort, had gone in advance of his company to see how 
matters stood and had not returned, when the Commodore, finding all to 
be lost, and conceiving the captain to hav^e been captured, ordered Lieut. 
Raney, of Florida, the second in command, to follow after him with his 
men to the steamer; to use his own words, ' feeling no fear for the success 
of the retreat, or his personal safety, with so reliable an officer in his rear.'^ 

" When we reached Seabrook's Landing the steamer Savannah had 
left for the city to repair damages sustained in the engagement, but the 
paddle gun- vessel Sampson, Lieut. Commanding Kennard, received us all 
onboard; and afterwards, at the request of certain army officers, many 
of the volunteers who, most unfortunately, had not yet been able to find 
their companies, and were consequently in much disorder. The embarka- 
tion of these last was superintended by Capt. Page, and detained us until 
late in the evening. 

******* 

" Flag-officer Tatnall left the island, with the Resolute a,nd Sampson^ 
at about 2 A. M. for Savannah, which he reached a little after daylight, 
carrying with him as passengers many of the officers and men from the 
captured garrison." 

The Federal gunboats with which Tatnall was first en- 
gaged with his mosquito fleet were the Ottawa. Pembina, 
Seneca. Curlew. Penguin. Pawnee and Isaac P. Smith. The 
skirmish was continued for an hour at too great a distance for 
much execution to be done, although the Jsaac P. Smith, the 
Ottaiva and the Pembina were struck several times and por- 
tions of their rigging cut away, while the Lady Davis received 
a solid shot on the quarter. As Dupont's gunboats came under 
the fire of Fort Beauregard they were shelled so smartly that 
they retreated, the Confederate flotilla following and firing 
upon them, the correspondent of the New York Herald wrote, 
" as proudly and defiantly as if Commodore Tatnall had a 
hundred line-of-battle ships under his command." 

At nine o'clock on the morning of the 7th. Dupont had 
his sixteen ships formed in a main and a flanking column, 
with the Wabash leading, and the battle opened. According 
to his plan, the vessels steamed in an ellipse between the two 
forts, delivering their fire upon each as their broadsides were- 



THE CONFEDERATE STATES NAVY. G67 

brought to bear — a novel evolution, which, however, was 
favored by the situation of the contending forces. Tatnall's 
squadron laid behind an imaginary line connecting the two 
forts, and the commanders of the four gunboats constituting 
the Federal flanking division were particularly instructed to 
attack him if they saw an opportunity.' He assisted the 
forts as far as was within his pow<}r. slowly retreating, but 
keeping within range, as the gunboats advanced upon him. 
His fire was of some value in the first hours of the engage- 
ment in occupying the attention of Federal guns that would 
otherwise have been devoted to Walker and Beauregard, and 
when' too hard pressed by the overwhelmingly superior power 
of the gunboats he withdrew to a safe position at the mouth 
of Skull Creek. To have attempted close fighting with them 
would have been suicidal, and his toy steamers would have 
been blown out of the water or sunk by the 11-inch shells if he 
had ventured it. 

There could be but one ending of a contest so unequal as 
that waged between Dupont and Drayton. During the battle 
the former was reinforced by the steam frigate Pocahontas, 
Commander Percival Drayton, brother of the Confederate 
general, which also took part in the assault. The inexperi- 
enced artillerists of the forts could rarely plant a shot in the 
moving steamers, while the latter maintained an unceasing 
rain of fire upon them. Speaking of Fort Walker, which was 
the main object of attack, Gen. Drayton's report says: 

" Besides this moving battery, the fort was enfiladed by the la^un boats 
anchored to the north off the mouth of Fish Hall Creek, and another on 
the edge of the shoal to the south. This enfilading fire on so still a sea 
annoyed and. damaged us excessively, particularly as we had no gun on 
either flank of the bastion to rei)ly with, for the 32-pounder on the right 
flank was shattered by a round shot, and on the north flank, for want of 
a carriage, no gun was mounted. After the fourth fire the 10-inch Colura- 
biad bounded over the hurter and became useless. The 24 pounder rifle 
was choked while ramming down a shell and lay idle during nearly the 
whole engagement. * * * Two o'clock had now arrived, when I noticed 
our men coming out of the fort, which they had bravely defended for four 
and a half hours against fearful odds, and then only retiring when all but 
three of the guns on the water front had become disabled and only 500 
pounds of powder remained in the magazine ; commencing the action with 
230 men inside the fort, afterwards increased to 255 by the accession of 
Read's Battery. These heroic men retired slowly and sadly from their 
well-fought guns, which to have defended longer would have exhibited 
the energy of despair rather than the manly pluck of the soldier." 

At 2:30 P. M. a detachment of sailors hoisted the Federal 
flag over Fort Walker, and at 3:o5 the Confederates evacuated 

1 " In giving these instructions the flag-officer it (Tatnall's squadron) were poorly adapted for 

stated that he knew Tatnall well; he was an offl- successfully opj^osing those advancing and now 

cer of courage and plan, and that it was not at within fair range of the earthworks. Tatnall'* 

all imlikely tliat in the heat of action and smoke were what were known as 'river steamers.' 

of hattle he would endeavor to pass out and de- extremely vulnerable, boilers and machinery^ 

stroy the trausi^orts, and the vital duty of the fully exi:iosed, and the guns cai-ried, although^ 

flanking coluuin wa.s to take care of Tatnall rifled, were of inferior calibre." — " The Atlan- 

and destroy his vessels if he attempted that tic Coast." By Rear Admiral Daniel Ammeu_ 

experiment. * • * Xhe vessels compos. ng U. S. N. 



*668 THE CONFEDERATE STATES NAVY. 

the works on Bay Point. Gen. Drayton retiring- with all h's 
troops in safety into the interior, while Commodore Tatnall re- 
turned with his flotilla to Savannah. The Federals had eight 
men killed and twenty-five wounded on board the ships, and 
the Confederate loss was as follows: killed in Fort Walker 10, 
wounded 20; killed in Col. De Saussure's regiment 1, wounded 
15; wounded in Fort Beauregard 13. Their victor}^ gave the 
Federals access to the inland waters between Cliarleston and 
Savannah and confined Confederate naval operations on this 
coast to those two ports and their vicinage. 

An affair, the importance of whicli was vastly overrated 
in the Federal reports, occurred on May 13th, 18G3, when 
Robert Smalls, a slave, stole the steamer Planter out of 
Charleston harbor and delivered her over to the blockading 
fleet. These reports, and every account of the incident pub- 
lished to this day by Northern writers, speak of Smalls as the 
pilot of the Planter, and as having exhibited extreme daring. 
Yet he was not the pilot of the vessel, and he took no extraor- 
dinary risk, the ease with which he accomplished his under- 
taking being due to the negligence of her officers, who were 
Capt. Robert Relyea, Pilot Samuel H. Smith and Engineer 
Zerich Pitcher. On that day, in disobedience of Gen. Ripley's 
orders that the officers and crews of all light-draft steamers 
should remain on board day and night, tliey had left the boat 
in charge of the negro hands, of whom Smalls was one. Two 
white men, a white woman, and the negro crew were privy to 
his plot, and shortly after three o'clock, on the morning of 
May 13th, they got up steam and stood down the harbor. As 
the Planter was regularly used in the transportation of ord- 
nance and army stores, there was nothing in her movements 
to excite the suspicions of the sentinels upon the fortifications, 
and she was allowed to pass unchallenged. ■■• Once outside the 
line of fire, Smalls hauled down the Confederate ensign and 
hoisted a white flag, and gave up the Planter lo a Federal vessel 
that was just abotit to fire upon her. The net result was that the 
Federals acquired a small steamer, the two guns with which she 
was armed, the four which had been put on her for transporta- 
tion to the forts, the refugees, and a man (Smalls), w4io knew 
all the intricate channels of the vicinity; while Smalls obtained 
a notoriety which sent him to the South Carolina Legislature, 
and then to Congress in the reconstruction era. He was 
eventually convicted of receiving a $5,000 bribe as a legislator 
and got a term of imprisonment for his offence, none of his 
Northern admirers, who had so applauded him in 1862, coming 
forward to help him out of his trouble and disgrace. 

In Nov. 186-.', it was deemed advisable to take measures 
toward the establishment of a naval construction and repair 

1 The report of Major Alfred Rhett, com- the f-uara-boat Roing out. It was so reported 

mandant at Fort Sumter, says that "at 4:15 to the otlicer of the day, and as it is by no means 

o'clock this morning the sentinel on the parapet unusual for the guard-boat to run out atthat hour 

-called for the corporal of the guard and reported no further notice was taken of the occurrence." 



THE CONFEDERATE STATES NAVY. G69' 

depot on the interior waters of South CaroUna. where it would 
not be affected by movements on the seaboard. Lieut. A. Bar- 
bot, C. S. N., in compliance with instructions from Flag-officer 
Ingraham. proceeded to Cheraw, Chesterfield County, on a 
tour of inspection of feasible sites, and reported that a gun- 
boat could be built at Society Hill Landing on the Pedee 
River, from whence an average depth of eight feet by water 
could be carried to the Georgetown entrance. Lieut. Van 
Rensselaer Morgan' was sent into the vicinity to carry out 
the project, and he soon had the " Pedee navy-yard," as it was 
termed, under way. His force embraced a naval constructor, 
a surgeon, a commissary, and about one hundred carpenters, 
shipwrights and other workmen, most of them detailed from 
the arm}'. They went into the forests, cut the timber, rafted 
it down the river, and soon laid the keel of a gunboat. Quite 
a colony was formed at this point, but great difficulty was en- 
countered in obtaining supplies from the surrounding country, 
and if the gunboat was ever finished it performed no services 
that were noticed in official or other reports. 

The history of the navy in South Carolina waters for the 
most part of 18G2 presents little beyond reconnoissances of 
Federal positions. After their victory at Port Royal the en- 
emy's gunboats pushed up into the intricate maze of sounds 
and inlets between that point and Charleston, and occasional 
skirmishes took place between them and the Confederate 
forces on shore, but the list of killed on both sides was not 
lengthy. The principal point of advantage gained by the 
Federals was the possession of Stono Inlet, into which they 
entered on May 29th, and thus secured an important base for 
the future siege operations against Charleston : but their 
attempt to then gain a foothold on James Island was frus- 
trated by their defeat at the battle of Secessionville. 

On August 14th, the Federal gunboats Pocahontas and 
Treaty made a raid up the Black Riv^er to Georgetown 
with a view of capturing the C. S. steamer Nina. They took 
alarm, however, at the reports of a large hostile force being 
not far distant, and hurried out towards sea again with- 
out effecting the object for which the expedition was de- 
signed. On their way down the stream they were heavily 
shelled from batteries on the banks and fired into by rifle- 
men. The raid was entirely a failure. 

1 Van Eensselaer Morgan entered the Con- people of Norfolk and Portsmouth, who swarmed 
federate naval service iu 1861, and in the fall of out in boats. He then established the navy-yard 
that year commanded the floating battery at the on the Pedee River, and while engaged in build- 
Norfolk navy-yard and the old sloop-of-war Ply- ing a gunboat there was detached and ordered 
mouth. When the evacuation of the yard was to report to Commodore Ingraham at Charleston, 
ordered from Richmond, he was directed to At the surrender of that city he hurried to the 
have the latter vessel towed up to that city with Pedee navy-yard, and obtaining seven men from 
supi^Iies, but that being impossible on account the commandant, impressed into service enough 
of the blockade of James River, instructions horses and wagons to transfer the ammunition 
were given to him to set her on fire in the stream. in the yard to the railroad at Cheraw, from 
He reluctantly complied, but not until he had whence it was sent on to Charlotte. Hewassur- 
thrown overboard the gi-eat quantity of provis- rendered and paroled with Flag-officer Forrest's 
ions on board, which were gathered up by the command at Greensboro, N. C, May 1st, 1865. 



670 THE CONFEDERATE STATES NAVY. 

On Jan. 30th, 1S03, the Confederates acquired a notable 
addition to tlie navy in Charleston waters by the capture of 
the Federal gunboat Isaac P. Smith, which was cleverly trap- 
ped in the Stono River above Legareville. The light-draft 
steamers were in the habit of patrolling this stream, and Gen. 
Beauregard, who had assumed command of the Dept. of South 
Carolina and Georgia on Sept. Sith, 18G2, saw that it might be 
feasible to cut off some of them by masked batteries on shore. 
Lieut. Col. Joseph A. Yates, First S. C. artillery, was detailed 
to command an expedition of seven companies of artillery and 
one of infantry, which on the day mentioned posted their guns 
at convenient points along the river. The Smith was suffered 
to pass above them, but when she endeavored to return the bat- 
teries shelled her repeatedly, until at Legare's Point Place a 
shot disabled her machinery and she was surrendered, having 
lost eight men killed and seventeen wounded. She was a very 
swift steamer of 450 tons, mounting one rifled gun and eight 
8-inch Columbiads. The Confederates renamed their prize the 
Stono, adopted lier into the fleet and kept her on active duty 
around Charleston until the city was surrendered. Capt. H. J. 
Hartstene, C. S. N., was placed in command of this prize. 

Every nerve was being strained throughout 18G3 to put an 
iron-clad flotilla afloat, the State and the C. S. governments 
working along parallel lines with kindred intensity of purposes. 
Flag-officer Duncan N. Ingraham. who had been appointed to 
the command of the naval forces in South Carolina, arrived in 
Charleston early in the year, and one of his duties was to 
superintend tlie" construction of an armored ram. tlie keel of 
which was laid in January. She was named tlie Palmetto State, 
and was ready for service the succeeding summer. Her iron- 
plating was four inches thick, and her battery consisted of an 
80-pounder rifle gun forward, a 60-pounder rifle aft, and one 
8-inch shell gun on each broadside. 

• Two months after the keel of the Palmetto State had been 
laid by the Confederate government, James M. Eason was in- 
trusted by tiie State of Soutii Carolina with the building of the 
second armored ship under the authority of an act of the Gen- 
eral Assembly appropriating 8300,000 for constructing marine 
batteries. This keel was laid in the rear of the Charleston 
post-office in March 1862, the plans calling for a vessel 150 feet 
long, 35 feet beam and 13 feet depth of hold. The armor con- 
sisted of two layers of 2-inch iron plating, which on the case- 
mate was laid upon a wooden backing of twenty-two inches 
of oak and pine. The plating was continued on the hull for 
five feet below the water-line and also covered the ram. which 
was a very strong elongation of the bow. In August the ship 
was launched, and before September her machinery and bat- 
tery were on board and she was placed in commission as the 
Chicora. Five hundred tons of iron were used in her armor, 
and she was propelled by an engine thirty inches diameter of 



THE CONFEDERATE STATES NAVY. 671 

cylinder and twer.ty-six inches stroke, driving a three-bladed 
screw eight feet in diameter. Her battery consisted of two 9 inch 
smooth-bore guns and four of the banded and rifled o^-pounders, 
-each of which thus altered fired a 60-pound projectile. 

We find in the Charleston Year Book for 1883 certain cor- 
respondence, not elsewhere printed, that illustrates at once 
the difficulties that stood in the way of the Confederate ship- 
builders and the stubborn energy with which they pushed their 
<5ontracts to completion. Mr. Jno. L. Porter, naval constructor, 
writing from Charleston, June 30th, 1803, to Mr. Eason, said: 

" It aflfords me pleasure to state that the iroii-clacl gunboat and ram 
^hich you are now building for the State Commission ot South Carolina, 
after drawings and specifications made by myself, is a good job in all re- 
spects, and of the very best material. She will compare with the very 
best of these vessels in all respects, and will afford great pi-oteetion to the 
harbor of Charleston when completed. The work has progressed with 
great rapiditv, and is in advance of the two boats of the same class now 
being built at Wilmington; also the one being built for the C. S. navy at 
this place. I was much gratified at the appearance of things about the 
ship and the spirit with which everything seemed to move, and can only 
hope you will soon finish her." 

Yet, despite the speedy work which so gratified Mr. Porter, 
Mr. Eason was sorely embarrassed by the lack of material, 
and on June 25th wrote to Secretary Mallory that he could 
finish his contract in advance if he could obtain the iron- 
plating, but that he was then without one bar to work upon, 
and begged to have supplies forwarded him from the mills. 
When the vessel was finished in November, the State Marine 
Battery Commission, whose members were Messrs. J. K. Sass, 
<jeorge A. Trenholm, C. M. Furman, W. C. Courtney and 
W. B. Heriot, passed a resolution complimenting Mr. Eason 
upon the promptitude and skill that he had displayed, and 
tendering him $3,000 as compensation. He had built the 
■Chicora at the comparatively moderate cost of $263,892. 

Mr. Eason, having a complete plant and organization of 
workmen, and having proved his competency in this new line 
•of ship-building, was commissioned to construct a larger iron- 
clad, and the keel of the Charleston Avas laid in Dec. 1862. 
•She was 180 feet long, 36 feet beam, and 12^ feet depth of 
hold, and required 600 tons of iron plate for her four inches 
of armor and her ram. Her engine was 36 inches in diameter 
and her propeller wheel 8| feet. Of her six guns, four were 
Brooke rifles, carrying shot weighing from 90 to 110 pounds, 
and two were 9-incli smooth-bores. The boilers and engine, 
placed in her by Mr. Eason, worked moderately well, and 
she was in every respect the strongest and swiftest of the 
Confederate squadron in South Carolina waters, but it was 
nine months from the time of the laying of her keel before 
she was ready to be put in commission. ' 

1 A portion of the amount of money required tribution of the ladies of Charleston. Judge 
ior the building of the Charleston was the con- Charles Cowley, Jixdge Advocate of the South 



G72 THE CONFEDERATE STATES NAVY. 

The fourth of the iron-clads contracted for at Charleston, 
was named the Columbia. F. M. Jones was awarded by the 
Confederate Navy Department the contract for the hull, and 
Mr. Eason that for the plating and machinery, but the ship 
was not completed when Charleston was evacuated. ^ 

Like the Virginia, the Mississippi, the Arkansas, the 
Tennessee, and otlier Confederate iron-clads, all of wliich were 
constructed upon the same general plan of an iron-plated 
wooden hull supporting a more heavily armored battery case- 
mate, the Palmetto State and the Chicora will always deserve 
to figure prominently in the history of naval architecture, as 
reflecting some degree of professional lustre upon the men who 
designed and built them. Out of the still raging and yet un- 
decided contention as to the piercing power of steel projectiles 
from 100-ton guns, the resistant quality of chilled steel armor 
and the most available types of armored ships for offence and 
defence, there has been developed a very unjust comparison 
between the Federal turreted monitors and the Confederate 
casemated ships unfavorable to the latter. According to these 
critics the Confederate naval constructors were blunderers at 
their business because their vessels were overcome in battle 
by the turret craft, and the Federal constructors are exalted 
to the pinnacle of fame because the monitors won victories 
over the casemate type. It is self-evident that such compari- 
sons and conclusions are wholly disregardful of the facts tliat 
must be the foundation of any just and worthy balancing of 
the merits of these two opposing classes of marine fighting 
machines. If the Navy Department of the Confederacy had 
had behind it an inexhaustible treasury upon which it was 
privileged to draw at pleasure; if it had been permitted to 

Atlantic Blockading Squarlron, in his book. South, they were fairly officerecl, manned and 
•' Leaves from a Lawyer's Life Afloat and ariiied. Their iron armor was four inches 
Ashore. ' erroneously states that either the thick, and they were all of the type of the Vir- 
Palmetlo State or the Chicora ha,dheen "recently ginia. The Palmetto State's officers, excepting 
built by the proceeds of a fjreat fair held by the myself, all belont^ed to the Provisional navy, 
ladies of Charleston," ami that "there was a but they were competent for the duty required 
general demand on the part of the ladies who led of them, and performed it well at all times and 
society iu Charleston for a demonstration by the under all circumstances. Her crew consisted 
Confederate navy commeusnrate with their own of about 120 men: some of them were old sail- 
efforts for that cause." He is referring to the ors, and they were all efficient and reliable men. 
breaking of the blockade by the Palmetto State Each of the iron-clads carried a torpedo fitted 
and C/deora, but he confounds those shii)s with to the end of a 8|)ar soiue 15 or 20 feet long, pro- 
the Charleston, which was actually the vessel jecting from the bow on a line with tlie keel, 
whose existence was so largely due to the efforts and so arranged that it could be carried either 
of the patriotic women of the beleaguered city, triced up clear of the water or submerged five 
who contributed their money, jewelry, and in or six feet below the surface. These vessels 
some instances their silverware. They held were in a good state of discipline, and, so far 
fairs and gave entertainments to increase the as their defective engines and bad plan of con- 
fund, and because the ship was so largely the struction allowed, were efficient vessels of war. 
fruit of their work and generosity the Charleston Every night one or more of the iron-clads an- 
was always known in the Southern Confederacy chored in the channel near Sumter for the pur- 
as "The Ladies' Iron-clad Gunboat." pose of resisting a night attack on Sumter or 

a dash into the harbor by the Federal vessels. 

1 Capt. Jas. Henry Roohelle, who commanded Not long before the evacuation of Charleston, 

the Palmetto State toward the close of the war, an iron-clad named the Columbia was launched 

when that vessel with the Charleston and Chicora there. She had a thickness of six inches of iron 

constituted the squadron, says in a recent letter on her casemate, and was otherwise superior to 

to the author: 'The iron-clads were all slow the other iron-clads. Unfortunately, the Co^mto- 

vessels with imperfect engines, which required bia was bilged in consequence of the ignorance, 

frequent repairing. For that day, and consid- carelessness or treachery of her pilot, and ren- 

ering the paucity of naval resources in the dered no service whatever. " 



THE CONFEDERATE STATES NAVY. 673 

"fling away millions of money upon any experiments witli 
ships and guns that Secretary Mallory desired to make;' if it 
had been possessed of half a dozen navy-yards equipped with 
the most perfect plants that could be devised; if it had been 
able to call a dozen private establishments into its service by 
the temptation of fat contracts; if it had been so provided as 
to avail itself of the products of unnumbered forges and mills 
and gun foundries— if it had been endowed with all these ad- 
vantages, each of which was possessed by the Federal govern- 
ment, it would only have stood upon even ground with its 
opponent: but with its poverty in ship-yards, in machinery, 
in mills, in mechanics, and in experience, it relatively accom- 
plished much greater results than did the North. _ The case- 
mate type of ship grew out of its necessities and limitations, 
for that was the easiest and cheapest class to build in a country 
where there were no means of constructing the enormous hulls 
and engines fitted to support and propel the thousands of tons 
•of 10-inch and 12-inch armor which the Northern builders piled 
upon their later monitors. It was an ingenious and wise 
adaptation of means to an end; and it would be a reckless 
assertion to say that the Confederate ships would still have 
been inferior to the monitors if they had carried the same 
thickness of plating, the same engine power and the same 
weight of ordnance. To sum up this brief diversion into a 
still pending question, it must be remembered that the most 
powerful ships of the great European navies partake of both 
the casemate and the turret plans — perhaps rather more of the 
former than of the latter; for the so-called citadel iron-clads, 
upon which England and Italy in particular have spent enor- 
mous sums, are the evolution of the casemate design, which 
is especially prominent in the Benbow, the latest of the Eng- 
lish vessels. The revolving turret has practically been aban- 
doned everywhere, not even the United States proposing to 
use it in the new navy now under process of construction, 
while Congress has refused large appropriations to complete 
the unfinished vessels of that type. In the essential qualifi- 
cation of rapidity of fire, the broadside batteries of the case- 
mate ships were far superior to the guns of the turreted 
monitors, as the Federals discovered with the New Ironsides 
at Charleston, which came very much nearer to the designs 

1 Chief Engineer Alban C. Stimers, U. S. N., iu was worth about what it would bring for junk, 

the spring of 1863, made designs and detailed There are no official reports aa to what Mi-. Sti- 

drawings for twenty-one light-draft monitors mers' experiment cost the Federal government, 

that theoretically were superior to all their pre- but the amount must have been nearly or quite 

deoessors. When the first one, the C/iimo, was as many millions as the Confederacy spent upon 

launched at Boston, her hull, without guns or all the iron-clads that it ever got afloat. No 

machinery, was but three inches out of water, Confederate naval constructor made any blun- 

whileaccording to Stimers' calculations it should der that may be mentioned in comparison with 

have had fifteen inches freeboard. He was just the wonderful Stimers' monitors, nor did any of 

a foot wrong in his specifications for displace- the Southern ship-yards turn out iron-clads like 

ment, but his designs had passed through the the Galena and Keokuk, on each of which large 

Navy Department without any discovery by its sums were expended, while the former was shot 

experts of his blunders. The other twenty mon- through and through in engaging the Drewry's 

itors of the same type were in various stages of Bluflf batteries in the James River, and the latter 

completion, and the whole unique collection was easily sunk by the gnus of Fort Sumter. 
43 



674 



THE CONFEDERATE STATES NAVY. 



of the Confederate constructors than to those of John Erics- 
son, and was for general fighting uses a much more service- 
able ship than any of the monitors. On any fair discrimination 
the Southern builders may fearlessly rest their claims to pro- 
fessional honors. 

There were no maritime operations of importance in 
Charleston harbor during 1862, but as that year drew to its end- 
ing signs were not wanting of preparations to take the offen- 
sive against the Federal fleet; whose people, excepting those 
of the unlucky Isaac P. Smith, had had nothing more serious 
to engage their attention than the pursuit of blockade-runners 
or an occasional artillery duel with the outer forts. The uni- 
form of the Confederate navy became more conspicuous about 
the streets, workshops and wharves, drafts were made upon 
the receiving ship Indian Chief to fill up the crews of the Pal- 
metto State and Chicora, and Commodore Ingraham^ and Gen. 
Beauregard were in long and frequent consultation. A list of 
the officers of the navy then on duty at Charleston is as follows: 

"C S. iron clad Palmetto State: Flag-officer, D. N. Ingraham, com- 
manding squadron ; Lieut. Commander, Jolm Rutledge ; Lieuts. W. H. 
Parker, Pliilip Porcher, George S. Shyrock, Robt. J. Bowen ; Master, 
F. T. Chew ; Surgeon, A. M. Lynah ; Paymaster, John S. Banks ; En- 
gineers : Chief M. P. Jordan; Assistants, J. J. Darcy, Wilham Ahern, John 



1 Commodore Duncan N. Ini^raham was born 
at Charleston, Dec. 2cl, 1802, and was descended 
from a line of naval warriors, his father, Na- 
thaniel Iiigraliani, having fought under Capt. 
Paul Jones in Le Bon Haiiime Richard in the des- 
perate battle with the British frigate Serapis in 
1779. By intermarriage he was connected with 
some of the most distinguished officers of the 
British navy, among whom were Capt. Marryat 
the novelist, and Sir Edward Belcher, who com- 
manded an exploring expedition around the 
world, and the expedition sent in 1853 to the 
Arctic regions in search of Sir John Franklin. 
Commodore Ingraham'a wife was Miss Harriet 
H. Laurens, of So. Car., granddaughter on the 
paternal side of Henry Laurens, President of 
the Continental Congress and Commissioner with 
Fi'ankliu and Jay to neKotiate the treaty of peace 
with Great Britain, which was signed at Paris. 
Nov. 30th, 1782. Her maternal grandfather was 
John Rutledge, Governor of S. C. during the Rev- 
olution, member of the Continental Congress, 
and, by the appointment of President Wasliing- 
ton. Chief Justice of the Sni^reme Court. Com- 
modore Ingraham entered the U. S. navy as 
midshipman in 1812, and in 1813 was ordered 
for service in the frigate Congress, on the Brazil 
station. When she returned to the Portsmouth, 
N. H., navy-yard she was blockaded by British 
ships, and Midshipman Ingraham was transfer- 
red to the sloop-of-\var Madison on Lake Ontario. 
After the close of the war with England he served 
successively on the brig Boxer, the .sloop-of-war 
Hornet, the schooner Revenge, and the frigate 
Macedonian, and was present at the transfer of 
Florida from the Spanish to the American flag. 
In 1825 he was promoted to lieutenant and in 
1838 to commander, and during the Mexican war 
commanded tbe brig Somers in the blockade of 
the Mexican ports. From 1850 to 1852 he was 
commandant of the Philadelphia navy-yard, 
after which he was assigned to the sloop-of-war 
St. Louis, and joined Commodore Stringham's 



squadron in the Mediterr.inean. Witli this ship 
he performed an exploit the lame of which rang 
round the world, and which was the boldest 
deed done to assert the inviolability of American 
citizenship since tlie United States went to war 
with England to protect her marine from the so- 
called "right of search." This was the hi.storic 
Kostza afl'air. Martin Kostza, by birth a Hun- 
garian, and an Austrian subject, took part in the 
Hungarian revolution against the empire in 
1848-49, and when it was suppressed was among 
those who took refuge in Turkey, where the 
government refused to surrender them to Aus- 
tria. Kostza came to New York in company with 
Louis Kossuth, and on July 31st, 1852, took the ini- 
tiatory steps to become an American citizen by 
naturalization. In 1853 he made atrip to Smyrnii, 
Asiatic Turkey, on business, and on June 21st 
was kidnapped by Greek mercenaries hired by 
the Austrian consul, and confined in irons on the 
Austrian man-of-war Huzzar. At this critical 
moment Ingraham came into the harbor with 
the St. Louis and addressed a communication to 
Mr. Brown, American charge d'affaires at Con- 
stantinoj)le, notifying him of the circumstances 
and asking advice as to his action. Before an 
answer could be received the Austrian repre- 
sentative at Smyrna ordered the Huzzar to sail 
with Kostza for an Austrian port on June 29th. 
but Ingraham halted him by clearing his ship 
for action, bringing his batteries to bear on the 
Huzzar and the two Austrian mail steamers that 
had in the meantime arrived, and giving the 
Austrian captain notice that he would open fire 
if any attempt was made to remove Kostza be- 
fore a reply was received from Constantinople. 
The Austrian hastened to assure him that the 
prisoner should not be sent away, and thus In- 
graham's resolute attitude prevailed, although 
the Austrian force was strengthened on July Ist, 
by the arrival of another ship-of-war,which made 
it far superior to tlie St. Louis. The next day Com- 
mander Ingraham received letters from Mr. 



THE CONFEDERATE STATES NAVY. 



675 



C. Johnson; Midshipmen, C. F. Sevier, "W. P. HaiiiiJton, C. Cary; Boats- 
wain, Thos. Wilson ; Gunner, George M. Thompson ; Pilots, G. t>. Glad- 
don, Andrew Johnson. C. S. ironclad Vhicora : Capt. J. R. Tucker; 
Lieuts. George H. Bier, Wm. T. Glassell, Wm. H. Wall ; Master, A. M. 
Mason ; Acting Master, John A. Payne ; Passed Midshipman, Jos. P. 
Claybrooke; Midshipmen, R. H. Baeot,' Palmer Saunders, Roger Pinekney: 
Surgeon, Wm. Mason Turner ; Engineers, First Assistant, Hugh Clarke; 
Second Assistant, J. W. Toombs; Third Assistants, William F. Jones, J. J. 
Lyell; Gunner, E. R.Johnson; Carpenter, James F. Weaver; Acting Pay- 
master, Ed. A West; Pilots, Thomas Payne, J as. Aldert. 

Besides the above the following officers were assigned to 
the Charleston naval station: 

"First Lieut. N. K. Van Zandt ; Surgeon, W. F. Patton; Paymaster, 
Henry Myers ; Master, W. 1). Porter; Midshipman, W. P. Hamilton; En- 
gineer, Virginius Freeman; First Asst Engineers, M. P. Jordon, C. H. 
Levy; Sailmaker, M. P. Beaufort. 

On January 31st. 1803, occurred the famous breaking of 
the blockade by the iron-clads Palmetto State and Chicora, an 
event which demonstrated the power of those vessels and the 
gallantry of the officers and men of the Confederate navy. 
Col. Alfred Roman, author of " The Military Operations of 
General Beauregard," assigns to the latter the credit of initi- 
ating this bold and successful enterprise. '' Gen . Beauregard," 



Brown, stating' that. Kostza was an American cit- 
izen and entitled to the protection of the tiag, 
whereupon Iiigrahani went on board the Huzzar 
and laid down the ultimatum that the prisoner 
must be sent on shore by four o'clock that after- 
noon. He again prepared his ship for battle and to 
the protest of the Austrian captain returned no 
answer save a repetition of liis demands. As 
four o'clock aiiproached the populace crowded 
the shore in expectation of witnessing a tight ; 
but the Austrians, altliough they were also stand- 
ing to their guns, weakened and a compromise 
wa^ arranged by which Kostza was transferred 
to the care of the French consul pending the 
settlement of the question between the Austrian 
and American governments. Austria made a 
demand upon the Uniied States for the sur- 
render of the refugee as an Austrian subject; 
but President Pierce and Hon. Wm. M. 
Maccy, Secretary of State, fully justified 
Commander Ingraham's action, and Mr Marcy 
answered the Austrian Minister with a full as- 
sertion of Kostza's status as an American citizen, 
and demanded that the Emperor should take 
measures to restore Kostza to the same condition 
he was in when arrested. Austria ate the leek 
and he was placed on an American bark bound 
to this country. When Ingraham arrived in the 
United States in 1855, his name was on every 
tongue; Congress passed a resolution requesting 
the President to present him with a gold medal; 
a gold medal was also presented to him by a 
great meeting of the citizens of New York; other 
testimonials were sent him from various Amer- 
ican cities ; and the working people of England 
jjresented him, by penny subscription, with a 
superb chronometer and a finely engraved letter. 
His conduct at Smyrna, and its endorsement by 
the administration, had formulated a policy for 
the protection of American citizens that has ever 
since been maintained. 

In la55 Commodore Ingraham was appointed 
Chief of the Bureau of Ordnance and Hydro- 



graphy in the Navy Department, which posi- 
tion he retained until August, 1860, when 
he was ordered to the command of the frigate 
Richmond, the flagship of the Mediterranean 
squadron. At the breaking out of the civil war 
he returned to the United States, in January, 
1861, and i-esigned his commission. He entered 
the service of the Confederate States on March 
'26th, 1861, and at Montgomery, Ala., was made 
a member of the board to consider the water de- 
fences of the Confederacy. He was afterwards 
placed in charge of the Pensacola navy-yard, 
and continued in command until its evacuation, 
when he was ordered to command the naval 
forces on the coast of South Carolina, with 
headquarters at Charleston. 

1 Lieut. Richard H. Bacot entered the U. S. 
naval academy by appointment from South Car- 
olina in Sejit. 1859, and resigned on Dec. 10th. 
1860, the date of the meeting of the convention 
of his native State, that passed the ordinance of 
secession. On Jan. 1st, 1861, Gov. Pickens com- 
missioned him instructor of Ai-tillery, to drill 
the troops in the fortifications of Charleston at 
the heavy gnus, and he also served in the S. C. 
coast police in the guard steamers oft' Fort 
Sumter. He entered the C. S. navy as soon as 
his class was reached in the order of appoint- 
ment and was assigned to the steamer lit'xolute, 
Capt. J. P. Jones, at Savannah. In April 1862, 
he was ordered to Memphis to duty on the iron- 
clad Arkansas, but before the year was out was 
transferred to South Carolina waters, where he 
served in the Chicora and Charleston until he 
was detached to command one of the launches 
in the capture of the Federal gunboat Under- 
loriier in North Carolina. During the later months 
of the war he was on duty on the iron-clad 
Neuse in Eastern North Carolina. .\t this time 
(18»7) Lieut. Bacot is U. S. Ass't Engineer em- 
ployed in the improvement of the Missouri 
Biver. 



G76 THE CONFEDERATE STATES NAVY. 

says Col. Roman, '•advised a night attack by the Confederate 
rams against the wooden fleet of the enemy, and felt sure that 
the blockade might be thus raised, or at any rate that consid- 
erable damage could thus be effected." Flag-officer Ingraham 
heartily accorded with the suggestion, and about eleven o'clock 
on the night of January 30th, he left the harbor on the Pal- 
metto State, Lieut. Com. John Rutledge, and in company with 
the Chicor^a, Com. John R. Tucker, followed by the three 
steam tenders General CUmcIi, Etoivan and CJi ester-field. Be- 
fore five o'clock the next morning they were over the bar and 
in the haze of the early dawn; the Palmetto State stood for 
the nearest blockader, which proved to be the 3Iercedita, a 
large gunboat, carrying seven heavy guns, which luul just 
returned from a chase, and was consequently in trim for ac- 
tion. Lieut. Com. Abbott was in charge of her deck. Capt. 
H. S. Stellwagen having retired to his cabin. She was taken 
completely by suj-prise, no one of her officers anticipating that 
a Confederate commander would have the temerity to attack 
the greatly superior force of the blockading squadron. The 
w^atch on deck hailed the stranger, and was answered "This 
is the Confederate States steamer Palmetto State." Almost 
on the moment of giving the reply the Palmetto State plunged 
her ram deep into the quarter of the Mercedita, and fired 
from her bow-gun a shell which went through the enemy's 
boiler, and exploded on the other side of the ship, tearing a 
great hole in her planking. Two men were killed by the shell 
and many more were scalded by the escaping steam. Capt. 
Stellwagen had not fired a gun during the encounter, and he 
now appeared on his quarter-deck to announce to Com. Ingra- 
ham the surrender of his ship. -The latter demanded that a 
boat be sent aboard, and one came under command of Lieut. 
Abbott, who gave the name of the ship, stated that she was 
in a sinking condition, and begged for relief. Several men of 
his boat's crew were nearly destitute of clothing, and it was 
learned that the Mejxedita had been run down so suddenly 
that all her people, except the watch on duty, had not had time 
to dress before they found the ship going down under them. 
The "account of an eye-witness," printed in the Charleston 
Courier, says: 

"Lieut. Abbott begp^ed Com. Ingraham to take the men with him 
t)n board the Palmetto ktate, as in tlieir haste to come to us they had 
neglected to put the plug in their small boat, and it was only kept 
afloat by the strenuous efforts of the men bailing. He also stated that 
the water in the 3Iercedita had, at the time of his leaving, already risen 
as high as the engine floors. Com. Ingraham regretted that he could 
not comply with the request, as he had no room to accommodate them 
on board his vessel, and no small boats or any other means of afford- 
ing them relief." 

As subsequent events showed, the Federal ship was in no 
immediate danger of going to the bottom, but all hands had 



THE CONFEDERATE STATES NAVY. 677 

been panic-stricken, and thought of their personal safety be- 
fore any other consideration. 

On'^the demand of Com. Ingraham, Lieut. Abbott, as the 
representative of Capt. Stellwagen, and speaking for all the 
officers and crew of the Mercedita, gave his parole of honor 
that they would not ''take up arms against the Confederate 
States during the war, unless legally and regularly exchanged 
as prisoners of war," and he was permitted to return to his 
ship, on which four men had been killed, and three wounded. 
Other vessels of the fleet assisted her to Port Royal for 

The Palmetto State was then headed further to sea, where 
the Chicora was in vigorous combat with several of the Fed- 
eral ships, and within an hour the two rams engaged the 
Quaker City, the Ottawa, the Keystone State, the Unadilla, 
the Augusta, the Stettin, the Flag and the Memphis. None of 
these gunboats were taken unawares, as the Mercedita had 
given the alarm by burning signal lights, but not one seemed 
desirous of coming to close quarters with the rams, although 
all could have done so by their superior speed. Commander 
Tucker, of the Chicora, thus was not so fortunate in employ- 
ing his ram upon the foe as his companion had been. The 
'•account of an eye-witness" says of the movements of the 
Chicora, after passing the Palmetto State, at work upon the 
Mercedita : 

" Keeping on our course, we proceeded to within fifty yards of the 
vessel on tlie left, and then gave her a shot from our bow-gun, the block- 
ader at the time being under full headway. We rounded-to and gave her 
the full benefit of our broadside guns and after-gun. She immediately 
rang her bell for fire, and made signals of distress to the rest of the fleet. 
The last seen of her by Signal-officer Saunders, she was stern down, very 
low in the water, and disappeared very suddenly. This vessel is supposed 
to have gone down. Notwithstanding the Chicora immediately steamed 
towards her, nothing could be discovered of the vessel. 

"The Chicora, proceeding farther out to sea, stood northward and 
eastward, and met two vessels apparently coming to the relief of the 
missing steamer. We engaged them. One of them, after firing a few 
guns, withdrew. Standing to the northward, about daybreak, we steamed 
up to a small side-wheel two-masted steamer, and endeavored to come to 
close quarters. She kept clear of us, driving away as rapidly as possible, 
not however without receiving our compliments, and carrying with her 
four or five of our shots. Shortly after, the steamship Quaker City and 
another side- wheel steamer came gallantly bearing down upon the 
Chicora and commenced firing at long range. 

" Neither would permit our boat to get within a respectable distance. 
Two of our shots struck the Quaker City, and she left apparently per- 
fectly satisfied, in a critical condition. Another side-wheel two-masted 
steamer with walking beams now steamed towards the Chicora, coming 
down on our stern. Capt. Tucker perceiving it, we rounded-to and pro- 
ceeded until within about five hundred yards, when the belligerent 
steamer also rounded-to and gave us both broadsides and a shot from her 
pivot-gun. We fired our forward pivot-gnn with an incendiary shell, and 
struck her just forward of her wheel-house, setting her on fire, disabling 
and stopping her port wheel. This vessel was fired both fore and aft, 
and volumes of smoke observed to issue from every aperture. As we 



678 THE CONFEDERATE STATES NAVY. 

neared her, she hauled down her flag and made a signal of surrender, but 
still kept under way with her starboard wheel, and changing her direc- 
tion. This was just after daybreak. We succeeded in catching this ves- 
sel, but having surrendered, and the captain supposingher boilers struck 
and the escaping steam preventing the engineers from going into the 
engine-room to stop her, ordered us not to fire. She thus made her escape. 
After this vessel had got out of our reach, to the perfectly safe distance 
of about three miles, she fired her port rifled gun, again hoisted her flag, 
and setting all sails, firing her rifled guns repeatedly at us as she left. 
The Chifora now engaged six more of the enemy's vessels at one time 
three side-wheel steamers and three propellers — all at long range. Dis- 
covering that the flag-boat Palmetto State had ceased firing and was 
standing in shore, orders were given to follow her. On our return, we 
again came across a three-masted bark-rigged vessel, which we engaged, 
firing our guns as we passed, striking her once or twice. We then kept 
on our course to the bar, having sustained no damage in the action nor a 
single casualty on board. The last ship mentioned above kept firing at 
us until we got out of range, and we giving them our return compliments. 
One of the blockaders was certainly sunk. We engaged her at the distance 
of only one hundred yards, and rhe settled down with her stern clear 
under water. 

" The Chicora anchored in Beach Channel at 8:30 A. M., and arrived 
at her wharf in the city about six o'clock, receiving a salute from all the 
forts and batteries as she passed on her return. The number of shots fired 
by the Chicora during the whole engagement was twenty-seven, mostly 
incendiary shells. Lieut. Glassell commanded the forward pivot-gun,' 
assisted by Midshipman R. H. Pinckney; Lieut. W. H. Wall, the after- 
pivot ; Master Mason, the starboard broadside; Master Payne, the lar- 
board broadside. The different divisions were commanded by First Lieut. 
Ct. H. Bier and Lieut. J. C. Claybrook, assisted by Midshipman R. H. Ba- 
cot and Signal-officer Saunders." 

The ship which hauled down her colors was the Keysto7ie 
State, Com. LeRoy, who supposed his vessel to be sinking. 
One of the Chicora s shells had set fire to her forward hold 
and another had destroyed her steam chimneys, filling all 
the forward part of the vessel with steam. She had twenty 
men killed, and as many more wounded. 

Having accomplished the object of his expedition, Com, 
Ingraham signalled a return to Charleston, not one ship of 
the blockading squadron being then in sight from the pilot- 
house of the Palmetto State, all having made off to escape 
the fate of the Mercedita and Keystone State.. No injury 
was done to either of the rams, not a man was hurt on them, 
and when they arrived back in the harbor they were in con- 
dition for another battle. 

The reports of Com. Ingraham and Com. Tucker, which 
are appended, will be read with interest: 

"Office Naval Station, Charleston, Feb. 2d, 1863. 
" Sir: I have the honor to inform you that upon the night of the 30th 
ultimo, 1 left the wharf at this place, in company with the steam-ram 
Chicora, Com. John R. Tucker, at 11. 15 p. M., and steamed slowly down to 
the bar, as, from our draft, we could not cross until high water. At 4.30 
A. M. we crossed the bar, with about a foot and a half to spare, and soon 
after made a steamer at an anchor. Stood directly for her, and directed 
Lieut. Commanding Rutledge to strike her with our prow. When quite 
near we were hailed: "What steamer is that? Drop your anchor; you 



THE CONFEDERATE STATES NAVY. 679 

will be into US.'' He was informed that it was the Confederate steamer 
Palmetto State. At this moment we struck her, and fired the seven-inch 
gun into her, as he gave an order to fire. I tlien inquired if he surren- 
dered, and was answered in the affirmative. 1 then directed him to send 
a boat on board, which was done. After some delay, Lieut. Commanding 
Abbott came on board and informed me that the vessel was the U. S. 
steamer Mercedita, Com. Stellwagen, and that she was in a sinking con- 
dition, and had a crew of 158 all told, and wished to be relieved ; that all 
his boats were lowered without the plugs being in, and were full of water. 
At this time the Chicora was engaged with the enemy, and the alarm was 
given. 

" I knew our only opportunity was to take the enemy unawares, as 
the moment he was under way, from his superior speed, we could not close 
witli him. I then directed Lieut. Commanding Rutledge to require from 
Lieut. Commanding Abbott his word of honor for his commander, officers 
and crew that they would not serve against the Confederate States until 
regularly exchanged, when he was directed to return with his boat to his 
vessel to render what assistance he could. I then stood to the northward 
and eastward, and soon after made another steamer getting under way. 
We stood for her and fired several shot at her; but as we had to fight the 
vessel in a circle to bring the different guns to bear, she was soon out of 
our range. In this way we engaged several vessels, they keeping at long 
range and steering to the southward. Just as the day broke we made 
a large steamer (supposed to be the Powhatan),^ on starboard bow, with 
another steamer in company, which had just got under way. They stood 
to the southward under full steam, and opened their batteries upon the 
Chicora, who was some distance astern of us. I then turned and stood to 
the southward to support the CMcora if necessary, but the enemy kept 
on his course to the southward. I then made signal to Com. Tucker to 
come to an anchor, and led the way to the entrance of Beach Channel, 
where we anchored at 8:45 A. M., and had to remain seven hours for the 
tide, as the vessel cannot cross the bar excepting at high water. * * * 

" Tlie sea was perfectly smooth, as much so as in the harbor; every- 
thing was most favorable for us, and gave us no opportunity to test the 
sea qualities of the boats. The engines worked well and we obtained a 
greater speed than they had ever before sustained. 

" I cannot speak in too high terms of the conduct of Com. Tucker 
and Lieut. Com. Rutledge; the former handled his vessel in a beautiful 
manner, and did the enemy much damage. I refer you to his official 
report. Lieut. Com. Rutledge also fought the Palmetto State in a manner 
highly gratifying to me. Every officer and man did his duty nobly, and 
deserve well of his country. 

" We had but little opportunity of trying our vessels, as the enemy 
did not close, and not a single shot struck either vessel. I am highly in- 
debted to Com. Hartstene, who gallantly volunteered to take charge of 
three steamers with fifty soldiers on board, who accompanied us in case 
we should need their services; but they could not get over the bar, but 
joined us after daylight at the North Channel, and rendered us their as- 
sistance in getting through the channel, which is very narrow. 

" Of the conduct of Mr. Gladden, the pilot of the Palmetto State, I 
cannot speak in too high terms; he was perfectly cool under the great re- 
sponsibility he had in taking the vessel over at night with so great a 
draft, and during the action rendered me great assistance in pointing out 
the vessels as we approached them in the uncertain light. 
"I am, sir, very respectfully, 

"Your obedient servant, 

" D. N. Ingraham, 

^'Flag-offlce?' Commanding. 

'''Hon. S. R. Mallort, Secretary of the Navy, Richmond, Va.'" 

1 Commodore Ingraham was mistaken in the to the Federal official reports, was then coaling 
name of this ship, as the PowhaMn, according at Port Royal. 



680 THE CONFEDERATE STATES NAVY. 

" Confederate States Steamer 'Chicora,' Jan. 31st, 1863. 

" Sir: In obedience to your order, 1 got under way at 11.30 p. m., yes- 
terday, and stood down the harbor in company with the Confederate 
States steamer Palmetto State, bearing your flag. We crossed the bar at 
4:40 A. M., and commenced tlie action at 5.20 A. M., by firing into a 
schooner- rigged propeller, which we set on fire, and have every reason to 
believe sunk, as she was nowhere to be seen at daylight. We then en- 
gaged a large side- wheel steamer, twice our length from us on the port 
bow, firing three shots into her with telling effect, when she made a run 
for it. This vessel was supposed to be the Quaker City. We then engaged 
a schooner-rigged propeller and a large side-wheel steamer, partially crip- 
pling both, and setting the latter on tire, causing her to strike her flag ; at 
this time the latter vessel, supposed to be the Keystone State, was com- 
pletely at my mercy, I having taken position astern, distant some 200 
yards; I at once gave the order to cease firing upon her, and directed 
Lieut. Bier, First Lieutenant of the Cht'cora, to man a boat and take 
charge of the prize, if possible to save her; if that was not possible, to 
rescue her crew. AVhile the boat was in the act of being manned, I dis- 
covered that she was endeavoring to make her escape, by working her 
starboard wheel, the other being disabled. Her colors being down, I at 
once started in pursuit, and renewed the engagement. Owing to her 
superior steaming qualities, she soon widened the distance to some 200 
yards. She then hoisted her flag, and commenced firing her rifled guns; 
her commander, by this faithless act, placing himself beyond the pale of 
civilized and honorable warfare. We next engaged two schooners, one 
brig, and one bark-rigged propeller, but not having the requisite speed 
were unable to bring them to close quarters. We pursued them six or 
seven miles seaward. During the latter part of the combat, I was engaged 
at long range with a large bark-rigged steam sloop-of-war; but in spite 
of all our efforts, was unable to bring her to close quarters, owing to her 
superior steaming qualities. At 7:30 A. M., in obedience to your orders, 
we stood in shore, leaving the partially crippled and fleeing enemy about 
seven mites clear of the bar, standing to the southward and eastward. At 
8 a. m., in obedience to signal, we anchored in four fathoms water off the 
Beach Cliannel. 

'' It gives me pleasure to testify to the good conduct and efficiency of 
the officers and crew of the " C%?"cora." I am particularly indebted to 
the pilots, Messrs. Payne and Aldert, for the skillful pilotage of the 
vessel. 

" It gives me pleasure to report that I have no injuries or casualties. 
"Very respectfully, your obedient servant, 

" J. R. Tucker, Commander C. S. iV. 

'^ Flag-officer T>. N. Ingraham, C. 8. N., commanding Station, Charles- 
ton, s. a" 

This intrepid exploit of the Confederate squadron fell like 
a thunder-clap on the North and woke the Federal govern- 
ment from its comfortable indifference as to the prowess of the 
Southern officers and the efficacy of their ships. While the 
Northern newspapers heaped invective upon the Washington 
authorities, and Admiral Dupont and his subordmates, for per- 
mitting Ingraham and his two small vessels to catch the great 
Federal armada off its guard and play havoc with it, there 
arose also a vociferous demand for official contradictions of 
the reports of the most serious injuries inflicted upon the fleet; 
and statements meant to minimize the Confederate victory 
were soon prepared under the supervision of Secretary Welles 
and his coadjutors. President Lincoln's administration had 




CAPTAIN DUNCAN N. INGRAHAM, 

CONFEDEEATE STATES NAVTf. 



THE CONFEDERATE STATES NAVY. GSl 

tremendous stakes at issue. There was the popular fury at 
the North to be allayed by creating the belief that the Federal 
disaster was an accident that could not have been provided 
against, and that the Confederates were favored by circum- 
stances over which they had no control ; there was the repu- 
tation of the navy to be upheld, and the European powers 
were to be convinced of the falsity of the Confederate claim 
that the blockade had been raised for any period, however 
brief. It was an hour of anxiety and doubt at Washington, 
for on shore and at sea, in Jan., 1863, misfortunes had ac- 
cumulated on the Federal arms, and the elections of the pre- 
ceding October and November had been strongly adverse to 
the war policy of the administration. As fast as the reports 
belittling the Confederate success at Charleston could be 
written up they were rushed into print for circulation through- 
out the North. And they differed so irreconcilably from the 
reports of Ingraham and Tucker, that they merit review before 
we proceed to the consideration of the diplomatic questions 
springing out of the dispersion of the blockading fleet. 

At the outset of the controversy over the facts of the bat- 
tle the Federals possessed a fictitious advantage, because they 
could prove that the Confederate commanders erroneously re- 
ported that they had sunk one or more of the enemy's ships. 
But if it is remembered that the fight took place about dawn 
of a foggy January morning, that Lieut. Abbott gave Com- 
modore Ingraham to understand that the Mercedita was in 
peril of sinking, and that when the Keystone State escaped 
after striking her colors she was heeled far over, any impar- 
tial critic must admit that Ingraham and Tucker, who made 
their reports on the same day that the action took place, 
were entirely justified in their opinion that these two 
vessels had gone down. The strenuous insistence by the 
Federals that Commodore Ingraham had made or sanctioned 
reports which he knew to be false in this respect, was con- 
vincing evidence that they were exceedingly perplexed to but- 
tress a weak case and resorted to an undignified evasion. 

Com. Ingraham, whose conscientiousness no officer who 
had served with him during his illustrious career in the old 
navy would call in question, was fully persuaded that he had 
broken the blockade, and so reported to Gen, Beauregard 
upon his return to Charleston, The latter, a soldier versed in 
statecraft, knew that if this claim could be sustained by the 
consuls of European nations at Charleston, and if their govern- 
ments would act upon such representations by declaring the 
blockade raised, Charleston would be an open port for the 
transaction of commerce, and the reception of war material 
for the Confederacy, until the United States had established 
a fresh blockade in accordance with the laws of nations. 
But before the consuls could be asked to pass their judg- 
ment upon the status of affairs, it was proper to make public 



G82 THE CONFEDERA.TE STATES NAVY. 

proclamation of the situation, and on January 31st the fol- 
lowing was issued: 

" Headquarters, La.nd and Naval Forces, | 

"Charleston, S. C, January 31st, 1803. f 

" At about five o'clock this morning, the Confederate States naval 

force on tliis station attacked the U. S. blockading fleet off the harVior of 

the city of Charleston, and sunk, dispersed, or drove off and out of sight 

for the tin)e the entire hostile fleet. 

"Therefore we, the undersigned, commanders respectively of the 
C. S. naval and land forces in this quarter, do herehy formally declare the 
blockade by the United States of the said city of Charleston, S. C, to be 
raised by a siipe7'ior force of the Confederate States from and after this 
Zlst day of January, A. D. 1863. 

"Gr. T. Beauregard, General Commanding. 
"D. N. Ingraham, 
" Flag-officer Commanding Naval Forces iri South Carolina. 
" Official.— Tkouxs Jordan, Chief of Staff."" 

Hon. Judah P. Benjamin, Confederate Secretary of State, 
was advised of this proclamation by telegraph, and on the 
same day he addressed the subjoined communications to the 
consular representatives of the European powers in the Con- 
federate States : 

"Department of State, Richmond, Jan. 31st, 1860. 

"Sir: I am instructed by the President of the Confederate States 
of America to inform you that this government has received an official dis- 
patch from Flag-offlcer Ingraham, commanding the naval forces of the 
Confederacy on the coast of South Carolina, stating that the blockade of 
the harbor of Charleston has been broken by the complete dispersion and 
disappearance of the blockading squadron, in consequence of a successful 
attack made on it by the iron-clad steamers commanded by Flag-officer 
Ingraham. During this attack one or more of the blockading vessels 
were sunk or burnt. 

" As you are doubtless aware that, by the law of nations, a blockade 
when thus broken by superior force ceases to exist, and cannot be subse- 
quently enforced unless established de novo, with adequate forces and 
after due notice to neutral powers, it has been deemed proper to give you 
the information herein contained for the guidance of such vessels of your 
nation as may choose to carry on commerce with the now open port of 
Charleston. 

"Respectfully, your obedient servant, 

"J. P. Benjamin, Secretary of State.'''' 

Also, on the same day, Gen. Jordan addressed the follow- 
ing communication to Robert Bunce, consular agent of Great 
Britain; Baron de St. Andre, consul of France, and Senor 
Francisco Munez Moncada, consul of Spain at Charleston: 

" I am instructed to call your attention officially to the fact that the 
Confederate States naval forces on this station this morning, about the 
hour of 5 oclock, attacked the U. 8. blockading squadron off the harbor of 
Charleston, at their habitual place of anchorage, and after a brief engage- 
ment sunk, dispersed or drove off, and out of sight for the time, the whole 
hostile fleet. And I am further instructed to call your attention to the fact 
that this summary destruction of the fleet of the United States, constitut- 
ing the blockading force of this harbor, by the superior force of the Con- 
federate States, operates as an entire defeasance of the blockade of the port 
of Charleston and of its operation. The rule of public law requiring that 



THE CONFEDERATE STATES NAVY. 683 

there should be a notification of a new blockade before foreign nations 
can be affected with an obligation of observing it as a blockade still exist- 
ing, it is deemed necessary to give you now this formal notification of the 
fact. Should you desire, 1 shall be pleased to place at your disposal a 
steamer for the purpose of satisfying yourself of the unobstructed con- 
dition of this port." 

Baron de St. Andre and Senor Moncada accepted the 
invitation, and on the afternoon of January 31st theyaccora- 
panied Gen. Ripley, on the steamer General Clinch, on a visit 
of inspection, as far as the bar. Mr. Bunce did not accom- 
pany them, because earlier in the day he had gone to the same 
locality in the British corvette Petrel, which was in the harbor 
at that time. The three consuls were back in the city that 
night, and at a joint conference concurred in the opinion that 
the blockade had been legally raised. ' Mr. Bunce strengthened 
this conclusion with his assertion that on the Petrel he had 
gone five miles beyond the usual anchorage of the blockaders 
and could see nothing of them with marine glasses, in which 
positive declaration he was confirmed by the statement of the 
captain and other officers of the Petrel. 

The French and Spanish consuls were not quite so em- 
phatic, in their official replies to Gen. Jordan, as they are re- 
ported to have been at the conference on the night of January 
31st. Senor Moncada wrote the next day to Gen. Jordan : 

"I take pleasure in replying to your communication of the 31st of 
January, respecting the notification of the raising of the blockade at 
Charleston by the naval forces of the Confederate States. I should inform 
you that I remitted a copy of the same communication to his Excellency 
the Minister Plenipotentiary, at Washington. I thank you for your kind 
offer in placing a steamer at my disposal, so that I might go and satisfy 
myself as to the condition of the port. Having gone out in company with 
the French consul, and arrived at the point where the Confederate naval 
forces were, we discovered three steamers and a pilot-boat returning. I 
must also mention that the British consul at this port manifested to me 
verbally, that some time subsequent to this naval combat not a single 
blockading vessel was in sight." 

Diplomatic caution is observable in the statement which 
Senor Moncada committed to paper for himself and for Baron 
de St. Andre, but Mr. Bunce chose to assume a larger responsi- 
bility, regardless of what might be the results of his bold 
avowal of his convictions. The Spanish and French consuls 
might as well have coincided with him for all the good that 
their temporizing attitude did them in the judgment of the 
Federal government and the Northern people. Because they 
did not certify that the vessels which they saw beyond the bar 
were blockading ships, and because they did not declare that 
the blockade was not broken, they were included by the North- 
ern newspapers and the authors of the Federal official re- 
ports in the unsparing condemnation thrust upon Beauregard, 

1 The Charleston newspapers of February 1st records concerning it in existence, but it has 
are the authority for this statement of the con been accepted by all historians of the war that 

elusions of the meeting. There are no official the consuls united iu this declaration. 



684 THE CONFEDERATE STATES NAVY. 

Ingraham, Jordan, Tucker, Rutledge and Bunce, as the makers 
of wilfully false reports. 

A steamer was at once dispatched from Charleston to 
Nassau to place in the British mail from the latter point dis- 
patches conveying to Messrs. Mason and Slidell information 
of the raising of the blockade, in order that they might, if 
possible, secure acknowledgments from the governments of 
England and France to that effect. Mr. Mason's correspond- 
ence with Earl Russell, British Minister of Foreign Affairs, 
which related to the dispersion of the blockaders at Galveston 
as well as at Charleston, epitomizes the history of the refusal 
of England to accept the Confederate view. In a communica- 
tion of Feb. IGth, Mr. Mason said: 

"I have the honor to submit, therefore, that any alleged pre existing 
bloeliade of the ports aforesaid was terminated at Gralveston the 1st day 
of January last, and at Charleston on the 31st of the same month ; a prin- 
ciple clearly stated in a letter I have had the honor to receive from your 
lordship, dated on the 10th instant, in the following words : ' The driving 
off a blockading force by a superior force does break a blockade, whUih 
must be renewed de novo, in the usual form, to be binding upon neutrals '— 
a principle uniformly admitted by all text writers on public law, and es- 
tablished by decisions of Courts of Admiralty." 

Lord Russell's only immediate reply was an acknowledg- 
ment of the receipt of tlie note, and on Feb. 18th Mr. Mason 
again wrote to him, this second communication having ref- 
erence also to a note from Lord Russell on Feb. 10th, in 
which he replied to questions concerning the interpretation 
placed by her Majesty's government on the declaration of tlie 
principles of blockade agreed to in the Convention of Paris. 
This construction was far from being satisfactory to Mr. 
Mason or President Davis, Mr. Mason saying in the communi- 
cation of the 18th that: "It is considered by him [Davis] 
that the terms used in that convention are too precise to ad- 
mit of being qualified — or perhaps it may be more appropriate 
to say revoked — by the super-additions thereto contained in 
your lordship's exposition of them." The point made by Lord 
Russell to which Mr. Davis took exception was thus set forth 
by the former: 

" It appears to be sufficiently clear to her Majesty's government that 
the declaration of Paris coald not have been intended to mean that a port 
must be so blockaded in all winds, and independently of whether the com- 
munication might be carried on of a dark night or by means of small, low 
steamers or coasting craft creeping along the shore." 

In other words, the British government stood out inflex- 
ibly against the doctrine advanced by Mr. Davis and Mr. 
Mason, that the habitual evasion of a blockade by the ships of 
neutrals should be regarded in law as nullifying it; and Lord 
Russell also refused to admit that the blockade had been 
raised by the events of Jan. 31st. On Feb. 19th he informed 
Mr. Mason that "the information which her Majesty's govern- 
2nent have derived from your letter and from the public 



THE CONFEDERATE STATES NAVY. 685 

journals on this subject is not sufficiently accurate to admit of 
their forming an opinion, and they will accordingly, by the 
first opportunity, instruct Lord Lyons (British Minister at 
Washington) to report fully on the matter." 

On Feb. 27th, Lord Russell went a little deeper into the 
question by writing to Mr. Mason: 

" I have already, in my previous letters, fully explained to you the 
views of her Majesty's government on this matter; ond I have nothiiuj 
further to add in reply to your last letter, except to observe that I have 
not intended to state that any number of vessels of a certain build or ton- 
nage might be left at liberty freely to enter a blockaded port without 
vitiating the blockade; but the occasional escape of small vessels on dark 
nights, or under other particular circumstances, from the vigilance of a 
competent blockading fleet, did not evince that laxity in the belligerent 
which enured, according to international law, to the raising of a block- 
ade:' 

The people of Charleston publicly celebrated the victory 
■of the Palmetto State and Chicora by a ceremony, on Feb. 3d, 
at St. Philip's Church, at which the Te Deum was sung, some 
of the officers and crews of the ships attending and receiving 
conspicuous attention for the gallant services they had per- 
formed. The raid had the effect of hurrying the efforts of the 
Federal government to place the largest possible number of 
iron-clads in the waters where the wooden vessels had proved 
so vulnerable to the attacks of Ingraham's squadron; and 
Dupont soon had under his command the broadside frigate 
Neiv Ironsides, mounting fourteen 11-inch Dahlgren guns, 
two 150-pounder rifles and two oO-pounder rifles; the Ericsson 
monitors Weehawken, Passaic, Montauk, Patapsco, Catskill, 
Nantucket and Nahant, and the Whitney monitor Keokuk. 
vv^hich was a turtle-back armored floating battery with two 
fixed turrets. The monitors carried 15-inch and 11-inch guns 
and loO-pounder Parrott rifles. It was with this fleet that 
Dupont determined to attempt the reduction of Fort Sumter 
and to bombard or run past the other fortifications, and thus 
capture the city. In order that, if the opportunity served, his 
wooden ships might take part in the engagement, the Canati- 
daigua, Housatonic, Unadilla, Wissahickon and Huron were 
constituted the reserve and were held in readiness outsidw 
the bar. 

The land defences of Charleston were as perfect as the 
engineering skill and the resources of the Confederacy could 
make them. They had been planned and constructed under the 
direction of Gens. Beauregard and R. S. Ripley, and embraced 
three lines of fortifications and three lines or circles of fire, each 
converging or crossing so as to command the channels. Fort 
Sumter was the centre of the first line, and on the south it was 
continued to Battery Gregg and Fort Wagner on Morris Island. 
On the north side a row of defences stretched along the shore 
of Sullivan's Island, beginning with the new battery at the 
inner point and comprising successively, in a direction toward 



686 THE CONFEDERATE STATES NAVY. 

the bar, Battery Bee, Battery Marion, Fort Moultrie, Battery 
Rutledge, Fort Beauregard, four small detached batteries and 
Fort Marshall, which latter was the outer limit of the line. If 
an enemy had passed this circle of fire he would have been ex- 
posed to the second circle, which consisted of Fort Johnson, 
Battery Cheves, Battery Wampler, Battery Glover, and some 
minor earthworks on James Island southeast of the city; Fort 
Ripley, in the Folly Island channel; Castle Pinckney, on 
Shute's Folly Island; one battery on Hog Island, and two on 
Mt. Pleasant, on the northern side of the inner harbor. The 
third circle embraced the fortifications in the city and on the 
banks of the Cooper and Ashley Rivers. Within the munici- 
pal limits were the King Street Battery, White Point Battery, 
Vanderhorst Wharf Battery, Frazier's Wharf Battery and the 
Half -Moon Battery. These and two earthworks at the Cal- 
houn and Laurens Street wharves extended from tlie southern 
point of the city around the Cooper River front. On the Ash- 
ley River side were Battery Waring and two forts near either 
end of the Savannah Railroad bridge. Torpedoes were thickly 
sown in the main cliannel, as well as in the Swash, the North 
and Beach channels, and all the way up in Rebellion Roads, 
the Folly Island channels, and in the entrance to Cooper and 
Ashley Rivers. A line of rope, pile, log and chain obstruc- 
tions was stretched across the channel from Cumming's Point 
to Fort Sumter and Mount Pleasant, and was arranged with 
openings to allow the passage of blockade-runners and the 
Confederate squadron. 

Dupont's attack was made on April 7th, 1863, with the 
Neiu Ironsides and the eight monitors. 

While the battle was being fought, the Chicora and Pal- 
metto State remained with steam up a little in the rear of a 
line drawn from Fort Sumter to Cumming's Point. Commo- 
dore Ingraham was prepared, in accordance with an under- 
standing with Gen. Beauregard, to take a share in the fighting 
if the Federal fleet should pass the guns of Sumter and Morris 
Island, in which case he was to attack; but Dupont's defeat 
by the forts gave his men no harder work than standing to 
their guns for three hours. 

On the night of their repulse the commanders of the Fed- 
eral iron-clads were called into consultation with Admiral 
Dapont on his flag-ship. It was his purpose to renew the 
attack the next morning; but, after listening to the verbal re- 
ports of those officers as to the crippled condition of the moni- 
tors, he gave up any such idea. 

Before and after the breaking of the blockade, Beauregard 
and Ingraham had thought it of importance that the rams 
should be utilized in other localities than Charleston harbor 
without passing outside the bar. On December 2d, 1862, Major 
Harris, then chief of engineers, was instructed to cut a chan- 
nel in Wappoo River, between the Ashley and the Stono, to 



THE CONFEDERATE STATES NAVY 687 

allow the squadron to operate in that direction; and after the 
frustration of tlie attack on Sumter, the presence of the moni- 
tors in the outer harhor, without even a timber-guard around 
them, was like a welcome to an assault by torpedo boats. The 
torpedo service had been legalized by an act of the Confede- 
rate States Congress in October, 1863, and Major F. D. Lee 
had been placed in charge of it at Charleston. More than two 
months previous to the attack on Fort Sumter, a plan had been 
mooted at the Navy Department, by which it was hoped to 
disable the monitors, or perhaps capture them with all hands 
on board. It was probably suggested by the plan formed by 
Admiral Buchanan after the battle of Hampton Roads, when 
he had determined that if he had another engagement with 
the original Monitor, she should be boarded, and attempts 
made to block the turret with iron wedges, throw hand gren- 
ades down the turret openings and cover her hatch ways and 
ventilators with blankets and tarpaulins in the hope of smoth- 
ering the crew. Even that looked like a desperate scheme, 
but it was a crude project in comparison to that which it was 
proposed to undertake at Charleston. Mr. Mallory did not 
need to be informed that among the Confederate officers and 
seamen any number could be had that were required to vol- 
untarily endeavor to carry out his wishes; for there was 
rather an excess than a lack of impetuous daring in the ser- 
vice which could only find exercise in adventures outside of 
the routine of warfare. 

At a meeting of a board of officers at Richmond, it was 
decided to equip a special expedition for the work of de- 
stroying the monitors in Charleston harbor. Secretary Mal- 
lory selected to command it Lieut. William A.Webb, C. S. N., 
and issued the following order: 

" Navy Department, Richmond, February 19th, 1863. 
" Lieutenant Wm. A. Webb, C. S. N. : 

" Sir : Should it be deemed advisable to attack the enemy's fleet by 
boarding, the following suggestions are recommended for your consider- 
ation : 

Means of Boarding the Enemy. 

" First— Row-boats and barges, of which Charleston can furnish a 
large number. 

'' Second— Small steamers, two or three to attack each vessel. 

•' Third— The hull of a single-decked vessel without sizars, divided 
into several water-tight compartments by cross bulkheads, and with 
decks and hatches tight, may have a deck -load of compressed cotton so 
placed on either side, and forward and aft, as to leave a space fore and 
aft in the centre. A light scaffold to extend from the upper tier of cotton 
ten or fifteen feet over the side, and leading to the enemy's turret when 
alongside the iron-clad, and over which it can be boarded, at the same 
time that boarding would be done from forward and aft. This could be 
made permanent or to lower at will. 

" The boarding force to be divided into parties of tens and twenties, 
each under a leader. One of these parties to be prepared with iron 
wedges, to wedge between the turret and the deck ; a second party to 
cover the pilot-house with wet blnnkets ; a third party of twenty to 
throw powder down the smoke-stack or to cover it ; another party of 



688 THE CONFEDERATE STATES NAVY. 

twenty provided with turpentine or camphine in ^lass vessels, to smash 
over the turret, and with an inextinguishable liquid fire to follow it ; an- 
other party of twenty to watch every opening in the turret or deck, pro- 
vided with sulphuretted cartridges, etc., to smoke the enemy out. Light 
ladders, weighing a few pounds only, could be provided to reach the top 
of the turret. A rough drawing illustrative of this design is enclosed. 
" I am, respectfully, your obedient servant, 

"S. R. Mallory, Secretary of the Ifavy.''^ 

Webb proceeded to Charleston with about tliirty officers 
and men. and with much trouble collected a few cutters and a 
lot of canoes and skiffs, which were fitted with poles twenty 
feet long, at their stems, each pole carrying a GO-pound torpedo. 
" It was not at all uncommon" says Capt. W. H. Parker, " to 
see a sailor rolling down to his boat, when they were called for 
exercise, with a quid of tobacco in his cheek and a torpedo 
slung over his back ; and when it is recollected that each tor- 
pedo had seven sensitive fuses which a tap with a stick or blow 
with a stone was sufficient to explode and blow half the street 
down, it can readily be believed that we gave him a wide 
berth." 

An organization of the special service was effected quickly 
after the arrival of its personnel at Charleston. A small 
steamer called the Sumter was procured to lead the boats, and 
Lieut. W. G. Dozier' was placed in command of it with officers 
and crew arranged as follows, for an attempt to smother the 
monitors : 

Stack Men. 

T. 8. Wilson, Capt., C. S. N., in charge; I. A. Mercer, Sergt. Bottle 
mid Sulphur : Hugh Aird, Pat'li Hart, Wm. Bell, Stephen Caul. Blankets 
and Powder : Henry Calvin, Jas. Gorgan, Thos. Crilley, Theodore Davis. 
Ladder, Bottles and Sulphur: Richard McGregor, John Barratt. Axe: 
W. A. Bassant, Anthony Cannon. Plateman: S. C. Curtis. 

1 Wm. G. Dozier was ai^pointed to the XJ. S. from Peusacola to New Orleans for the defeuce 
navy from South Carolina, and in the autumn of of that city, and on September 2d was ajipointed 
1860 was lieutenant and acting-master of the to the command of the steamer I'anduo, cruis- 
frigatei?tcA»Howd,of theModiterraneansquadron. ing in the lower Missis.sippl. After making sev- 
The indications of the secession of his native eral requests to the Navy Department to be 
State prompted him to obtain leave of absence transferred to South Carolina because of the in- 
to return home and tender his resignation. He vasiou of his native State, and these apiilica- 
reached New York on the day that South Caro- tions being refused, in March, 1862, he sent in 
Una passed the oi'dinauce of secession, and the his resignation, which, under date of the 24th, 
next day his resignation was accepted by Mr. Secretary Mallory declined to accept, but or- 
Toucey, Secretary of the Navy. His services dered him to report for duty to Flag-officer In- 
were accejited by his State, and he was aii- gi-aham at Charleston. In this letter the Secre- 
pointed to the coast and harbor police, in tary wrote that the Department desired to man- 
which he remained until transferred to the ifest its appreciation of his services and its 
C. S. navy. While in the State service he was desire to retain them. In Charleston Harbor 
sent to Baltimore to purchase vessels suitable he commanded the steamer //mw^j'Ms and the re- 
for gunboats, but succeeded only in procuring ceiving ship Indian Chief, and was afterwards 
the tug James Gray, which afterwards became assigned to command ot the special expedition 
the Lady Davis. He was on duty in Charleston designed to operate with torpedo boats against 
Harbor until the fall of Fort Sumter, and ac- the Federal iron-clads He commanded the 
companied Capt. Hartstene to the fort to take naval battalion during the military operations 
part in the surrender, being assigned to the task on James Island in August, 1864. Subsequently 
of hoisting the Confederate colors after Major he was appointed executive officer of the C. S. 
Anderson had saluted his flag and hauled it steamer Cliickamaiiga, and particiijated in her 
down. On April 19th he was appointed in- cruises and engagements at the battle of F\>rt 
speotorof the first lighthouse district, extending Fisher, .\fter the fall of Wilmington, he took 
from the northeastern boundary of South Car- part in the defeuce of Drewi'y's Blutf, on the 
olina to St. Augustine, from which he was de- .James River, and was paroled at Appomattox 
tached on July lUth, and ordered to report to Court House. Jn 1869 he removed to California, 
Commander L. Rousseau at New Orleans In and in Aug\ist, 1866, was ajipointed postmaster 
.\\igust he was engaged in transporting guns at Rio Vista, in that Slate. 



THE CONFEDERATE STATES NAVY. 689 

TURRETMEN. 

S. M. Roof, Capt. C. S. A., Vol., in charge ; A. D. Jean, Sergt. Bottle 
and Sulphur: O. Hackabon, C. Backnian, M. B. Buff, C. Blackwell, P. P. 
Clarke. Cleavemen, Bottles and Sulphur : J. J. Chanus, J.J. Dooley, H. H. 
Bankman, J. K. I>ooley. Wedge and Hammermen : E. E. (jabell, S. 
ftregores, J. A. Gregores, E. Human. Sailmen, Bottles and Sulphur : Paul 
Hutts, S. M. Hutts, A. Howard, J. Hook, W. Leach. 
Hatch and Ventilator Men. 

J. J. Hook, Lieut. C. S. A.. Vol., in charge; D. S. Griffith, Corporal. 
Bottles and Sulphur : G. D. Lacombs, F. M. Mathios, S. Miller, J. Mack, 
M. Hutts. Tarpaulin, Hammer and Nails : S. B. Parr, H. Pool, J. Pool. 

Seamen. 

John Berry, with grapline; John Cronan, with grapline. 

There were on this one steamer 40 men assigned to the 
work outlined in Secretary Mallory's instructions, and about 
50 more. Lieut. Webb having been reinforced by a detach- 
ment of sailors from Wilmington, they were distributed among 
the spar-torpedo boats that were to assist in the undertaking. 
Although it was under the supervision of Lieut. Webb. Lieut. 
Dozier was personally charged with the execution of the pro- 
ject. Webb addressed him a letter on March 33d, saying . 

" You are selected in this important expedition to carry out the designs 
of the Navy Department, and you will be careful to preserve order and 
enforce strict obedience at all hazards. Be careful to select the coolest 
and best men under your command to discharge the torpedoes; and should 
the ironclads pass the batteries, the first and main object is to destroy 
them by means of torpedoes; failing in which you will immediately board 
them, and carry into effect the programme herewith enclosed. ^ You will 
keep a vigilant watch upon your leader, and follow his motions. If you 
do not gain a foothold upon the first iron-clad, you will sheer off, and at- 
tack the next in order. After the first attack is made, confusion in some 
degree may follow, when, I trust, your own judgment may be equal to the 
contest." 

In March, Flag-officer Ingraham was relieved by Com- 
modore Tucker, who assumed command of the vessels afloat, 
with his flag on board the Cliicora, Com. Ingraham retaining 
command of the station. On April 9th, Gen. Beauregard. Com. 
Tucker and Lieut. Webb held a conference, and resolved that 
the torpedo expedition should be put in motion at once. Ex- 
ecutive officer Parker, of the Palmetto State, relates that on 
the next day he was appointed by Tucker to command it, and 
received an order on Webb for the boats, the attack to be made 
on the night of the 10th, on the three monitors lying furthest 
up in the channel. He selected six cutters with their officers 
and crews, but later in the day changed the plan, because he 
concluded it would be better to take all the torpedo boats and 
attack the entire fleet of monitors. " Upon further reflection,'' 
he wrote to Webb, "after the discussion with yourself and 
Captain Tucker, I think it would be preferable to attack each 
of the enemy's iron-clads now inside the outer bar, with at least 
two of your spar-torpedo row-boats, instead of the number 

^ The programme contained in Secretary Mallory's letter. 

a 



690 THE CONFEDERATE STATES NAVY. 

already agreed upon. I believe it to be as easy to surprise at 
the same time all the iron-clads as a part of them." 

Beauregard's suggestions were that all the boats should 
rendezvous on the first calm night at the mouth of the creek 
in the rear of Cumming's Point, and coast along the beach of 
Morris Island to a point nearest the enemy's position, where 
Gen. Ripley would station a picket to show proper lights and 
guide their return. Having reached the designated point of 
the beach, they should form line of attack and place torpe- 
does in position, and should attack by twos the New Ironsides 
or any monitor they should encounter on their way out, an- 
swering to the enemy's hail, " Boats on secret expedition," 
or " Contrabands." After the attack each boat should make 
for the nearest point on shore, where it could be stranded in 
case of pursuit, or return to the Cumming's Point rendezvous. 

The night of April 12th was fixed for the expedition, and 
in the evening Capt. Parker had the officers detailed for it in 
conference with him in the cabin of the Stono, where written 
orders were given that each commander must explode his tor- 
pedo against a monitor before returning to Charleston. Fif- 
teen boats were drawn up alongside the Stono with torpedoes 
and the smothering devices, and the intention was to drop 
down with the tide and reach the hostile fleet by midnight, 
the moon not rising until 1 A. m. Everything was in readiness 
for the start when Commodore Tucker came on board to an- 
nounce that the monitors had left the bar, some going to Port 
Royal for repairs and others to the North Edisto. It is prob- 
able that some of them made a narrow escape from destruc- 
tion; for, with the favoring conditions that prevailed, the 
supposition may rationally be entertained that against a por- 
tion of them the torpedoes or the apparatus for smothering 
their crews would have prevailed. The officers and men of 
the expedition, as a rule, were sanguine of some degree of 
success, although Capt. Parker has since confessed that he 
entertained many apprehensions because the boats were frail 
and leaky and the crews inexperienced. But, granting that 
these drawbacks existed, they more sliarply define the intre- 
pidity and zeal of the men who were ready to go to sea *' in 
half-swamped skiffs and canoes " to fling themselves upon the 
most powerful squadron afloat. 

" The Ironsides was still with the blockaders, however," 
writes the author of the ''Military Operations of Gen. Beau- 
regard," "and as Gen. Beauregard looked upon her as our 
most dangerous antagonist, he determined to strike her a 
blow — destroy her, if possible — and so raise the blockade on 
that occasion as to forbid all denial of the fact. Capt. Tucker 
was again ready to execute Gen. Beauregard's plan, which 
had assumed much larger proportions than heretofore; when, 
at the eleventh hour, as it were, a telegram was received from 
the Navy Department at Richmond ordering back to that city 



THE CONFEDERATE STATES NAVY. 691 

the officers and men of the ' special expedition.' who liad been 
sent to aid in the defence of Charleston, and under whose 
charge — our own iron-clad boats joining in — was to liave been 
placed that hazardous but very tempting enterprise. Gen. 
Beauregard did all he could to retain their services, but with- 
out success." 

The project for the destruction of the Neiv Ironsides called 
for four or five harbor steamers and blockade runners, each 
to tow four torpedo-boats, and to be followed by the Palmetto 
.State and Chicora. So soon as the first line of steamers could 
well distinguish the lights of the blockaders without them- 
selves being seen, the torpedo-boats were to be cast loose — the 
two first on the left, to attack the first light in that direction; 
the next two the second light; the third two the third light, 
and so on towards the right, thus using them as skirmishers 
in battle. Immediately after their charge the gunboats were 
to follow, making directly for the position of the Neiv Iron- 
sides, and sinking her as soon as practicable. The small boats 
were to make for the nearest point of shore immediately after 
their attack, and then retire to the protection of the forts, 
while the Palmetto State and Chicora '"will,"'' said Beaure- 
gard's orders, '" remain outside long enough to effectually 
raise the blockade in such a way that it cannot this time be 
gainsaid;" but they were not to expose themselves to the mon- 
itors if the latter should return to the bar. 

Col. Roman's assertion that this effort to break the block- 
ade was defeated by an absolute recall of the special expedi- 
tion is misleading when so broadly made, and without quali- 
fication. On April 18th, five days after the issue of Beaure- 
gard's instructions, Lieut. Webb notified Lieut. Dozier that he 
(Webb) had been "authorized by the Secretary of the Navy to 
turn the command over to him." Dozier informed Mr. Mallory 
on the same day that he had assumed the command, and that 
the expedition then consisted of eleven officers (most of whom 
were inexperienced) and forty odd men fit for duty. He re- 
quested that if the organization was to be kept up an older 
and more experienced officer than himself should be put in 
command. The expedition was evidently not dissolved, for 
on the 21st Flag-officer Tucker ordered him to have the best of 
his torpedo-boats prepared, and their crews organized for im- 
mediate service, as "information just received renders it im- 
portant that no time be lost." On the 25th, Tucker wrote to 
Dozier, "the Secretary of the Navy having ordered the men 
and officers of the special expedition to remain here, you will 
take charge of it, and organize it as before." On May 8th, 
Dozier was instructed by him to have four boats thoroughly 
equipped and manned for torpedo service and supplied with 
cooked provisions for three days for an expedition in charge 
of Capt. Parker. On July 2d, eighteen sailors of the special 
expedition, who had served under Lieut. Dozier since April 



693 THE CONFEDERATE STATES NAVY. 

24rth, addressed him a petition that he would exert his influ- 
ence to keep the small party together under his command, ' 
they being perfectly satisfied as long as they remained under 
him. •' But," they continued. " we do not wish to be placed 
with the Stouo's crew. We have understood that we were 
kept here for the purpose of manning the new torpedo-boat 
which is now building, and it is our wish to be placed on 
board of her with you as our commander. We have submitted 
to the selection that was made when there was every pros- 
pect of making money by running tlie blockade in the C. S. 
steamer Sfono. We were then satisfied to serve for the small 
sum of money which was allowed us by the government, and 
now that there is some hopes of this new boat being finished 
pretty shortly, we earnestly solicit your influence as regards 
keeping us together for that boat." 

Indeed, the title and form of the special expedition sur- 
vived all through the summer of 1803, and although its 
original aim of destroying the monitors had been abandoned. 
it was still relied upon as one of the potent safeguards of 
Charleston. Thus, on Aug. 17th, Lieut. Dozier received 
orders from Com. Tucker to have everything under his com- 
mand made ready for action without the least delay; the 
torpedo steamers to be kept under banked fires and ready to- 
operate should the enemy run past Fort Sumter. A week 
later he was again directed to have torpedo boats in readiness 
alongside the Indian Chief, the receiving ship, and it was not 
until Sept. that his men were distributed for general service 
on the torpedo steamers and the gunboats. 

The order of May 8th to Lieut. Dozier to have four torpedo 
boats equipped for immediate service was the result of a. 
reconnoissance of the monitors in the North Edisto River by 
Capt. Parker, '^ who, after surveying them in their positions, 
made up his mind that they were vulneraljle to a torpedo 
attack by way of Bohicket Creek. With Dozier's four boats 
and one each from the Palmetto State and Cliicora he 
started from Charleston on the 10th in tow of an army tug for 
a part of the route, wliich was to be up the Ashley River to 
Wappoo Creek, through Wappoo Creek into the Stono, thence 
to the Wardmelaw and into the North Edisto. Instead of 
fastening the torpedo poles to the stems they were carried 
about six feet below the keels of the boats, where they could 
be let go by keys when it was desired to have them explode. 
Lieut. W. T. Glassell was second in command. They reached 
White Point on the North Edisto on the night of the 10th, and 
the next day Gen. Hagood agreed to co-operate with his troops 
in the movement. After nightfall the boats were rowed into 

1 The signers were William Mothersead, Bart- ley, Wm. Smith. John Berry, GarretHunt, Josiak 

let A. Grimes, A. S. Si^eekins, Aut^ustus Eleison, Noble, Daniel Bummigan and Joseph Gosh. 
William H. Clapdore, Henry D. Egyena, Peter S. 

Evans, Noel Sanies, Banister Dowdry, Tylor 2 ■< Recollections of a Naval Officer," by Capt^ 

Robinson, Emmersou Walker, Thomas S Buck- Wm. Harwar Parker. 



THE CONFEDERATE STATES NAVY. 693 

Bohicket Creek, passing the monitors without being detected, 
and the party hauled the boats under the bank and spent the 
niglit in a deserted mansion. Soon after daybreak on the 12tli, 
Olassell's coxswain reported that one of his best men was 
missing — a man who had accompanied Glassell in the torpedo 
movements in Charleston harbor and was thoroughly posted 
on the arrangements. 

Scouts were sent out and a picket who had occupied the 
church steeple at Rockville during the night came in and re- 
ported that about dawn he had seen a boat from one of the 
monitors pull into the marsh and take a stake from it. '"That 
* stake ' was our man," said Capt. Parker. " He had made a 
straight wake for the fleet, waded through the marsh to the 
water's edge, and waved his hat for a boat to take him on 
board." 

It was plainly indicated by the movements of the Federal 
vessels that the deserter had revealed everything concerning 
the expedition, ^ and as its success depended upon a surprise it 
could be carried no further. Parker obtained wagons from 
Gen. Hagood, and mounting his boats upon them, struck 
across the country to the Stono River, where he launched the 
boats and returned by Wappoo Creek to Charleston. 

Many changes were taking place in the personnel of the 
Charleston naval station, and between April 18G3 and Sept. 1864, 
the following officers were on duty on the ships or ashore : Com- 
manders, T. T. Hunter, I. N. Brown, and James Henry Rochelle; 
Lieuts. John Rutledge, A. F. Warley. George H. Bier, Philip 
Porcher, W. G. Dozier, W. T. Glassell, E. C. Stockton, W. H. 
Wall, Clarence L. Stanton, John Payne, Henry W. Ray, W. H. 
Ward and C. H. Hasker ; Assist. Surgeons, W. M. Turner, J. P. 

Lipscomb, A. M. Moff att, Henderson and Daniel E. Ewart ; 

Chief Engineer, C. S. Tombs ; Engineers, Charles Levy, John 
Tucker, Charles Tucker, Clark and W. F. Jones ; Mid- 
shipmen, D. M. Lee, Palmer Saunders, Clarence Carv, John 
Waller, T. J. Phelps, J. Thomas Scharf, Roger Pinkney, C. F. 

Sevier, and Williams ; Lieut, of Marines, A. S. Berry ; 

Flag-officer's Secretary, Edward West. In addition to the 
Chicora and Palmetto State, the squadron embraced the Torch, 
an unfinished vessel fashioned after the order of the rams, but 
never iron-plated, and but little used owing to some fault of 
construction. ^ The Stono and the Juno were doing guard-boat 
■duty, from which they were relieved in order to run the block- 
.ade with cargoes of cotton on account of the Confederate 
^government. The Stono, under command of Com. James Henry 
Rochelle, sailed from Charleston for Nassau on this errand on 

1 Capt. (now Rear Admiral) Ammen was the 2 This information concerning the To7xh is 

.senior officer at the North Edisto. To Capt. contained in a communication from Lieut. Clar- 

Parker, after the war, he stated that the de- ence L. Stanton to the author. The named the 

^erter had given him very accurate information vessel does not appear in any official record of 

of the programme of the torpedo expedition. operations around Charleston. 



694 THE CONFEDERATE STATES NAVY. 

the night of June 5th, 1863, but liaving nothing with which 
to make steam except soft coal and coke, she was soon dis- 
covered by the blockading squadron on account of the sparks 
which rolled from her smoke-stack. Rochelle endeavored ta 
regain Charleston harbor, but the pilot of the steamer ran her 
on the breakwater ledge of rocks near Fort Moultrie. It was 
found impossible to get the vessel off and she went to pieces 
on the reef, but by Rochelle's promptitude and energy every- 
thing on board was saved. 

Some time in the autumn of ]863 the Juno ran the block- 
ade, also bound for Nassau with cotton, but foundered the day 
after leaving port, and all hands except Pilot Payne and a 
fireman were lost. After being adrift in a small boat 48 hours, 
the two survivors were picked up by an English vessel and 
taken to Liverpool. Among the officers lost were Lieut. Philip 
Porcher. who was in command, and Engineer Charles Tucker, 
son of Flag-officer Tucker. The crew and officers of the Juno 
w^ere volunteers from the fleet. 

On July Gth Dahlgren relieved Dupont in command of the 
Federal naval forces off Charleston ; his iron-clads returned ta 
the bar on the 10th, and then began that long and terrible 
siege of the defences and of the city by the navy and army 
that was in itself fruitless, and that only terminated when 
General Sherman entered it bv the back door late in February, 
1865. 

Naturally the thoughts of Beauregard turned toward an 
attack on the monitors by the Confederate iron-clads and tor- 
pedo boats, during the severe attack on Forts Wagner and 
Gregg. On July 18th he wrote to Com. Tucker: 

" I believe it to be my duty to acquaint you with the fact that I con- 
sider it of the utmost impoi-tance to the defence of the works at the en- 
trance of the harbor that some effort should be made to sink either the 
Ironsidesov one of the monitors now attacking? the works on Morris Island, 
not only because of the diminution thus effected in the enemy's means of 
offence, but because of the great moral effect that would inevitably result 
from such an occurrence. The stake is manifestly a great one, worthy of 
so small a risk. For its accomplishment, one vessel such as the Juno, pro- 
vided with the spar-tori>edo, with two or three officers and a few men, it 
is believed would be as effective at night for the end in view as a flotilla, 
of vessels so arranged of the same class." 

The Juno was not available at the moment for the purpose 
for which Beauregard had designated her, and Tucker replied 
that in any event he could be of no assistance, owing to the 
excessive draft of his iron-clads. their low speed and the short 
range of their guns, which could not be sufficiently elevated 
because of the small size of the poi't-holes. The project rested 
for a brief space of time, and in the meanwhile a spirited af- 
fair took place, on Aug. 7th, in the creek between James and 
Morris Island, that resulted in the capture of a Federal barge 
and its crew. For several nights it was known that the enemy 
had been posting pickets in the marsh for the purpose of 



THE CONFEDERATE STATES NAVY. 695 

observing Confederate movements at Cumming's Point and 
giving notice to Gillmore's batteries when to open fire on the 
transports conveying tlie reliefs to Fort Wagner. An expedi- 
tion was formed to drive off or capture these pickets, and on 
the night of Aug. 7th Lieuts. A. F. Warley and John Payne 
started off with two boats' crews of men from the Cliicora and 
Palmetto State. They were met below Fort Johnson by Capt. 
Sellers of the 25th S. C. regiment, with two boats and a de- 
tachment of thirty men, and the combined force went into the 
creek, where it was soon sharply engaged with the Federals. 
An exhilarating skii'mish ensued, the result of which was that 
one of the Federal boats made off and the other was captured 
by Paj^ne and Warley. Lieut. Payne found that he had made 
a prisoner of Master John Haynes, of the U. S. navy, with 
whom were taken a sergeant and ten men. Two of the enemy 
were killed and five wounded in this affair. 

On the following night, Aug. 8th, Commodore Tucker 
went on board the Juno and ordered Lieut. Porcher to set out 
on a reconnoitering tour of the harbor. Porcher had ten of 
his crew, armed with rifles, and their instructions were to fire 
upon any of the Federal picket boats that might be encoun- 
tered. Steaming cautiously along below Morris Island the 
Juno came upon and took by surprise the first launch of the 
frigate Wabash, which had on board a crew of twenty-three 
men and a twelve-pounder howitzer, while the steamer was 
unarmed save for her riflemen, her two guns having been re- 
moved when she was put in trim for a blockade-runner. Por- 
cher did not hesitate for that reason, but ran down the launch, 
and his onslaught was so swift and sudden that the crew at- 
tempted no defence. A dozen threw themselves into the sea; 
five were drowned and. seven swam to other picket boats, 
by which they were rescued. The remainder surrendered and 
Porcher took possession of the launch and brought eleven 
prisoners to Charleston. He was highly complimented by 
Flag-officer Tucker, and the fine launch and her gun came into 
good use against their former owners. ' 

These naval pastimes soon gave way to more serious busi- 
ness. Most of the boat expeditions and scouting parties had 
been sent out with a view to discovering the possibilities of a 
torpedo attack upon the New Ironsides, which was more trou- 
blesome to Fort Wagner than all the monitors combined, her 
quick-firing broadsides of 11-inch shell guns being far more 
annoying than the slow discharges from the turret vessels. 
As she laid usually about 1,000 or 1,200 yards from the Morris 
Island beach and well out into the main ship channel, and the 

1 Admiral Dahlgren complainea to Gen. Bean- from information received from tlie C. S. naval 
regard that the men of the launch were fired officer in command at the time, that the men 
upon from the Juno while they were struggling were not fired at in the water. 1 highly appre- 
In the water. The communication having been ciate your desire to conduct the war upon civil- 
referred to Commodore Tuclier, lie replied to ized principles, and it affords me great pleasure 
Dahlgren : " I am happy to be able to state, to join in so laudable a desire." 



C'JG THE CONFEDERATE STATES NAVY. 

Federals had not yet learned tlie caution of protection against 
torpedoes by booms and nettings, the provocation to blow her 
up was irresistible to the experts, who, as Capt. Parker says 
of Commodore Tucker and himself, "had torpedo on the 
brain." None of the torpedo steamers which Maj. Lee was 
constructing had been completed; but by authority of Secre- 
tary Mallory he obtained the transfer of an unfinished hull on 
the stocks at Charleston, which was designed for a gunboat, 
or rather floating battery, as she was not arranged for any 
motive power, but was intended to be anchored in position. 
In a report to Gen, Beauregard, he said that he completed this 
hull and placed in it a second-hand and much-worn engine 
that he obtained in Savannah. Despite her tub-like model and 
the inefficiency of her engine, Capt. Carlin, master of the 
blockade-runner Ella and Annie, took charge of her in an 
attack against the New Ironsides on the night of August 21st. 
Besides a few seamen, he had with him eight men of the First 
Regt. S. C. Art'y, who had offered to go along to protect the 
boat from an assault by the Federal picket launches, which 
swarmed thick in the lower harbor. The steamer was in such 
bad order that she could only be kept afloat by bailing as she 
moved out to the Federal anchorage. She was furnished with 
a spar designed to carry three torpedoes of 100 pounds each. 
The lateral spars suggested by Beauregard Capt. Carlin de- 
clined to use, as they would interfere very seriously with the 
movements of the vessel, which, even without them, could 
with the utmost difficulty stem the current. The boat was 
almost entirely submerged, and painted gray like the block- 
ade-runners, and, like them, made no smoke by burning an- 
thracite coal. The night selected for the attack was very 
dark, and the New Ironsides was not seen until quite near. 
Capt. Carlin immediately made for her, but her side being 
oblique to t-he direction of his approach, he ordered his steers- 
man, who was below deck, to change the course. This order 
was misunderstood, and, in place of going ''bow on" as was 
proposed, she ran alongside of the New Ironsides and entan- 
gled her spar in the anchor chain of that vessel. In attempting 
to back, the engine hung on tlie centre, and some delay oc- 
curred before it was pried off. During this critical period, 
Capt. Carlin, in answer to threats and inquiries, declared his 
boat to be the Live Yankee, from Port Royal, with dispatches 
for the admiral. This deception was not discovered until after 
Carlin had backed out and his vessel was lost in the dark- 
ness. ' 

Little has been said of the part that the squadron took in 
tne defence of Wagner, but to the share of its officers and men 
fell much labor that was difficult and dangerous while holding 

1 The New Ironsides was incapacitated from is related elsewhere in the Chapter on Tor- 
sharing in future movements against the Con- pedous. The blowing up of the Housatonic 
federate defences by an attack made upon by a torpedo is also described in the same 
her by Lieutenant William T. Glassell, which chapter. 



THE CONFEDERATE STATES NAVY. 697 

■out no prospect of decisive battle or glory. As the sie^ge grew 
hotter the commands on duty in the fort were relieved every 
three days- by fresh troops brought down in boats through 
Vincent's Creek, on the north side of the island; and this con- 
stant changing of the garrison, together with the necessity of 
conveying provisions, ammunition and even potable water to 
the post and bringing off the wounded, established what might 
be almost called a ferriage line on the creek. But it was a 
ferry operated in the hours of the night and in the presence of 
imminent peril by the naval force detached from the Confeder- 
ate vessels. A flotilla of Federal launches scoured the waters 
as close as they dare go to the batteries, and signals were ar- 
ranged by which they could direct the fire of their ships upon 
any indicated point. As early as July oOth, they secured the 
range of Cumming's Point, on which they threw shells each 
night. Previously the light-draft Confederate steamers could 
run in on that edge of tlie island, but when it was closed to 
them the only means of communication was by row-boats 
across the creek, and at this work the sailors and their com- 
manders toiled until Wagner was evacuated. They were equal 
to the demnnd upon them, and they never lost a man except 
on the night of August 4th, when a small boat conveying 
Major W. F. Warley, a wounded officer of the Second S. O. 
Art'y, to Charleston, was captured by a Federal launch belong- 
ing to a flotilla that was attempting an attack by surprise on 
Battery Gregg. The prize, however, was not worth what it 
cost the enemy, for the firing upon the boat aroused the gar- 
rison of Gregg and defeated the object of the expedition. Idle- 
ness was enforced upon the Confederate iron-clads during the 
siege, as to pit them against the Federal fleet would have been 
only to throw them away; but as we have already seen the tor- 
pedo service was busy. A loss that occurred was that of the little 
steamer Sumter, which in passing Sullivan's Island was sunk 
by the batteries there in the belief that she was a hostile vessel. 
She was then transporting troops for Morris Island to the city, 
and by the blunder five men were killed, others wounded and 
twenty drowned, while some 600 were saved by the navy 
barges. 

Heroic endurance was all that remained to the besieged 
at Battery Wagner. Even a sortie toward the enemy was de- 
nied them, for an ingenious system of torpedo mines, to be 
exploded by the tread of persons walking over them, had been 
established by the Confederates in the narrow causewa}^ on 
that side of the fort. Soon after dark, on the night of Sept, 5th, 
the Federal sappers had pushed around the east and south 
front so as to completely mask the guns. The long and heavy 
bombardment had so torn and cut down both scarp and 
counterscarp as to render the mounting of the parapets by a 
storming party comparatively easy. Powerful calcium lights, 
placed on monitors at a safe distance abreast the fort, turned 



698 THE CONFEDERATE STATES NAVY. 

night into day, blinding the defenders, giving light to the 
sappers, and enabling the Federal artillerists and sharp- 
shooters to fire with as much precision as in broad sunshine. 
That night they again moved to the attacli of Battery Gregg 
by boats, but were beaten off by its guns. This was the last 
of the Confederate triumphs on Morris Island, which had been 
held for fifty-seven days under the furious cannonade. On 
the 6th. Col. L. M. Keith, then in command at Wagner, in- 
formed Beauregard that the garrison would be sacrificed un- 
less boats were sent to take them away that night, and the 
latter gave minute instructions for the evacuation of Morris 
Island, to effect which the services of the navy were called into 
such important requisition that to it is mainly due the proper 
execution of the movement. The Chicora and Palmetto State 
took up positions just after dark near Fort Sumter, their guns- 
bearing on Cumming's Point and to tlie eastward of it. Trans- 
port steamers were stationed as near Cumming's Point as pru- 
dence would permit, to receive the men from the small boats- 
in which they were to leave the island. There were forty of 
these boats, manned by oarsmen from the squadron, the whole 
commanded by Lieut. Ward, C. S. N., with whom were asso- 
ciated Lieut. Clarence L. Stanton, Lieut. Charles H. Hasker, 
Lieut. Odenheimer, Midshipman D. M. Lee, and other officers. 
Immediately after dark the movement was begun, and was 
made quietly and in admirable order, the majority of the men 
being under the impression that they were about to be relieved 
as usual, after having served their turn of duty in the fort. 
They embraced details of the 25th S. C. regt., 27th Georgia, 
28th Georgia, and 1st S. C. As soon as the infantry had left 
Cumming's Point, Capt. H. R. Lesesne, commanding Battery 
Gregg, spiked his guns and embarked his men. Capt. T. A. 
Huguenin, of the 1st S. C, was left to remain in Wagner for 
a short time with twenty-five men to keep up a slow fire to 
deceive the enemy while the embarkation was going on, and 
to lay the train to burst the 10-inch gun and blow up the mag- 
azine. Capt. Lesesne was to make the preparations for a simi- 
lar explosion at Gregg, and finding that his fuse was burning 
more rapidly than he calculated, he re-entered the magazine 
and cut off the lighted end, so as to give time for the arrival 
of Huguenin with the rear-guard from Fort Wagner; and 
when they were seen approaching he relit it, as it had been in- 
tended that the two explosions should be as nearly simultane- 
ous as they could be. The whole party, except Capt. Hugue- 
nin, who had fallen to the rear with a wound in his knee, then 
embarked in the boat commanded by Lieut. Odenheimer. 
About this time the Federal barges were swarming around 
Cumming's Point and commanded the adjacent waters, and 
Lieut. Odenheimer put boldly out to sea under the fire of their 
boat howitzers. As they skirted the beach they were hailed 
by Capt, Huguenin, who waded out to his armpits, and wa& 



THE CONFEDERATE STATES NAVY. 699" 

drawn into tlie boat by one of Odenheimer's men. The Fed- 
erals threw grape and canister hot and quick at the boats and 
captured two, one of which was commanded by Lieut. Hasker, 
and made prisoners also of nineteen of the seamen and twenty- 
seven soldiers. Lieut. Stanton's boat returned in the direction 
of the enemy under a heavy fire and rescued John Brown, a 
seaman from the Cliicora, who had jumped overboard from 
one of the captured boats. 

Under all the circumstances of difficulty and peril which 
attended the evacuation in the face of an overwhelming numer- 
ical force it was wonderfully well done. ''The operation," 
Beauregard had said in his order, "is one of the most delicate 
ever attempted in war ; coolness, resolute courage, and judg- 
ment and inflexibility on the part of officers, obedience to orders 
and a constant sense of the necessity for silence on the part of the 
men. are essential forcomplete success and the credit which must 
attach to those who deserve it." '" To the admirable discipline 
of the crews of the barges," wrote Maj. Gilchrist, '"is mainly due 
the success of the embarkation. Their boats kept abreast, with 
the length of an oar from the gunwale to the blade separating 
them. The oars thus interlocked never touched or interfered 
with each other. As each detachment left, other boats grounded 
on the beach to receive their load, and thus silently and 
without confusion the embarkation was accomplished." 

Fort Sumter having been converted into an infantry 
post, and mounting but a single gun, Major Stephen Elliott 
was placed in command of it with 200 troops, and Com. 
Tucker stationed his iron-clads between Sullivan's Island and 
the fort for the purpose of assisting to protect the latter, and 
dispute the passage of Dahlgren's fleet into the harbor. On 
September 7th the Federal admiral summoned Sumter to 
capitulate and received the reply, " come and take it." He and 
General Gillmore were then meditating an assault upon it from 
small boats, laboring under the false impression that there 
would be little trouble in seizing it since its artillery fire had 
ceased, and after he was so peremptorily answered by Elliott 
he communicated with Gillmore l3y signals, and announced 
the attack for the night of September 8th. The Confederate 
signal officers were able to interpret these signals and Elliott 
was saved a surprise. ' 

About 2 o'clock on the afternoon of the 8th, Lieut. 
Clarence L. Stanton was officer of the deck of the Chicora. A 
signal officer named Daniels stood near him and was watch- 
ing some signalling being made from Dahlgren's flag-ship. 

1 This knowledge of the Federal code was ob- a study of the signal flags taken from the wreck of 

tained by shrewd strategy. A trai> was laid for the Keokuk, and by some adroit questioning he 

one of their signal pickets in the Florida district, drew all the essential secrets of the code out of his 

and he was captured and brought to Charleston. quondam comrade, and soon was as familiar with 

In confiTieraent with him was placed Capt. Pliny tliem as any Federal officer. The Confederate sig- 

Bryan, Assist. Adjt. Gen. on Beauregard's staff, nal service men were taught the system and wei-e 

disguised in the Federal uniform, and passing able to read any of the messages that passed be- 

himself off as a prisoner. Capt. Bryan had made tween the ships or between them and the shore^ 



700 THE CONFEDERATE STATES NAVY. 

Turning suddenly to Stanton, he said: "Fort Sumter will be 
attacked to-night." "How do you know?" asked Stanton. 
" I have just read," he replied, '• a message from the flag-ship 
for a boat from each ship, commanded by a lieutenant, to 
assemble at the flag-ship at 10 o'clock for such an attack." 
Stanton repwted the information to Com. Tucker, who in turn 
transmitted it to Gen. Beauregard, and effective preparations 
were made to repel the assault. With the single exception of 
the fiasco of their second attempt to carry Fort Wagner by 
storm, it was the most mortifying defeat which the Federals 
had suffered in Charleston waters. They approached the fort 
about 10 o'clock on the morning of the 9th in five divisions of 
boats containing in all about 450 or 500 sailors and marines, 
whom Admiral Dahlgren says were picked men. Com. T. H. 
Stevens was in command, and Lieut. Com. E. P. Williams, 
Lieuts. Remey, Preston and Higginsonand Ensign Craven had 
charge of the respective divisions. Coming on in gallant 
style, the boats were beached and the assailants sought modes 
of entrance to the fort on the southern and southeastern faces. 
Then the hitherto silent sand-heap blazed with the fire of 
musketry and hand grenades, while the Chicora from a few 
hundred yards' distance poured in canister and shrapnel, and 
Fort Johnson and the Sullivan's Island batteries swept the 
narrow beach on which the landing had been made. It was 
an understanding between the Confederate commanders that 
they should not spring the trap until the mice had walked 
into it, and their agreement could not have been more suc- 
cessfully executed. Not even Dahlgren's "picked men" 
could endure the withering cross-fire that struck at them in 
front and on both flanks. " The enemy," says the report of 
Lieut. Com. Williams, "sunk or disabled all my boats by shot 
or by bricks thrown from the walls. Finding it impossible to 
get over the walls, I ordered the men to shelter themselves in 
tlie holes made by our shells. The enemy kept up a constant 
fire on us, throwing hand-grenades, bricks, fire-balls, and 
other missiles amongst us. Hoping something might be done 
for our relief, I would not surrender, but some of the men 
from Lieut. Bradford's boat, behaving been mortally wounded 
in landing, surrendered, and were ordered around on the left 
to come into the fort. I stopped these and ordered them 
under the walls. Soon finding I was only losing my men 
without gaining anything, on a consultation with the officers 
I surrendered, and was shown inside the fort, where we were 
courteously treated by Maj. Elliott." 

By the quickness of the Federals in taking shelter close 
under the walls of Sumter they lost only three men killed, but 
Elliott made prisoners of thirteen officers and 102 men and 
captured four boats and three stands of colors. One of the 
flags was that which had been hoisted on Sumter in 1861 by 
Maj. Anderson, and which he had taken to New York with 



THE CONFEDERATE STATES NAVY. 701 

him after the evacuation, where it had excited the utmost en- 
thusiasm and heen a powerful stimukis of the war fever. It 
had been intrusted to the boat expedition in expectation that 
they would replace it wliere it had once waved. 

On Sept. 10th, Lieut. James H. Rochelle, C. S. N., arrived 
from Richmond with 130 officers and men, who Were ordered 
to Charleston for harbor service, and reported to Commodore 
Tucker. Two days later all row-boats, barges, etc., not re- 
quired for military purposes, were turned over by Gen. Ripley 
to Lieut. Rochelle"^to be used for transportation and guard duty 
in the harbor. On Oct. 30th, orders were issued to Tucker, 
Ripley and Gen. Hagood to arrange with Maj. Elliott some 
signal, which, when given by the latter, would notify the iron- 
clads and the batteries on Sullivan and James Islands to 
sweep with their fire every point of approach to Fort Sumter, 
the bombardment of which was steadily kept up. There were 
apprehensions at the time of a concerted attack upon the de- 
fences of Charleston by the Federal fleet and army, and 
Tucker's squadron took"^ positions that would enable them to 
command the face of James Island. In case the enemy's iron- 
clads should endeavor to remove the obstructions between 
Sumter and Moultrie, the Chicora and Palmetto State were to 
assail them from the vicinity of Fort Sumter, and if they at- 
tempted to run into the harbor, Tucker was to meet them in 
the rear of the second line of defence. They did not, however, 
make the expected movement, and for the remainder of the 
year one of the few incidents that broke the monotony of the 
siege was Gen. Gillmore's effort on the night of Nov. 19th to 
surprise and capture Sumter. He sent in some 300 men in 
barges, and Dahlgren had an additional force of some 200 
sailors in boats upon the scene, but they were discovered when 
within 300 yards of the fort and made off under a fire which 
wounded a few of their men. ' 

After nightfall on Feb. 26th, 186-4, the first cutter of the 
Federal steamer Nipsic, under command of Acting Master's 
Mate J. H. Kitching, was on picket about 150 yards from 
Fort Sumter, where it was discovered by a barge from the 
Palmetto State. The officer in charge of the Confederate boat 
brought the enemy within his reach, by a series of hails that 
led the latter to suppose that it was one of his own launches, 
and then opened a fire which almost instantly compelled him 
to surrender. Kitching and five men of his crew were taken 
prisoners. Lieut. G. C. Wiltse, of the monitor Mo7itauk, was 
in the immediate vicinity with another armed Federal boat, 
but refrained from going to the assistance of Kitching. 

Early in 1864, the new iron-clad, Chaideston, was added to 
the Confederate squadron, and Com. Tucker transferred his 
flag to her from the Chicora. She was commanded by Com. 

1 Dahlgren wrote in his journal that the approached, by the barking of a dog that wa& 
garrison of Sumter were aroused, as the boats in the fort. 



702 THE CONFEDERATE STATES NAVY. 

Isaac N, Brown ; Com. Thomas T. Hunter was assigned to the 
Chicora, and Com. James H. Rochelle to the Palmetto State. ' 

On March 33d, a boat party of Federals that endeavored 
to cut out the steamer Little Ada, in the Suwanee River, 
near McClellanville, were handsomely repulsed by her own 
men, aided by a body of troops on shore. The enemy, who 
were under the command of Acting Master E. H. Sheffield, of 
the Winona, were allowed to come on board the steamer, 
which they found deserted by her crew; but while they were 
endeavouring to raise steam in her boilers, with the view of 
carrying her off, the crew and a small company of artillerists 
drove them off with a sharp fire from a masked battery of 
three field-pieces on the adjacent bank. 

On July 4th, 18G4, the Confederate naval force was engaged 
in repelling the attack of the Federals upon Fort Johnson and 
Battery Simkins. on James Island. Early in the morning the 
137tli N. Y. reg't, the 52d Penn., and a detachment of sixty 
men from the 3d R. I. artillery, all under the command of Col. 
William Gurney, embarked in boats from Morris Island with 
the expectation of taking these Confederate positions by sur- 
prise. Misadventure attended the undertaking from the start. 
Judge Cowley, who has written a clear narrative of the event, 
says that Col. Gurney, without the knowledge of his command, 
remained on Morris Island, and in his absence the command 
devolved upon Col. Hoyt, of the Penn. regiment, who, how- 
ever, seems not to have been aware of the fact. He was sep- 
arated from his command and taken prisoner. Lieut. Col. 
Conyngham, then the senior officer of the Federals, looked 
about for Hoyt, and became a prisoner himself. " Then," says 
Judge Cowley, ''ensued confusion, baffling description. One 

1 James Henry Rochelle was appointed an act- he resigned his commission Aijril 17th, 1861, 
ing midshipman in the U. S. navy September while bis ship was at the Norfolk navy-yard. 
9tli, 1841, and after six months' service at sea While awaiting the action of the department 
Teceived a warrant as midshipman, bearing the upon his resignation he was jilaced in a very 
same date as his acting appointment. During painful position by the false alarm of an attack 
the war with Mexico he served on the sloops-of- on the navy-yard by the Virginia forces. " I 
war Falmouth and Decatur in the Gulf, and took had resolved," Capt. Rochelle writes " that I was 
part in the capture of Tuxpan and Tabasco. He bound to obey the command of the Virginia 
reported to the Naval Academy November 13th, Convention and leave the navy of the United 
184:7, and graduated on July 10th, 1848, his war- States, and here was the probability of my hav- 
rant as passed midshipman assigning him that ing to do the very thing I had resigned my corn- 
rank from .\ugust lOtlj, 1847. After duty in the mission to escape from doing. I cannot say, 
Mediterranean squadron on the frigate Constitu- however, that the situation caiised any hesita- 
tion, steamer AUeghany, steamer Princeton and tion on my jiart. As long as I was on duty as a 
frigate /Hde/)''«rfence, he was ordered to the store- lieutenant in the IT. S. navy I was fully deter- 
ship Southampton, which formed part of Com- mined to do that duty, and in case of necessity 
dore Perrji's expedition to Japan in 1853. On wonld have stood to my guns." To be relieved 
his return to the United States he was assigned from this embarrassing jiosition, he obtained par- 
te the coast survey, and on the steamer Corwin mission from Flag-officer Pendergrast to leave 
and schooner Madison, the latter of which was the Cinnberland, and on May 2d was appointed 
for some time in his charge, assisted in thesur- lieutenant in the Virginia navy, and on the 29th 
vey of the New York Harbor, Casco Bay and was ordered to command the gunboat TcaMr. His 
Florida Reef. On September 14th, 1855, he was commission as lieutenant in the C S. navy was 
promoted to master, and on the next day was issued June 6tb, and until June 27th he corn- 
commissioned lieutenant. He was assigned to manded tlie gunboat Jaci-sow at Memphis, when 
the steamer Said/icm Star in the Paraguay expe- he was ordered to the Patrick Henry, then fitting 
dition, comniauiled by Fiag-otficer W. B. Shu- out at Richmond, as executive officer. He par- 
brick, and was on the steam-frigate Fulton when ticipated in the subsequent operations of the 
she was wrecked on the coast of Florida. His James River squadron, including the battle of 
final service in the U. S. navy was on the sloop- Hampton Roads and tlie repulsic of the Federal 
■ of-wiiv Cumberland in the home squadron, and vessels at Drewry's Bluff, shortly after which he 



THE CONFEDERATE STATES NAVY. 703 

company of the N. Y. regiment, and the R. I. artillerymen 
landed unobserved within fifty yards of Fort Johnson. They 
were soon discovered by the garrison, but upon one volley be- 
ing fired, some officer gave the order to retreat to the boats, 
and thus this opportunity to capture these important works 
was lost. The Confederate force then on James Island was 
small, some reports putting it as low as 150. Our loss in killed, 
wounded and captured must have exceeded the whole number 
of men in the two forts assailed: for we lost 137 enlisted men 
and six officers." 

It is well to place stress upon this Federal account of an 
affair to which they attached so much importance, for the 
garrison in Fort Jolmson principally consisted of men from 
Com. Tucker's squadron, and it was this little band that poured 
in the fire that demoralized the Federals. It was one of their 
very many achievements in the vicinity of Charleston, in con- 
nection with which tliey have heretofore escaped mention, but 
for which other branches of the service received the honors. 
The remark becomes wearying that the absence of Confede- 
rate records consigns to oblivion the names of the sailors who 
did one or the other gallant thing, but the repulse of the as- 
sault upon Fort Johnson was so brilliant an exploit, that it is 
a, marked misfortune that the men who accomplished it must 
remain anonymous. On the part of the enemy, the movement 
was most shrewdly planned by Gen. Schimmelfennig, and if it 
Iiad succeeded might have decided the fate of Charleston then, 
as Admiral Dahlgren reported to Secretary Welles. The salva- 
tion of Fort Johnson depended that morning on the steadiness 
of the handful of seamen and their officers in its garrison, 
and they were worthy of the reliance placed upon them. ' 

•was transferred to the command of the gunboat member and for a time president of the Com- 

Nansemcmd, and tbence to the steamer Stono, mission. During his sojourn in Peru they sur- 

which was preparing to run the blockade at veyed 3,393 statute miles of the courses of the 

•Charleston. The/S^ofo was discovered by the Fed- Amazon and Meayali Rivers and their affluents, 

■erals in the bay and in attempting to regain the They encountered many hardshii^s, and were 

•city was wrecked on the rocks near Fort Moultrie, much annoyed by the Indians, ■who on two occa- 

June 5th, 18G3, Kesnming command of the sions attacked them with considerable spirit. 

Xansemnnd, Capt. Eochelle continued on the In the autumn of 1874 Captain Rochelle was 

■James Kiver until September 6th, when he was ordered to New York to assist Commodore 

sent to Charleston to organize the flotilla of John E. Tucker, President of the Commission, 

guard-boats. On April 2d, 1864, he was ordered in the preparation for publication of charts 

to the command of the iron-clad Palmetto State. of the surveys, but the financial troubles of 

remaining on that duty until the evacuation of Peru, then nearing her war with Chili, stopped 

Charleston, when he was dispatched to Wil- the work, and in April, 1877, the Commission 

mington in command of a detachment of about was dissolved. Since then Captain Rochelle has 

5U0 officers and men of the Charleston squadron, resided in his Virginia home and has held no 

-and co-operated with the army in the defence of public ijosition except that of honorary com- 

that city. From Wilmington he was ordered to mander of the Southampton Camp of Confed- 

report at Richmond as commandant of the erate veterans 
midshipmen of the C. S. naval school, and after 

the evacuation guarded the specie and bullion of i Lieut. Wm. G. Dozier on August 26th received 

the treasury to its transfer to the army at Ab- the following from Flag-officer Hunter: "I have 

Seville, S. C. When paroled after the downfall received a letter from Major Gen. 8am Jones, 

•of the Confederacy he remained at his home in commanding the Department of South Carolina, 
Southampton Co., Va., until June 19th. 1871, ' Georgia and Florida, in which he expresses his 

when he accepted a position tendered him by high appreciation of the services rendered by 

the government of Peru as a member of the the naval battalion under your command during 

Peruvian Hydrograjihical Commission of the the recent military operations on James Island, 

Amazon. He joined the Commission at Ignitos, and it affords me great pleasure to inform you 

I*eru, and was employed in surveying the upper of it, and request that you will communicate it 

Amazon River and its tributaries. He was senior to the command." 



704 THE CONFEDERATE STATES NAVY. 

^ Other engagements occurred about the same time in 
which the Confederate navy grasped at the opportunities to 
distinguish itself. On June 20th Dahlgren was notified that 
the Confederates were preparing for a simultaneous movement 
on the blockade inside and outside in order to cover the exit of 
a large quantity of cotton, and sent two of his cruisers to the 
vicinity of Port Royal, where his lines were weakest. At the 
same time he arranged with Gen. Foster for a combined army 
and navy movement into the Stono, and to cut the Charleston 
and Savannah railroad, in order to prevent the movement of 
Confederate troops by that route. Foster, Schimmelfennig 
and Hatch were to land with 7,000 men, and Gen. Birney. with 
3,000 more, was to go up the North Edisto and destroy the rail- 
way. Dahlgren accompanied them on July 2d with the moni- 
tors Lehigh and Montauk, and the gunboats Pawnee, 
McDonough and Racer, while the gunboats Dai Ching, Wam- 
siitta and Greranium were sent into the North Edisto to help 
Birney. The latter, however, was driven back after some 
desultory fighting, and on the 4th the whole force of 10,000 
men, with the monitors, gunboats and mortar-schooners, was 
assembled in the Stono, the troops being in position on John's 
Island. It was determined to make an attack from this 
direction on the Confederate works on James' Island, but Fos- 
ter, after reconnoitering them, judged that they were too 
strong to carry by storm. But Dahlgren could not resist the 
allurement of an encounter with Battery Pringle, and on July 
5th he opened on it from the two monitors, two gunboats and 
a couple of mortar-vessels. 

The guns of Battery Pringle were manned by the men of 
the Confederate squadron, and before the day was over the 
Federal vessels retired down the river to cover the retreat of 
Foster's troops. They had failed to make any impression upon. 
Pringle, and had received very much the worst of the engage- 
ment. The Montauh's deck was shattered by a shot, and two 
of her men were badly wounded. As a rule, the fire of the 
Confederate seamen in the land batteries was quite accurate, 
and on this day it was especially telling. For the reason 
that they were not permitted to engage the monitors in their 
own ships, it was always a source of gratification to them to 
hammer them from the fortifications. 

On Dec. 21st, two boats and their crews from the Federal 
steamer Dai Ching were captured in the Stono by a Confeder- 
ate force, and on the last day of the year two of the picket 
launches in Charleston harbor were gathered in by the active 
Confederate patrols. 

In Jan. 18G5, the monitors .were exceedingly brisk in their 
movements around the entrance to the harbor, and to render 
their ingress still more perilous the Confederate engineers 
planted sixteen large torpedoes just in front of the rope ob- 
structions. Dahlgren had instructed the commanders of the 




^ -/ 



no 



COMMANDER JAMES H. ROCHELLE. 

CONFEDERATE STATES NAVY. 



THE CONFEDERATE STATES NAVY. 705 

Tnonitors to examine the channels carefully, as he was medi- 
tating an attack on the defences in conjunction with Sher- 
man's army then advancing northward, and on the night of 
the loth the Patapsco was the picket iron-clad. She was steam- 
ing slowly about between Sumter and Moultrie, covering the 
operations of the scout boats that were hunting for the ob- 
structions with grapnel drags, when suddenly there was a 
shock, a sound of explosion, a cloud of smoke on the port side, 
and in less than lialf a minute her deck was under the surface 
of the water. The torpedo had struck the vessel under the 
overhang and had lifted the deck. The first impression of 
Lieutenant Sampson, the executive officer, was that she 
had been hit by a shot, but the column of water and smoke 
which immediately shot up convinced him of the real nature 
of the explosion. So quickly did the Patapsco go down 
that, although a dozen boats were within a few hundred 
yards, only forty -seven of her 109 officers and men escaped 
drowning. 

The concluding months of the war in these waters were 
the reverse of fortunate for the U. S. ships. On Jan. 2Gth, the 
gunboat Dai Ching was proceeding up the Combahee River to 
co-operate with an army movement, and in the neighborhood 
of Tar Bluff came upon the Confederate battery. In endeavor- 
ing to turn the ship she grounded, and for seven hours a brisk 
artillery duel was kept up with the battery. She was struck 
thirty times with shot and shell, her guns disabled and her 
machinery shot through and through. Her commander, Lieut. 
J. C. Chaplin, abandoned and set fire to her and retreated in 
his boats, with the loss of a cutter and crew who were made 
prisoners, and nine men wounded. 

On March 1st, the steamer Harvest Moon, flag-ship of Ad- 
miral Dahlgren, was sunk by a torpedo while returning from 
Georgetown to Charleston. She was then in Georgetown- Bay. 

It only remains now to follow up the army and navy 
operations of the Federals attendant upon the evacuation of 
Charleston and the coincident proceedings of the Confederates. 
After its pertinacious and lofty resistance from the inaugura- 
tion of the war to all the forces on sea and land that the enemy 
could bring against it, it was nevertheless doomed when Sher- 
man's army started toward it along the sea coast from the 
south. It had literally been worn out; the troops that had 
held it against superior power had been mostly drawn off to 
the armies of Lee or Johnston, and though its batteries still 
forbade entrance to the enemy from the water front, it was 
vulnerable to them from the rear. Since the latter part of 
November. 1864, Dahlgren had been co-operating with Sher- 
man, who by the 24th of Jan., 1865, was at Pocotaligo, on the 
Charleston and Savannah railroad, while the Federal admiral 
had collected all his vessels near Charleston to keep the rivers 
clear of torpedoes and light batteries, so that his transports 



706 THE CONFEDERATE STATES NAVY. \ 

could reach certain points and supply the wants of the Fed- 
eral armies. On Feb. 7th, Sherman was within fifty miles of 
Charleston; and on the 11th and 17th, monitors and gunboats 
were sent into Bull's Bay and the South Edisto River to assist 
him in case of opposition. On the latter date a naval force 
went into Stono River to assail the Confederate works on that 
side, and Gen. Schimmelfennig moved on the front of Charles- 
ton from Cole's Island. The naval battery on Cumming's 
Point was ordered to open on Sullivan's Island and fire con- 
tinually through the night. Contiguous batteries were put in 
operation, and the monitors would have participated but for 
their failure to receive orders. During the night a few guns 
were fired from Fort Moultrie, but the main body of the Con- 
federates had left it at eight p. m. and on the morning of the 
18th the Federal scouts found it and all the other defences on 
Sullivan's Island evacuated. The scouting officer, Acting 
Master Gifford, with the two tugs on duty, entered the harbor, 
touching at the various fortified points and at Mount Pleasant, 
where the intendant and wardens tendered their submission. 
Castle Pinckney was also first entered by a naval officer, the 
other defences, including Fort Sumter, Fort Johnson and the 
lines of works around the city, having been taken possession 
of by military detachments. Gen. Hardee, C. S. A., who had 
succeeded Gen. Jones in command of the Department of South 
Carolina, Georgia and Florida, had moved off all his troops 
without encountering the enemy. The officers and men of the 
squadron had been sent off in detachments, the first, which 
consisted of about 300 men, under command of Capt. Rochelle, 
having been dispatched several days previously to Wilming- 
ton to take part in the defence of that place. Lieut. Bowen, 
executive officer of the Palmetto State, was left behind with a 
squad, charged with destroying that vessel and the Charleston 
and Chicora. He set fire to them, and in a few hours they ex- 
ploded. Commodore Tucker, Commanders Brown and Hunter 
and other officers, with the remainder of the seamen, went 
North, and in the last battle fought by the army of Gen. Lee 
the gallant officers and crews of the Charleston naval station 
were reunited at Saylor's Creek in Virginia. 

The Federals captured the iron-clad Columbia, and the 
steamers 3fab, Lady Davis and Transport, and three torpedo 
boats of the David type. The Columbia they found on the rocks 
near Fort Moultrie, where she had run aground on Januar}^ 
12th. They raised and repaired her, and on May 25th she 
arrived in Hampton Roads, having been towed around by the 
Vanderbilt. She was 216 feet long, 51 feet beam and 15 feet depth 
of hold, and was plated with six inches of arm or on her shield or 
casemate, which was pierced for eight guns. During her 
passage north she exhibited excellent sea-going qualities, and 
probably if she had been completed earlier in the war, and it 
had been the good fortune of Commodore Tucker to put her 



THE CONFEDERATE STATES NAVY. 707 

into battle with the enemy's iron-clads, she would have proved 
her first-class fighting qualities. 

At last the Federal government had possession of Charles- 
ton, and the defences upon which it had concentrated attacks 
second in magnitude to none endured by any sea-coast city 
of the Southern Confederacy. In all the history of the war upon 
the sea-board the operations around Charleston easily take first 
place. The progress of the siege, the changing tides of victory 
and defeat, the novel experiments in the opposition of forts to 
iron-clad fleets, the development of heavy ordnance, the evo- 
lution of torpedo warfare in these waters, were studied with 
tlie most profound interest by the civilized world; but of more 
import than all the technicalities of the strife was that un- 
quenchable fire of patriotism and fortitude that never burned 
brighter in the hearts of the people, and the defenders of the 
illustrious city, than when they were overcome by numerical 
force. 



CHAPTER XXII. 
VIRGINIA WATERS— (Concluded). 



ALMOST from the day of the establishment of his position 
at Yorktown, in March, 1863, Gen. J. Bankhead Magru- 
der, commanding the Confederate Army of the Penin- 
sula, had endeavored to impress upon the Navy Depart- 
ment the wisdom of his views regarding the employment of 
the squadron in hostile operations in support of his move- 
ments; and even after the impossibility of sending the Vw- 
ginia into the York River had been authoritatively pointed 
out to him, he called for the services of the Patrick Henry, 
Jamestown, and other gunboats to assist in preventing the 
army of McClellan from crossing Warwick River, which 
formed a portion of his line of defence. On April 16th, his 
dispatch to Secretary of War Randolph acknowledged the 
arrival of the Teaser, a small tug carrying one 32-pounder 
rifle, and commanded by Lieut. Hunter Davidson, in the 
Warwick ; and on the ioth. Commodore Tatnall sent the 
Jamestoivn, Lieut. Barney, and the Raleigh, Lieut. Alexander, 
up the James River to protect Magruder's flank. These ves- 
sels, with the Patrick Henry, Capt. John R. Tucker, and the 
Beaufort, had been assembled at the mouth of the James 
River by April 21st, the squadron being under command of 
Capt. Tucker, and from that time until the evacuation of York- 
town and Norfolk it had no work to do, except that the Teaser 
was of service to Gen. Magruder on tlie Warwick River, and 
that Capt. Thomas Jefferson Page and Capt. Frederick Chatard 
were employed in the defensive works on shore. Magruder's 
report of May od to Adj. Gen. Cooper has this paragraph: 

"That accomplished officer, Capt. T. J. Page, of the navy, 
successfully applied the resources of his genius and ripe expe- 
rience to the defence of Gloucester Point. * * * My thanks 
are due to Capt. F. Chatard, ' of the navy, for valuable services 

1 Frederick Chatard, born in Baltimore, May served on the Brazil, West Indies and Pacific 
17th, 1807, entered the U. S. navy in November, stations, and participated in the Seminole war as 
1824, and made his first cruise on the Medi- lieut. of the sloop-of-war Vandalia. During the 
torranean in the A'ortt Coro/ma, 74, bearing the war with Mexico he was attached to the frigate 
broad pennant of Com. John llodgers. He also Independence, Commodore Shubrick's flag-ship, 

(708) 



THE CONFEDERATE STATES NAVY. 709 

as inspector of batteries, and to Lieut. Col. Noland, late of the 
navy, the efficient commander of the batteries at Mulberry 
Island Point." 

After the abandonment of Yorktown (May 3d), and that 
of Norfolk, the squadron moved up the James River. Two 
other gunboats, the Nansemond and Hampto7i, which had been 
built at the Norfolk navy-yard, were sent to Richmond in ad- 
vance. " These vessels," Capt. W. H. Parker writes, " had 
saw-mill engines, and when they got under way there was 
such a wheezing and blowing that one would suppose all 
hands had been attacked with the asthma or heaves." Two 
fine gunboats, nearly finished, were burned at the Norfolk yard 
because there was not time to put their engines into them ; 
Parker had been assigned to the command of one and Lieut. 
John Rutledge to that of the other. 

McClellan was at this time advancing up the peninsula, 
between the York and James rivers, and the Federal fleet at 
Fortress Monroe was made ready to support his " on to Rich- 
mond" movement b.y taking possession of the James, and 
destroying the Confederate squadron. 

Occasional resistance was offered to the progress of 
Federal ships up the river by the Confederate batteries and 
squadron. On May 8th, they halted two hours at Fort Boy- 
kin, Isle of Wight Co., and shelled the works, which re- 
sponded until the Confederate commander, Capt. John U. 
Shivers, was ordered to withdraw after spiking his guns and 
burning his quarters. They next attacked, on the same day, 
Fort Huger, at Hardy's Bluff, and after an engagement last- 
ing from 11 A. M. to '4 P. M. passed on out of the range of its 
guns, having in vain endeavored to drive the defenders, who 
were commanded by Capt. J. M. Maury, C. S. N,, out of the 
works. At Rock Wharf and Mother Line's Bluff, on May 
9th, the Patrick Henry and Jamestown assisted the shore de- 
fences in their fire upon the Galena, Aroostook and Po7^t 
Royal, and did not retire until the batteries had been silenced 
by the enemy. At Little Brandon, on the 12th, they were 
prepared to co-operate with the batteries, but the Federal 
gunboats ran past the latter and were too powerful for 
Tucker to think of fighting unaided. Near James' Island he 

and in a merchant brig called tbe Brighton, which He was sent to the Manassas fortifications to drill 

had been hired by the Commodore and armed, the men in the use of their guns, and next took 

participated in the capture of Mazatlan, and command of the batteries on the Potomac at 

blockaded Manzauilla. He was then variously Evansport, which blockaded Washington and 

employed as first lieut. of the frigate Columbia cut off supplies. Thence he was transferred to 

on the Pacific station, lieut. commanding of service in the Drewry's Bluft' batteries, and later 

the sloop Lexington, and lieut. of the Columbus, on to the command of Gen. J. B. Magrnder on 

74. On receiving his promotion to commander, the peninsula, where he acted as chief of heavy 

he was assigned to command the sloop-of-war artilleiy and constructor of batteries. On page 

Saratoga, eLnd co-operated with Com. Paulding 507 of the "Official Reports of Battles," pub- 

in the capture of Gen. Walker's filUbustering ex- lished by order of the Confederate Congress, 

pedition in Nicaragua. When the civil war began appearsthe followingfromGen. Magruder: "My 

he was in command of the receiving ship Penn- thanks are due to Capt. Chatard of tbe navy, for 

sylvania. His sympathies turning strongly valuable services as inspector of batteries." At 

toward the South, he resigned his commission the close of the war Capt. Chatard removed to 

and tendered his services to the Confederacy. St. Louis, where he still resides. 



710 THE CONFEDERATE STATES NAVY. 

was joined by the remainder of his force. He had in effect 
decoyed the Federals a long distance up the river in a chase 
after him, during which they had neglected to pay judicious 
attention to the danger of leaving Confederate shore batteries 
in their rear occupied and in fighting shape. This appears 
confessed in the dispatch of May 14th, from Com. L. M. Golds- 
borough to Secretary Welles informing the latter that Rodgers 
had reported to him that " he was unable to resist the five gun- 
boats of the enemy above him because the Galena would inev- 
itably be grounded in passing the bar, and thus leave only the 
Aroostook and Port Royal to resist them." '"Notwithstand- 
ing," Goldsborough added, " my orders to Lieut. Com. Jeffers 
to reduce all the enemy's works on the James River as he went 
along, spike their guns and blow up their magazines, and thus 
leave the river entirely open, so that supplies of any sort might 
be forwarded without difficulty, he has not carried them out; 
and I now am informed that two of their works on James 
River — one at Rock Wharf Landing and the other at Harden's 
or Mother Line's Bluff — both between here [Hampton Roads] 
and our vessels up the James River, must be taken before the 
river can be navigated by our supply vessels." 

But the Federals did not need to do any more fighting at 
these points. They had only been held by the Confederates 
because their temporary retention was in accordance with the 
military plan of campaign on the peninsula being wrought 
out by Johnston and Lee, which involved the detention of the 
Federal fleet in the river for a brief period and an eventual 
sturdy stand against them at Drewry's Bluff, where was to be 
f ouglit the most serious engagement that had taken place upon 
the river. A dispatch from Gen. Lee, March 22d, to Gen. Ma- 
gruder, announced that obstructions were being placed in the 
James at that point, and on May 8th, Capt. Tucker was in- 
structed to remove thither the "heavy guns that had been 
placed in battery at Mulberry Point and Jamestown. On the 
9th Gen. Lee reported: " In addition to the three guns origin- 
ally at Drewry's Bluff several navy guns have been mounted, 
and every exertion is being made to render the obstructions 
effective and the battery commanding them as formidable as 
possible." Capt. Ebenezer Farrand. C. S. N., was placed in 
charge of the battery, and Lieut. T. J. Page. C. S. N., com- 
manded another heavy battery at Chapin's Bluff, a few miles 
lower down and on the opposite bank of the river. On May 
15th, Capt. S. S. Lee was ordered to relieve Capt. Farrand 
and arrived on the scene while the battle was being fought. ' 

Drewry's Bluff is an elevation of an average height of 200 
feet on the right bank of the James River a little more than 

1 Sydney Smith Lee was born in 1805, at Cam- strong tendency towards a naval career he waa 

den, N. J., while his father, a member of Con- appointed midshipman in the IT. S. navy when 

gress from Virginia, was attending the sessions but a little more than fourteen years of age, in 

of that body, which were then being held in which his services were continuous and distin- 

Philadelphia. His early inclinations showing a guished for over forty years. He commanded a 



THE CONFEDERATE STATES NAVY. 711 

seven miles below Richmond. The rise from the stream is 
rather precipitous, and the river at that point is less than a 
mile wide, making it suitable for the placing of obstructions 
to bar the passage of an enemy. So obvious were the advan- 
tages of the locality for defence that the construction of a 
strong earthwork was determined upon as soon as it became 
evident that the aim of the Federals was directed toward Rich- 
mond, and the building of the fort was entrusted to Capt. A. 
L. Rives, an engineer officer of the Confederate army. When 
the naval force was summoned to aid in the defence of the po- 
sition an additional battery was constructed, or the fort was ex- 
tended, by counter-sinking the naval guns on the brow of the 
hill, and cribbing them with logs to prevent caving by the fire 
of the enemy. Bombproof s were thrown over these pits, and 
the guns were mounted on navy carriages with all the tackle 
used upon a man-of-war, and all the trees that might obstruct 
the range of fire were cut away. Nine guns were mounted in 
the defences, the heaviest of which was a ten-inch Columbiad, 
and the others were Brooke rifles, landed from Capt. Tuckers 
squadron. The steamers Jamestown, Curtis Peck and North- 
ampton, and several sloops and schooners were sunk in the 
channel to strengthen the obstructions, which were stretched 
across the river above the fort and consisted of piles driven 
into the bottom and filled in with logs, stones and iron rubbish, 
leaving only a narrow and intricate passage close under the 
guns of Fort Drewry. ^ 

Capt. Tucker had superintended the construction of the 
naval battery, and had mounted upon it the guns landed from 
the Patrick Henry and Jamestoivn. It was manned by the 
officers and crews of the Patrick Henry, Jamestown and Vir- 
ginia, included among whom, in addition to Capt. Tucker, 
were Lieuts. James Henry Rochelle and Francis Lyell Hoge, 
and Midshipman Carroll, of the Patrick Henry ; Lieut. Com. 
Nicholas Barney and Acting Master Samuel Barron, Jr., of the 
Jamestown ; Lieuts. Catesby Roger Jones, John Taylor Wood 
and Walter R. Butt, of the Virginia, and Lieut. Hunter 
Davidson. There were in addition about a score of men who 

steam vessel of war in the conflict with Mexico ordered to the Norfolk navy-yard, and after 

and was prominently engaged at the siege of its evacuation was placed in command of the 

Vera Cruz, where his brother, the future Gen. fortifications at Drewry's Bluff, on the James 

Robert E. Lee, also won renown as an engineer River. His further duty to the Confederacy 

and artillery officer. Capt Lee was command- was discharged mainly as chief of the Bureau 

ant of the U. S. naval academy at Annapolis for of Orders and Detail at Richmond. He died 

tLiree years and for the same space of time was at Richland, Stafford Co., Va., July '22nd, 1869. 

in charge of the Philadelphia navy-yard. He He was the father of the eminent Confederate 

commanded the flag-ship Mississippi in Com. General Fitzhugh Lee, now the Governor of 

M. C. Perry's expedition to Japan, and when the Virginia. 
Japanese ambassadors came to this country Capt. 

Lee, Capt D. G. Farragut, and Lieut. D. D. Porter i The fort took its name from being biiilt upon 

were appointed the Naval Board to receive and the property of Capt. A. Drewry, C. S. A. To the 

entertain them in the United States. The last Federals it was known as Fort Darling, and in 

duty he performed in the U. S. navy was as chief their reports the engagements styled the battle 

of the Bureau of Coast Survey at Washington. of Fort Darling. On some of the old maps of 

On the withdrawal of Virginia from the Federal James River the location is called Darling's 

Fniou he resigned his commission, sold all his Bluff, but the site of the fort had passed into 

possessions of every kind and offered his ser- the possession of the Drewry family many years 

"Vices to the Confederate government. He was previous to the war. 



713 THE CONFEDERATE STATES NAVY. 

had come through from the fleet on the Lower Mississippi after 
its dispersion by Farragut. These latter had been brought to 
Norfolk and thence up the James by Lieut. Robert B. Pegram 
and Master's Mate F. W, Dawson, ' who had met them while 
they were themselves aiDproaching New Orleans to go on duty 
there, and had returned North. 

After passing with so little difficulty the defences lower 
down the river, the Federals felt some confidence that they 
would make their way to Richmond without encountering any 
resistance that they could not overcome. The pressure that 
was being exerted upon Secretary Welles, to have the navy 
perform some startling exploits, had found voice in a public 
meeting at Boston on March 29th, in which his removal from 
office was demanded of President Lincoln, because of his in- 
competency; and it was a matter of common newspaper report 
that he had given his commanders of fleets and stations to un- 
derstand that the news of some creditable achievements in 
Southern waters would be exceedingly welcome to the Ad- 
ministration and the North. Flag-officer Goldsborough, com- 
manding the North Atlantic squadron, was more than willing 
to oblige Mr. Welles, and manifested a sublime faith in his 
ability to reach the Confederate capital while McClellan was 
wearily struggling in the marshes of the peninsula. On May 
12th he wrote to Mr. Welles : 

" The Monitor and Stevens {Naugatuck) have both gone up the James 
River, with orders from me to reduce all the works of the enemy as they 
go along, spike all their guns, blow up all their magazines, and then get 
up to Richmond, all with the least possible delay, and shell the city to 
a surrender. With the above works reduced, I can keep our vessels sup- 
plied with coal, ordnance stores, provisions, etc., without difficulty." 

On the other hand, there were evidences of a slight trepi- 
dation in Richmond, outside of official and military and naval 
circles, that the powerful Federal iron-clads and gunboats 

1 Francis W. Dawson was a native of England, then assigned to duty in the James River squad- 
born in London, May 17th, 1840. Hefeltadeep ron, but after the battle at Drewry's Blufl' re- 
interest in American politics, and when the signed his naval commi.ssion and enlisted as a 
news of the fall of Fort Sumter was received private in the Purcell artillery battery. At the 
in London, he resolved to take passage for battle of Mechanicsville, June 25th 1862, he waa 
America and serve the Southern Confederacy. badly wounded, and for his bravery on the field. 
No opportunity offered until the steamship IS'ash- was promoted to lieutenant. In August he was 
raMe arrived at Southampton, when he presented commissioned first lieutenant, and for nearly 
to Lieut. Com. Pegram letters of introduction, two years was assistant ordnance officer of Long- 
and asked the privilege of returning to the South street's corps. He was taken prisoner at the 
on his ship. He was so youthful that Pegram battle of South Mountain, in September, 1862, 
refused to encourage him to leave his own land and excbanged in time to take part in the battle of 
for war in a distant and alien country ; but Daw- Fredericksburg. In May 1864 he was promoted to 
son was too much in earnest to accept such a be captain of artillery and made ordnance officer 
dismissal. Takingadvantage of Pegram's absence of Gen. Fitzhugh Lee's division, in which capacity 
from the ship a few days before she was to sail he served until the end of the war, receiving 
on her return voyage, he assumed a seaman's wounds at the battles of Harrisonburg and Five, 
garb and was enlisted by her lieutenant. During Forks. He entered journalism as a reporter of 
the homeward run he earned the favor of Lieut. the Richmond Examiner in the autumn of 1865, 
Pegram and the other officers by his good con- aud a year later was assistant editor of the- 
duct, and immediately after running tiae block- Charleston Mercury. In 1867, he and B. R. 
ade at Beaufort. N. C, he was appointed master's Riordan bought an interest iu the Charleston 
mate in the C. S. navy upon the recommend- News, and in 1873 purchased the Charleston 
ation of his commander. He wa^ first ordered Courier, and consolidated the two papers as the 
to duty at Norfolk, and thence to New Orleans, Ifeivs ami Courier, a journal which has won 
but before he could reach that city it had fallen an enviable place in the newspaper world by its. 
into the hands of Farragut and Butler. He was honesty, liberality and enterprise. 




CAPTAIN SIDNEY S. LEE, 
CONFEDKBATE STATES NAVY. 



THE CONFEDERATE STATES NAVY. 713 

could force a passage up to the city. On the morning of May 
loth the following communication was published by the Rich- 
mond Dispatch, under the heading of " Save Richmond": 

" I will be one of 100 to join any party, officered by determined and 
resolute officers, to board the whole fleet of gunboats and take them at 
all hazards, to save this beautiful city from destruction. I am not a resi- 
dent of this State, but of the Confederate States, and if such a scheme 
can be got up, my name can be had by applying at this oflBce." 

The suggestion struck the editor so favorably that he en- 
dorsed it thus : 

"A DASHING ENTERPRISE. 

" It will be seen hj an advertisement in to-day's Dispatch that a propo- 
sition is made to organize a party for the purpose of boardmg and 
capturing the Yankee gunboats now endeavoring to make their way up 
James River to our city. That such a feat may be accomplished by bold 
and determined men, is not to be doubted ; and surely the invaders will 
not be allowed to possess themselves of the capital of the Old Dominion 
without opposition." 

There was no necessity for anxiety for the safety of the 
capital. On the morning that the boarding plan was proposed. 
Capt. Tucker and his sailors and an artillery battalion under 
the command of Capt. Drewry, C. S. A., stood behind the guns 
at Drewry's Bluff, and riflemen were concealed in pits on the 
left bank of the river, while the Confederate squadron laid 
ready for action just in the rear of the obstructions. The plan 
of battle had been arranged in Richmond and the orders de- 
livered at Drewry's Bluff by Lieut. Chas. M. Fauntleroy. 

At 7:30 o'clock the three Federal iron-clads. Monitor, 
Naugatuck and Galena, followed at some distance by the 
wooden gunboats Aroostook and Port Royal, steamed up to 
open the ball. Capt. Rodgers led in the Galena, and handled 
his vessels so perfectly as to draw forth the following tribute 
from Master Hasker, C. S. N., who commanded a gun on the 
bluff: " The attack on the part of the Galena, I think, was one 
of the most masterly pieces of seamanship of the whole war. 
She was brought into action in the coolest manner; indeed, 
she was brought to and sprung across the channel in a much 
more masterly way than I have often seen at mere target 
practice. She steamed up to within 700 or 800 yards of the 
bluff, let go her starboard anchor, ran out the chains, put her 
head in shore, backed astern, let go her stream anchor from 
the starboard quarter, hove ahead, and made ready for action 
before firing a gun. I could not but admire this manoeuvre, 
although executed to bring death or wounds to so many of my 
brave comrades." 

The skill with which the Federal ships were manoeuvred 
and fought brings into increased prominence the honors which 
the Confederate sailors and soldiers won in the battle. As the 
enemy's vessels came up the river they suffered severely from 
the sharp-shooters in the rifle-pits, under the command of Lieut. 
John Taylor Wood, C. S. N., who picked off many of their 



714 THE CONFEDERATE STATES NAVY. 

men in spite of the steady fire of grape and shrapnel with which 
the ships endeavored to silence this annoying and constant 
fusilade. The Oalena ran within 600 yards of the batteries 
before firing a gun and then opened vigorously, the fight last- 
ing from 7:45 to 11:05 A. M. It was conducted with the great- 
est spirit on both sides, but the Federals were virtually beaten 
within two hours after it had begun. In accordance with the 
orders of Capt. Tucker, the Galena received most of the at- 
tention of the Confederate gunners, and the experienced artil- 
lerists whom he had brought from his ships did splendid exe- 
cution with their rifled ordnance. Almost every shot found 
its mark. '' We f.ought the enemy for almost four hours," wrote 
an officer, " and such a perfect tornado of shot and shell, right, 
left, front, rear, and on top of us, never was seen before. It 
was an awful sight to see our killed and wounded, some with 
an arm or leg blown off, some entirely disembowelled." 

The action was still young when it was revealed that the 
Galena was not the sort of iron-clad to be proof against a 
plunging fire directed by the competent cannoneers who were 
making a target of her. They had her range perfectly, and 
drove shot after shot from the Brooke rifles through her iron 
skin and its backing. " Balls came through." said Capt. 
Rodgers, in his report, "and many men were killed with frag- 
ments of her own iron. One fairly penetrated just above the 
water-line and exploded in the steerage. The greater part of 
the balls, however, at the water-line, after breaking the iron, 
stuck in the wood. The port-side is much injured — knees, 
planks and timbers started. No shot penetrated the spar-deck, 
but in three places are large holes — one of them about a yard 
long and eight inches wide, made by a shot which, in, glanc- 
ing, completely broke through the deck, killing several men 
with fragments of the deck plating." 

Thirteen men were killed and eleven wounded on this 
ship, and yet Capt, Rodgers states that after this heavy loss, 
and the riddling of the vessel, he only drew out of the action 
because he had fired 283 shot and shell, and expended all his 
ammunition except six charges for his Parrott rifles. It seems 
a foregone conclusion that a much longer exposure to the Con- 
federate fire would have sunk the Galena. She did not obtain 
a great amount of assistance from her consorts. The Monitor 
first passed ahead, but found that from the position she took 
her guns could not be sufficiently elevated to reach the fort, 
and she then came into line with the Galena, and kept 
up fire until the baffled squadron retreated. Aware of 
the uselessness of attempting to penetrate her imper- 
vious armor hy his guns, Capt. Tucker let her severely 
alone, and she was struck but three times, no shot causing 
any more injury than a slight bending of her plates. Nobody 
was hurt on board of her. The Parrott rifled gun of the Nau- 
gatuck burst at the seventeenth fire, and she dropped out of 



THE CONFEDERATE STATES NAVY. 715 

the engagement with two men wounded. The wooden gun- 
boats took no considerable part in the engagement. Once the 
Port Royal steamed into fair range of the fort, but retired on 
being struck by a shell that slightly wounded her commander, 
but she and the Aroostook were found very useful in towing 
into a position of safety the two crippled iron-clads. 

The badly-battered fleet headed for City Point to repair 
damages, bury their fourteen dead and provide for their eigiit- 
een wounded, the parting salute being given them by Lieut. 
J. T. Wood, C. S. N., who had been stationed on the bank with 
a party of sharp-shooters. He was so close to the Monitor as 
she passed down, that he called out to an officer in her pilot- 
house: '• Tell Capt. Jeffers that is not the way to Richmond." 
The Confederate victory had been won at comparatively small 
cost. Midshipman Carroll, of the Patrick Henry, was killed 
while acting as signal officer and aide to Com. Farrand. The 
total less of the Confederates was seven killed and nine 
wounded. Michael McMore, one of the Vii^ginia's crew, was 
the only member of the naval force, besides Mr. Carroll, killed, 
but five of Capt. Drewry's artillerymen were killed. Eight of 
the latter were wounded, as was also W. Johnson, gunner's' 
mate of the Virginia's crew. The casualties among the sea- 
men were caused by a shell from the Monitor, which, early in 
the day, burst in an embrasure of the fort and disabled a gun, 
that, however, was quickly repaired and became the most ef- 
ficient piece in the action. 

Reports of eye-witnesses of the engagement published in 
the Southern newspapers were rather brief. The Richmond 
Dispatch's corresponden.t told, the story thus: 

" The enemy fired rapidly, many of his shots striking our works, his 
shells flying and bursting around us, cutting down quite a number of 
trees near us, but doing our guns no injury, and killing and wounding 
only some thii-teen or fourteen of our men. We struck the Monitor and 
Galena again and again, and I think from the manner in which they 
seemed to recoil at our heavy shot, that something about them must have 
been put out of place. The Galena began to run first, apparently much 
crippled. We continued to fire upon them as they retreated, amidst 
loud cheers from our boys. * * * Our men stood to their guns with 
the greatest bravery and determination. Capts. Tucker and Barney, of 
the Patrick Henry and Jamestown, and Capts. Drewry, Jordon and Pres- 
ton, of Chesterfield, Bedford and Lynchburg, have command of the guns 
here. They have seen something of the enemy's Chinese gongs before, 
and, I presume, will not be easily driven from their position by the loud 
noise the enemy can make with his guns. Let the good citizens of Rich- 
mond be quiet. We do not intend the enemy to reach Richmond this way." 

In his official report Com. Farrand said: 

"The enemy came up the river at half-past six A. M., the Galena 
ahead, the Monitor and a small iron steamer, a side-wheel, and a smaller 
gunboat following in succession. 

" When about four hundred yards from our obstructions our batteries 
opened fire upon the Monitor and Galena. They did not reply until the 
Galena had placed herself directly athwart the channel. After which she 
and the Monitor opened a brisk fire, the other vessels keeping under way, 



710 THE CONFEDERATE STATES NAVY. 

and at about from a quarter to a mile lower down and so close under the 
opposite shore that only four of our guns could bear upon them. Our fire 
was mostly directed upon the Qalena, only occasionally paying a compli- 
ment to the others. 

" Several of our shots at long range passed through and through them, 
and they soon dropped out of range. The small iron-clad and the side- 
wheel gunboats were badly crippled. We turned our attention to the 
Galena — nearly every one of our shots telling upon her iron surface — at 
11 o'clock A. M., one of the Patrick Henry's eight-inch solid shot passed 
into her bow port. Immediately the smoke rushed out of her own ports, 
showing, evidently, that she was on fire. We gave her three hearty cheers 
as she slipped her cables and moved down the river. Our pickets heard 
her captain say to one of the other gunboats, that she was " in a sinking 
condition. 

" Our sharp-shooters did good service, picking off every man who 
showed himself. 

" There is no doubt we struck them a hard blow. The last that was 
seen of them they were steaming down the river. 

"Every officer and man discharged their duties with coolness and de- 
termination, and it would be doing injustice to many if I should mention 
or particularize any. Capt. Drewry and his men fought their guns with 
great effect." 

As stated by Com. Farrand, the service done by the sharp- 
shooters was a feature of the battle. Lieut. John Taylor 
Wood, 0. S. N., reported as follows to Lieut. Jones concern- 
ing that duty performed by his men from the squadron: 

" Hearing on the evening of the 14th inst, that the enemy were but a, 
few miles of coming up, I crossed to the north bank with a small party of 
sharp-shooters armed with Enfield rifles, and proceeded down to Chapin's. 
Bluff. The gunboats were in sight below, lying in a position not easy to 
assail them, for both banks were low. They were examining the shores 
very closely with their small boats as well as all drift wood, evidently on 
the look out for infernal machines. I had several shots at them at long 
range— they threw as many well-directed shells. Night approaching, I re- 
turned to this place, leaving my men at the request of the commanding offi- 
cer of a battery of the Washington artillery, with him as a covering party. 

" Early on the morning of the 15th I returned and soon after met Col. 
Stewart with a regiment of infantry. I told him where my men wei'e, and 
that it was the best place for us all ; he said that he learned from a num- 
ber of soldiers that the enemy were landing and was afraid of being cut 
off. We afterwards followed and met down to the river, about twenty 
men. The Washington artillery and Dabney artillery were both on the 
bank, but as the enemy caiue up left without firing a shot, dreading a 
landing. I assured them there was no danger of it, and that I would 
keep below them and give them early intelligence of what was going on. 
I distributed the men along the high bank with orders to each one to 
select his position and harass the enemy. For three hours an incessant 
fire was kept up on their vessels. Two or three times everybody was 
driven from the guns on board the wooden ships. They replied with 
their heavy guns, boat guns and small arms. We followed them down 
the river for a mile or more." 

Another party of sharp-shooters was the battalion of ma- 
rines commanded by Capt. John D. Simms, of the C. S. marine 
corps, who reported": 

" On the 15th inst. the enemy's gunboats havingmade their appearance 
near the battery at Drewry's Bluff, I stationed my command on the bluffs 
some two hundred yards from them, to act as sharp-shooters. We immedi- 
ately opened a sharp fire upon them, killing three of the crew of the 



THE CONFEDERATE STATES NAVY. 717 

Galena certainly, and no doubt many more. The fire of the enemy was 
materially silenced at intervals by the fire of our troops. It gives me much 
pleasure to call your attention to the coolness of the officers and men un- 
der the severe fire of the enemy. The companies composing my battalion 
were commanded by CajDts. A. C. Van Benthuysen and J. E. Meiere." 

Secretary Mallory wrote to Com. Farrand that '"the 
thanks of the country are due to yourself, your officers and 
your gallant men," and added: "The enemy has retired, but 
to return with a larger force; and the sacred duty of confront- 
ing and repelling his advances upon the river is devolved upon 
the navy. The country expects much from your command, 
and I feel assured that it will do its duty and nobly sustain the 
character of the navy." 

When Congress met it extended its compliments to the 
victors by the passage of the following: 

^'Resolved by the Congress of the Confederate States of Amej^ica, That 
the thanks of Congress are eminently due, and are hereby most cordially 
tendered to Commander E. Farrand, senior officer in command of the 
•combined naval and military forces engaged, and Capt. A. Drewry, senior 
military officer, and the officers and men under their command, for the 
great and signal victory achieved over the naval forces of the United States 
in the engagement on the 15th day of May, 1862, at Drewry's Bluff ; and the 
gallantry, courage and endurance in that protracted fight, which achieved 
a victory over the fleet of ironclad gunboats of the enemy, entitle all wh( 
contributed thereto to the gratitude of the country. 

^^ Resolved further^ That the President be requested, in appropriate 
general orders, to communicate the foregoing resolution to the oificers and 
xaen to whom it is addressed. 

"Approved September 16th, 1862." 

Although the name of Capt. S. S. Lee, who had been, on 
May 15th, ordered to relieve Com. Farrand, does not appear 
in the official dispatches, he rendered much service in the de- 
fence of the position. Finding that the engagement had com- 
menced when he arrived at Drewry's Bluff, he refrained from 
taking command, but contented himself with acting in co-op- 
eration with the officer whose place he had been sent to fill. 
As a matter of fact, there was a slight confusion in regard to 
the forces, and command at the fort. On the llth. Secretary 
of War Randolph had ordered Gen. Huger to send from Peters- 
burg to Drewry's Bluff four companies of light troops, and 
Gen. Mahone's brigade, Mahone to assume command upon his 
arrival. By some mischance Gen. Mahone did not arrive at 
the Bluff until the 16th, but he was preceded thither and to 
Ohapin's Bluff by eight companies of heavy artillery belong- 
ing to his command. The instructions of Gen. Lee to Gen. 
Mahone contemplated co-ordinate action between the army 
and navy, but the latter professed a doubt as to who should 
exercise the supreme authority at the post. He was informed 
that the work was placed in immediate charge of the navy 
and that the President was " unwilling to disturb the arrange- 
ment with the Navy Department now existing," further 
than to insure to Mahone the general control of military 



718 THE CONFEDERATE STATES NAVY. 

operations. Mahone still protested that he " would not be re- 
sponsible for any co-partnership authority;" and that, although 
there had been no difficulty between the two arms of the ser- 
vice, " interferences had occurred in the prosecution of the 
works to the prejudice of the common object." The trouble 
was settled by Gen. Huger, Mahone's superior officer, taking 
personal command of the position; and on June 12th, Capt. 
T. J. Page, C. S. N.. was appointed colonel of artillery, and 
appointed to the command of the batteries at Chapin's and 
Ball's Bluff. Capt. Lee continued to exercise control at Drew- 
ry's Bluff, and under his supervision the obstructions in the 
river were completed. 

There was no year of the war during which Confederate 
seamen did not find upon the broad expanse of Chesapeake 
Bay, and its many tributaries between the Potomac and 
the ocean, opportunities for naval raids and skirmishes that 
included numerous daring exploits and inflicted much annoy- 
ance upon the enemy. The bay being a highway of communi- 
cation between the North and Fortress Monroe and Washing- 
ton, and serving also for operations which comprised 
Baltimore and Annapolis within their scope, it was obvious 
that any measures which could interrupt or embarrass its 
jiavigation by Federal vessels would be of service to the Con- 
federate cause, and the first to suggest itself was the destruc- 
tion or disabling of the light-houses. In April, 1861, the lights 
of Cape Henry and Cape Charles and all those on the sea- 
ward side of Hampton Roads were extinguished by volunteers 
from among the population of the seaside counties of Va., ex- 
cept tliat of. the Willoughby Spit Light-ship, which was only 
kept burning under a guard from the sloop-of-war Cumber- 
land. During the same month an expedition — the sole infor- 
mation regarding the personnel of which is the statement of a 
Richmond paper, that it was " a party of gentlemen organ- 
ized under the Act of Congress for the creation of a volunteer 
navy " — ran down to Smith's Island, near the mouth of the 
Potomac, captured the light-ship by boarding and took it into 
the Great Wicomico River. On May 16th, Gen. Butler sent 
an armed steamer after the vessel and recaptured it after a 
sharp fight with a body of Southern troops on shore. In the 
last week of April, the schooner George M. Smith was made a 
prize off the capes of the Chesapeake, by the Cumberland. 
She had on board a cargo of field-guns and carriages, shipped 
for a Southern port, by some Northern merchants not too pat- 
riotic to sell material of war to the Confederacy when there 
was no apparent danger of being detected by Federal spies. 

Quite a number of privateers, of which no record remains, 
were sent out of the rivers of Virginia into the bay during the 
summer, and were at least useful in running the Federal 
blockade with recruits, small arms and ammunition for the 
Confederate troops south of the Potomac. 



THE CONFEDERATE STATES NAVY. 719 

On Nov. 28th, 1862, Lieuts. Wood and Lee, C. S. N., were 
cruising in the Chesapeake with a boat's crew from the steamer 
Patrick Henry. Below the mouth of the Rappahannock they 
found the fine ship Alleghanian, hailing from New York, and 
bound from Baltimore to London, which had come to anchor 
in the prevailing storm. She was quickly boarded by the 
boat's crew, and Lieut. Wood informed her captain that his 
ship was a prize and he and his people were prisoners. They 
made no resistance, and were transferred to their own boats, 
and the ship set on fire, after the Confederates had selected 
from her stores such articles as they desired. In the darkness 
one boat's crew of prisoners managed to escape, but the re- 
mainder and the officers were sent to Richmond as prisoners. 
The ship and her cargo were valued at $200,000, which was a 
total loss to her owners and consignees. In making this suc- 
cessful dash, Lieuts. Wood and Lee passed close to several 
gunboats of the enemy, and one of them, the Ci^usader, was 
only a few miles distant when they captured the Alleghanian. 
"with exploits of this character in these waters in 1863 the 
name of John Yates Beall is indissolubly associated. _ Early 
in the year he suggested to Secretary Mallory a project for 
privateering on the Chesapeake and Potomac, and receiving the 
sanction of the government he was commissioned acting mas- 
ter in the C. S. navy. He and an officer of the navy then 
on the retired list on account of ill-health set about organizing 
an expedition, and among their first recruits secured Bennett G. 
Burley, a young Scotchman, who was pressing a submarine 
torpedo battery upon the attention of the Navy Deparment, 
and another Scotchman named John Maxwell. They started 
from Richmond about April 1st with nine or ten men, but for 
some months accomplished nothing more important than dis- 
persing a camp of negroes in Elizabeth City Co. within ten 
miles of Fortress Monroe. The young officer alluded to then 
left the expedition to accept a commission in the army, and 
Beall was left in sole command. His force was increased to 
about twenty, provided with open boats, and it was his aim to 
become the " Mosby " of the Chesapeake, burning light-houses, 
severing submarine telegraph wires, capturing transports 
and steamers and otherwise harassing the enemy. Matthews 
Co. was his rendezvous and base of operations. In July he 
sent a squad under Roy McDonald to seize a steamer plying 
between Cherrystone and Fortress Monroe, but they missed 
her and returned after cutting the U. S. telegraph cable across 
the Chesapeake. About the 1st of Aug. Beall and all his men 
crossed to the eastern shore of Va. and made a wreck of the 
light-house at Cape Charles. On Sept. 18th they started from 
Matthews Co. on the most enterprising project they had un- 
dertaken. The party were divided into two crews, Beall 
commmanding one in the Swan and assigning McDonald to 
the charge of the second in the Raven. Near Cape Charles 



720 THE CONFEDERATE STATES NAVY. 

they made prizes of the Northern sloop Mary Anne and two 
fishing vessels, and ran them into Watchapreague Inlet on 
the eastern shore, near where, on the night of Sept. 21st, during 
the heavy equinoctial gale, their boats almost swamped by 
the high sea, they boarded the schooner Alliance, bound from 
Philadelphia to Port Royal, S. C, with a valuable cargo of 
sutler's stores. The captain of the schooner showed fight, but 
was brought under control and his vessel captured. Leaving 
her at anchor with a prize crew, Beall sallied out in his boats 
the next night and took the schooners Horseman, Pearsall and 
Alexander, which he scuttled, and returned with his prisoners 
to the Alliance, on board of which he placed them and his 
crews and sailed to Cobb's Island. Here he paroled the prisoners 
of the Mary Anne and the fishing smacks and sent McDonald 
to Matthews Co. with the others. Because of the value of the 
cargo of the Alliance, he determined to run her up the Pianka- 
tank River, from whence he might transport the stores to 
Richmond; but the pilot grounded the schooner in the mouth 
of that river, where Beall burned her. He saved some of the 
stores, however, and got with them into Richmond, where 
their sale netted a handsome dividend for his party, his 
agreement with Secretary Mallory being that they should re- 
ceive no pay, but were entitled to all they could legitimately 
capture. 

They had accomplished so much with so small a force, 
that an exaggerated notion of their numbers was entertained 
at the Federal headquarters, and a regiment of infantry, two 
of cavalry, a battalion of artillery, and three gunboats were 
sent into Matthews Co. to operate against the squad of twenty. 
McDonald and two of the men were made prisoners on Octo- 
ber 5th; Beall and the remaining sixteen narrowly escaped, 
and on account of the hot pursuit he disbanded the party and 
returned to Richmond. He reassembled them in a few weeks, 
and about November 10th returning to his boats, which he 
had left concealed, crossed the bay once more to the Accomac 
shore, where he captured a schooner. Daylight coming on, 
he sent a squad of his men with one boat to conceal them- 
selves, while he and six others remained on the prize. Accom- 
panying him at that time was Acting Master Edward 
McGuire, C. S. N. The party sent out endeavored to make 
a landing, but were ambushed by a large detachment of the 
Federal coast guard, who extorted from one of their number 
a betrayal of the whereabouts of Beall. Gen. Lockwood, the 
Federal coinmander on the eastern shore, armed a flotilla of 
boats and captured Beall and his comrades on board their 
prize. They were taken to Drummondtown, November 15th, 
and from thence to Fort McHenry. On the passage, Beall 
tried to induce his inen to attempt the seizure of the steamer, 
but they prudently declined, and it was well they did, for in 
the hold were concealed a company of Federal troops. 



THE CONFEDERATE STATES NAVY. 721 

It was the determination of the Federal authorities to 
place Beall and his command on trial as pirates, although he 
held a regular commission in the navy of the Confederate 
States and his men were properly enlisted. It is impossible to 
discover any charges upon which they could have been con- 
victed by an impartial court and jury. Their captures were 
lawfully made of vessels owned by citizens of the power with 
which the Confederate States were at war, and in no instance 
had they transgressed the rights of a belligerent nation, 
which had already been recognized by the United States. 
During their six weeks of imprisonment at Fort McHenry they 
were ironed and treated to gross indignities. Upon receiving 
information of their hardships and danger. President Davis 
promptly ordered Lieut. Com. E. P. Williams, Ensign Benj. 
H. Porter and fifteen seamen of the U. S. navy made prison- 
ers in Charleston harbor, to be placed in similar close confine- 
ment at Richmond and held as hostages for the treatment of 
Beall and his party as prisoners-of-war. Such summary 
retaliation instantly brought the governinent at Washington 
to terms; the manacles were stricken from the limbs of the 
Confederate captives, and nothing more was heard of trying 
them for piracy. Beall was forwarded along with other offi- 
cers from Fort McHenry to City Point on March 20th, 18(34, 
where he remained until May 5th, when he was duly exchanged 
and returned to Richmond. The balance of the party, including 
Beall's brother, William, were not exchanged until the fol- 
lowing October. 

The capture of the transport steamer Maple Leaf was one 
of the enlivening incidents of 1863. She was chartered by the 
U. S. government from her owner, who was also her captain, 
and on July 7th started from Fortress Monroe for Fort Dela- 
ware, with 93 Confederate officers who had been taken prison- 
ers on the Mississippi, and sent east for confinement. The 
ranking officer was Col. A. K. Witt, of the 10th Ark. regt., and 
he, with Lieut. Semmes, and others of the prisoners, had con- 
ceived a scheme to take possession of any vessel upon which 
they might be placed. They were in charge of a Federal lieu- 
tenant and sixteen men. After getting out to sea at night, 
the lieutenant arranged his guard in three reliefs, the men not 
on duty stacking their arms, and he retired to rest. Col. Witt 
and Lieut. Semmes, seeing the opportunity, had arranged that 
one of their men should be on the upper deck, and at a given 
signal tap the bell, while the officers generally should cluster 
around the guard so far as they might do so without exciting 
suspicion. When the bell struck, the stacked muskets were 
seized by the men in the secret, the guard was overpowered 
without a shot being fired, and in five minutes Col. Witt was 
in command of the Maple Leaf, and the Federal soldiers be- 
came the prisoners. Col. Witt desired to run the steamer to 
Nassau, and turn her over to the Confederate agents there; 

46 



722 THE CONFEDERATE STATES NAVY. 

but her captain protested that she would never be able to 
make the ocean voyage, although he offered to steer for any 
other point the colonel might designate. It was then decided 
to make for the coast of North Carolina, which was reached 
ten miles below Cape Henry, and seventy of the Confederate 
officers landed, the remaining twenty-three, who were wounded 
men, being left on board. It was proposed at first to take 
them off and disable the engine of the boat, but upon the plea 
of tlie captain that she represented his fortune, and that he 
would take the wounded men direct to Fort Delaware, no harm 
was done her. He i"epaid this leniency by returning, as quickly 
as steam could carry him, to Fortress Monroe, and informing 
Gen. Dix of the affair. Cavalry were sent out after the bold 
sevent}^, but they reached the Confederate lines without 
further adventure. 

On March 6th, 18G4, another of the Chesapeake Bay sur- 
prise parties took place. Lieut. John Taylor Wood, of the 
Confederate navy, and Capt. Thaddeus Fitzhugh, of the 5tli 
Va. cavalry, who was at his home in Matthews Co. on fur- 
lough, gathered together a party of fifteen men, and crossed 
the bay in open boats to Cherrystone harbor on the eastern 
shore. Running in at night, and taking the precaution of cut- 
ting the telegraph wires, they captured the Federal cavalry 
pickets, and waited in concealment for larger game. It came 
in the shape of the U. S. dispatch boat lolas, which arrived 
during the night from Fortress Monroe, and was promptly 
seized. Before morning another dispatch steamer, the Titan,. 
came in too, and also fell into their hands as a prize. The 
cavalry guard and the crews of the two steamers outnum- 
bered them three to one, but they acted with such swiftness 
that their pistols were at the heads of each batch of the en- 
emy before the latter could fire a shot. Warehouses on the 
wharf containing commissary stores valued at $50,000 were 
given to the flames. By the orders of Lieut. Wood the torch 
was also to be applied to the lolas. but the captain offered 
to bond his vessel for $10,000, and when he executed the doc- 
ument she was spared, and he and his crew were released on 
parole. The raiders then embarked in the Titan, taking with 
them the cavalrymen whom they had captured, and steamed off 
for the Piankatank River, which they reached during the day. 
Several gunboats were sent in pursuit of them, and after run- 
ning up to Freeport, and removing from their prize everything 
of value they set her on fire. Both the captured steamers were 
fine new vessels that cost $40,000 each to build. 

These daring expeditions from the western shore of Vir- 
ginia determined the Federals to strike at their source, and 
on April 18th, Capt. Foxhall A. Parker entered the Rappa- 
hannock River with the Potomac flotilla and destroyed a 
large amount of navy material which the Confederates had 
accumulated there, including ship timber and boats. He, 



THE CONFEDERATE STATES NAVY. 723 

however, failed in the principal purpose of his foray, which 
was to make inmates of Northern prisons of the venture- 
some raiders; and finding that the river was dangerously 
sown with torpedoes, he made his way out. About the mid- 
dle of May, he returned with several vessels equipped with 
torpedo searchers, and with their aid and by marching sea- 
men along shore to look for pits from which infernal ma- 
chines might be exploded, he reached Fredericksburg with- 
out the loss of a boat. At Powatt's Island he sent into the 
country a strong party of sailors, who encountered Acting 
Masters Burley and Maxwell, with nine men. Although the 
Confederates were so greatly in the minority, they made a gal- 
lant fight, which did not end until Maxwell and six of his men 
had been killed, and Burley and the others made prisoners. 

In April, 18G5, Capt. Fitzhugli, who was associated with 
Lieut. Wood in the capture of the tolas and Titan, carried to 
success an equally adventurous undertaking within sixty 
miles of Baltimore and under the noses of the enemy. Pass- 
ing into Maryland with his band, he placed all except a dozen 
in hiding on the Chesapeake shore near the mouth of the 
Patuxent River, and with the dozen proceeded in disguise, on 
April 4th, to the steamboat wharf at Fair Haven and took 
passage on the steamer Harriet Deford for Baltimore. When 
the vessel was well out in the stream they tlirew off their dis- 
guises and revealed themselves in the uniform of the Confed- 
eracy. Taking possession of the steamer they headed her 
down the bay and by signal brought from on shore their com- 
rades, after which they returned to Fair Haven and landed 
the passengers and most of the crew. They then laid their 
course again down the Chesapeake with the intention of 
capturing any government vessel they might be able to over- 
come or one of the large steamers of the Baltimore and Nor- 
folk line, which were then carrying large numbers of officers 
and men to and from the army, and were frequently laden 
with stores of much value and sometimes paymasters' safes. 
About midnight the stearner Louisiana of that line was 
sighted. All lights on the Harriet Deford were extinguished 
and Capt. Fitzhugh prepared his men for boarding, but a 
heavy gale was blowing, the seas were running high, and he 
found it impossible to get the Deford, which was of but 150 
tons burden, up to the large vessel, which thus escaped cap- 
ture. The next day the alarm had spread all over the bay, 
and knowing that the Federal gunboats would be after him he 
took her into Dimer's Creek and destroyed her. 

The last privateering exploit in the Chesapeake was the 
capture of the schooner St. Marys off the mouth of the 
Patuxent on April 6th, 1865, by Lieut. Commander John C. 
Brain, who burned the vessel on the Virginia shore. Much 
obloquy was visited upon the heroes of these adventures by 
the Federal commanders in their reports, and although the 



724 THE CONFEDERATE STATES NAVY. 

Washington government did not dare, for fear of retaliation, 
to renew the Beall experiment of treating as pirates any of 
them who were captured, the Northern newspapers never 
spoke of their acliievements as anything else than '• piracy." 
But the term was simply employed in vindictiveness and with- 
out warrant. The enterprises of Beall, Wood, Brain and Fitz- 
hugh were sanctioned by the rules of civilized warfare, which 
permitted them, as officers of the Confederate navy or army, 
to seize the property of citizens of a hostile government or to 
destroy it. They scrupulously refrained from interference with 
the personal property of individuals, and in the case of the 
Harriet Deford, for instance, every passenger was sev on shore 
without harm or loss. '"Pirates" would have cleaned their 
pockets out as thoroughly as Sherman swept the homes of 
Georgia, or Sheridan those of the Shenandoah valley. 

In the cotemporaneous chronicles of tho advance of the 
Federals upon Richmond iu the spring anc. summer of 18G2, 
the battle of Drewry's Bluff was made a minor affair in com- 
parison with the clash of the great armies of Lee and McClel- 
lan upon the peninsula; but the revelations of later days, the 
present knowledge of the conditions of invasion and defence 
as shown in the historical writings of the commanders of 
opposing fleets and armies, raise it to the rank of an engage- 
ment upon which the fate of Richmond depended when it was 
fought. The dispatch of May 12th, in which Flag-officer 
Goldsborough promised Secretary Welles the capture of Rich- 
mond, was not ridiculous at that date; absurd as it proved to 
be, it was founded on possibilities that might have been 
realized if the Federals had been quick enough to seize them. 
If their fleet of iron-clads and gunboats had started up the 
James River on the lOtli of May, when it was known at Fort- 
ress Monroe that they were no longer threatened by the Vir- 
ginia, they might have passed Drewry's Bluff with very little 
more trouble than they met with at Day's Point or at the other 
Confederate batteries which, as we have seen, they silenced 
or passed. They could have easily covered the distance 
between Newport News and Richmond in 24 hours, and on 
any day before the 13th of May they would have found at 
Drewry's Bluff only an uncompleted line of obstructions, 
a battery mounting but three guns, and the opposition of the 
Confederate squadron of flimsy gunboats that they could have 
blown out of the water in a few moments of a close fight. But 
they lagged behind and passed in inaction their opportune 
moment, and when they did approach Richmond, Drewry's 
Bluff was a strong defensive work, whose guns, to employ the 
language of Lieut. Constable, the commander of the Nauga- 
tuck, "were manned by the best artillerists in the world — 
seamen commanded by officers late of the navy of the United 
States." It was Tucker and his sailors who saved Richmond, 
and these few hundred men were just then more precious as 



THE CONFEDERATE STATES NAVY. 725 

guardians of tlie city than the splendid army that warded off 
tlie assaults of McClellan. 

Richmond was not unconscious of her salvation, nor was 
she unappreciative of the importance of the creation of a 
stronger naval force than that which constituted the squadron 
under the command of Com. Tucker, There was never at any 
time an indifference in Virginia to the prominence which 
should be given the navy in the defence of the Confederacy, and 
the battles in Hampton Roads of the ship which bore the 
name of the State were an incentive to the prevailing ambi- 
tion that the bosom of the James should bear iron-clad ships 
over which the Confederate ensign should float. This preg- 
nant desire gave birth to the Richmond, the first fully-armored 
ship that the South put afloat on the James River. The vessel 
was consecrated from the laying of her keel with the ardent 
hopes of a community around which the battle lines were 
drawn. On March 17th, 180:3, Col. Blanton Duncan caused to 
be published in the Richmond Dispatch an appeal for funds 
with which to build an iron-clad ship, under the supervision 
of officers designated by the Navy Department, to be presented 
to the government upon its completion. He instanced the ex- 
ample of the women of South Carolina and Georgia, who were 
endeavoring to raise a fund for a similar purpose and appealed 
to the patriotism of the " rich men in our community who can 
afford to give from 8500 to $5,000 each and not miss it," and 
offered to head a subscription list with his individual gift of 
$2,000, The first response was made by Charles M, Wallace, 
who enrolled himself as a contributor in the sum of $1,000, and 
then Milton P. Jarnagin telegraphed from Athens, Tenn,, 
a subscription of $500. Next the venerable Edmund Ruffin 
pledged himself to add $500 to the fund, and after him came 
Edmund Ruffin, Jr., with a subscription of $1,000. Col. Ed- 
mund Fontaine requested that his name should be inscribed 
on the list for $1,500, and then the matter was taken up by the 
devoted women of Virginia, and eventually it was mainly 
through their patriotism and self-sacrifice that the project was 
consummated. Their organization began at Williamsburg, 
and is set forth in the following letter from that historic Vir- 
ginia town printed in the Richmond Dispatch of March 28th : 

" To THE Editor: Please state in your paper that the ladies of Wil- 
liamsbui-g, Va., iiui)ressed with the huportance of every effort to defend 
our country, have organized a society for the purpose of building an iron- 
clad gunboat to aid in protecting our coast from depredation and our 
capital from an attack by water. Their efforts so far have been crowned 
with signal success, and it is to be hoped that, with like enthusiasm, their 
countrywomen throughout the State will at once form similar societies 
for the purpose of obtaining funds for this object, which, if promptly un- 
dertaken and actively carried out, may prove of incalculable benefit to 
our State and country. 

" By the energy, industry and patriotism of the women of Virginia, 
and the influence they can wield over those who are able to contribute to 
so laudable a design, a fund may soon be collected sufficient to place upon 



72G THE CONFEDERATE STATES NAVY. 

our waters a valuable ally of the mail-clad Virginia, the best defence of 
our harbors and rivers from the attacks of an insolent enemy, whose 
naval power has already inflicted heavy blows upon our coasts. 

" The ladies of Williamsburg^, therefore, earnestly invite the co-opera- 
tion of their sisters throug'hout the State, and recommend the immediate 
adoption of such means as may secure the desired result. Contributions 
from societies or individuals may l^e forwarded to either of the following 
ladies: Mrs. Judge B. Tucker, Mrs. W. W. Vest, Mrs. Ro. Saunders, Mrs. 
Thos. Ambler, Mrs. Jas. Semple, Mrs. C. W. Coleman, Mrs. Dr. William- 
son, Mrs. Cornelia Jones, Mrs. Isabella Sully." 

The " Ladies Defence Association " was then formed at 
Eichmond, v^ith Mrs. Maria G. Clofton, president; Mrs. General 
Henningsen. vice-president, and Mrs. R. H. Maury, treasurer. 
At its meeting on April 9th an address, prepared by Capt. J. S. 
Maury,' was read by Rev. Dr. Doggett. In this address it was 
eloquently stated that the first efforts of the association would 
be " directed to the building and putting afloat in the waters 
of the James River a steam man-of-war, clad in shot-proof 
armor; her panoply to be after the manner of that gallant 
ship, the noble i^irginia." Committees were appointed to 
solicit subscriptions, and so much encouragement was received 
that the managers of the association called upon President 
Davis for sanction of its purpose, which he gladly gave ; and 
it was announced that tlie keel of the vessel would be laid in 
a few days, that Com, Farrand would be in charge of the 
work, and that he would be assisted by ship-builder Graves. 

Words can but inadequately represent the energy with 
which tlie women of Virginia undertook this work, or the 
sacrifices which they made to complete it. That their jewels 
and their household plate, 'heirlooms, in many instances, that 
had been handed down from generation to generation and 
were the embodiments of ancestral rank and tradition, were 
freely given up, is known. "Virginia."' said they in their 
appeal, "when she sent her sons into this war, gave up her 
jewels to it. Let not her daughters hold back. Mothers, 
wives, sisters ! wliat are your ornaments of silver and gold in 
decoration, when by dedicating them to a cause like this, you 
may in times like these strengthen the hand or nerve the arm, 
or give comfort to the heart that beats and strikes in your 
defence! Send them to us." 

The organization, moreover, did not confine itself to urging 
upon the women of the State that this was particularly their 
contribution to the maintenance of the Confederacy. It solic- 
ited materials, tools and metals. " Iron railings," the address 

1 John S. Maurj' held the rank of lieutenant in the Confederate evacuation of Norfolk, he was 
the U. S. navy previous to the outbreak of the ordered to Drewry's Bluff, and then to the corn- 
war, and in Aj)ril, ]861, was stationed on the mand of the gunboat //ampMn. He subsequently 
sloo\t-of-\ya.v Cumberland, atNorfolk. He resigned commanded the iron-clad Richmond, from which 
his commission, and entering the C. S. navy, was he was detached to duty in the ordnance bureau 
made lieutenant and assigned to duty at the Nor- in the city of Richmond, where he remained 
folk navy-yard after t had been abandoned by the until the evacuation, and, was paroled at Dan- 
Federals. He was emjiloyed there in fitting out ville. Since the war he has resided .n Baltimore, 
the vessels of the Confederate squadron and in where he has been engaged in the insurance 
transporting guns to Southern ports. After business. 



THE CONFEDERATE STATES NAVY. 727 

continued, "old and new, scrap-iron about the house, broken 
plough-shares about the farm, and iron in any shape, thoug-li 
given in quantities ever so small, will be thankfully received if 
-delivered at the Tredegar works, where it may be put into the 
furnace, reduced and wrought into shape or turned into shot 
and shell." A friendly invasion of the tobacco factories was 
made by a committee of ladies consisting of Mrs. Brooke 
Owathmey, Mrs. B. Smith, and Mrs. George T. Brooker, and 
the owners cheerfully broke up much of their machinery that 
was available for the specified purpose. Mrs. R. H. Maury, 
"treasurer of the association, took charge of the contributions 
in money, plate and jewelry ; the materials and tools were sent 
to Com. Farrand, and an agent, S. D. Hicks, was appointed to 
receive the contributions of grain, country produce, etc., that 
were sent in by Virginia farmers to be converted into cash. 
By the end of April the construction had reached an advanced 
stage ; President Davis and Secretary Mallory had con- 
gratulated the Ladies' Association upon the assured success 
of its self-allotted task, and by the sale of articles donated to 
a public bazaar or fair, almost a sufficient sum to complete the 
ship was secured. ^ 

The Richmond was completed in July, 1862, and although 
detailed descriptions are lacking, all mention made of her is 
unanimous that she was an excellent ship of her type. Capt. 
Parker says that " she was a fine vessel, built on the plan of 
the Virginia. She was not so large, and her ends were not 
submerged. She carried a bow and stern pivot, and two 
guns in broadside." Federal prisoners coming out of Rich- 
mond made many efforts to catch a glimpse of her as she laid 
at the dock and brought North such exaggerated reports of her 
size and strength that the Federals christened her •■ Merrimac 
No. 2." She gave the Federal commanders an opportunity 
to see for themselves what she was like on July 30th, when 
she steamed down to Drewry's Bluff, near where the enemy's 
squadron was lying. The Galena and Monitor, according to 
the letter of a correspondent of the Philadelphia Inquirer, 
hurried off to Harrison's Landing to inform Flag-officer 
Wilkes" that the di-eaded "Confederate rams " were coming 
down the river. Wilkes made no great hurry to provoke an 
action. On board his flag-ship, the Wachusett, he proceeded in 
the direction of Drewry's Bluff, followed by tlie Monitor, the 
Galena and six gunboats. With this strong squadron he was 
willing to try the issue of battle with the Richmond, but she 

1 Juat previous to this time there had been re- church. The total weight of the bells was 1623 

ceived at the Ordnance Office. Richmond, a ten- pounds. 

der of the church bells of Marietta, Ga., to be " Capt. Charles Wilkes, oi-San Jacinto and 

cast into cannon, which was accepted. The let- Trent fame, had been appointed to the command 

ter making the offer was signed by Rev. E. Porter of the Federal ileet on the .James River. He was 

Palmer, jiastor of the Presbyterian church; chosen for that command because of an expect- 

Rev. T. 15. Cooper, pastor of Baptist church; ation on the part of the Federal administration, 

Hev. Samuel Benedict;, rector of St. James that he would inaugurate a policy of hard and 

I>rote.stant Episcopal church and Rev. Alexander heavy lighting against the land and naval forces 

•Graham, pastor of the Methodist Episcopal of the Confederacy. 



738 THE CONFEDERATE STATES NAVY. 

had retired up the river and he refrained from drawing- the 
fire of the batteries on the Bhiff. 

The Federal knowledge of the fighting capacity of the 
Bichmoud was by this time tolerably accurate. By their cap- 
ture of the little gunboat Teaser they had come into the pos- 
session of papers that fairly described the ship. This capture 
was effected on the afternoon of July 4th. Balloon reconnois- 
sances were then practiced by both armies ; and the Teaser, 
under command of Lieut. Hunter Davidson, had gone down 
into Turkey Bend with a balloon on board, which it was pro- 
posed to send up in order that an observation might be made 
of McClellan's positions at City Point and Harrison's Landing. 
The Teaser got aground, and while thus situated was dis- 
covered by the Federal gunboat Maratanza, a ship carrying- 
several 9-inch Dahlgren guns. Davidson could not retreat, sa 
he opened fire upon the Maratanza with his two small guns^ 
a 9-pounder and a 32-pounder rifle. He put a shot into the 
wheel-house of the Maratanza, but by her answering fire a 
shell was exploded in the boiler of the Teaser, and Davidson 
and his crew abandoned their vessel. They escaped to shore^ 
but left behind them their balloon and papers that the Fed- 
erals claimed contained valuable information, including par- 
ticulars concerning the Richmond and her armament. Lieut. 
Davidson, in reporting the loss of his vessel, requested a 
court of inquiry, which Secretarj^ Mallory did not see fit to 
grant. " The Department," the Secretary wrote, " does not 
deem an inquiry as to the loss of the Teaser, by a court, neces- 
sary, nor does it attach blame to yourself, your officers or 
crew in consequence thereof. Your conduct under the cir- 
cumstances was judicious and creditable to the service." 

To a Confederate officer, Lieut. James Barry, who had 
served both afloat and ashore, was due the invention and con- 
struction of an iron-clad railway battery. He and some of 
his men, members of the Norfolk United artillery, had served 
on the Virginia in Hampton Roads ; and when the Confede- 
rate army was drawn behind the railroad lines around Rich- 
mond he conceived the project of, as the Richmond newspap- 
ers styled it, the '' Dry Land Merrimac." Upon a double set 
of car-trucks he built a firm floor, upon which he erected an 
armor-plated casemate similar to that of the Confederate iron- 
clads, and mounted in it one of the Brooke banded and rifled 
guns so admirably adapted to firing either shot or shell. It 
was on several occasions brought into action on the York 
River railroad in the neighborhood of Fair Oaks and Savage's- 
Station, and did commendable service as long as the enemy 
were on the line of the road. Railway batteries are now a part 
of the equipment of all armies, but it is probable that the one 
built by Lieut. Barry was the first to go into actual service. 

Under Wilkes as flag-officer the Federal fleet on the 
James was considerable strengthened, and when McClellan's 



THE CONFEDERATE STATES NAVY. . 729 

shattered army was driven upon Harrison's Landing after the 
seven days of battle it materially served to protect him from 
further Confederate assaults ; but no desire was manifested 
to again try conclusions with the batteries on Drewry's Bluff. 
The fleet suffered from several minor conflicts in which Con- 
federate army and navy men took part. On May 19th the 
surgeon, chief engineer, signal officer, and a boat's crew from 
the gunboat Wadiusett, went ashore at City Point. Leaving 
six men in the boat, the others went into the town and were 
captured by a scouting party of Confederates, who afterwards 
fired upon the boat and killed or wounded all but one man of 
the six. At Watkins Bluff, on June 30th, the gunboat Jacob 
Bell, while going up the river to meet the Monitor, came 
within the fire of a masked battery that crippled her. Her 
pilot-house was carried away, her port wheel and upper works 
shot off; but the arrival of the Monitor saved her from capture. 

During the night of July 35th-26th, 1862, the fleet of Fed- 
eral transports and supply ships near Harrison's Landing were 
awakened by a bold invasion by a boat's crew embracing Cor- 
poral Cocke, Thomas Martin, William Daniel, Alexander 
Dimitry and William Williams. Martin, an old seaman, was 
the virtual leader of the party, who stole into the midst of the 
vessels in a small boat and picked out for attack a large 
schooner, the Louisa Rives, of New York, loaded with army 
stores. The barking of a dog on the schooner revealed their 
approach, but they went ahead, although two gunboats were 
but a few hundred yards distant. Martin jumped upon the 
deck, followed by his comrades, and to prevent the captain 
from giving an alarm, they told him they had come to arrest 
him by orders of Gen. McClellan. Tumbling him into their 
boat, they set fire to the cabin, and as they pulled for the shore 
the schooner broke into flames and her crew saved themselves 
in her boats, while the gunboats slipped their cables and began 
a search for the party, who were by that time out of reach. 

There was no cessation of the apprehensions of the cor- 
respondents of Northern papers that the Merrimac No. 2 was 
coming out to engage the Federal fleet. On the night of July 
29th, Gen. Pendleton, Chief of Artillery, C. S. A., brought sev- 
eral field batteries down to the shore between City Point and 
Drewry's Bluff, from which he shelled the Federal vessels, and 
under the supposition that the Richmond would make an attack 
under cover of this fire, the Monitor, Galena and the gunboats 
were hastily advanced to confront her. The 15th of Aug. was 
set as the day by which Flag-officer Wilkes was to reduce 
Drewry's Bluff and annihilate the Confederate squadron, but 
it passed without any demonstration on his part, and with the 
retirement of McClellan's army from Harrison's Landing com- 
parative quiet was restored to the James River. The only 
addition made to the Confederate squadron meantime was the 
Dreivry, Lieut. Com. W. H. Parker, a gunboat mounting one 



730 , THE CONFEDERATE STATES NAVY. 

large rifle gun at the bow, which was protected by an iron shield 
in the form of a V. Com. French Forrest was placed in com- 
mand of the squadron, which toward the close of the year con- 
sisted of the Eichmond, Patrick Henry, Nansemond, Hampton, 
Beaufort, Raleigh and Drewry. Two gunboats that were 
being built on the Pamunkey River had been destroyed by the 
Federals in May, and in November they burned another gun- 
boat that was on the stocks in Mobjack Bay, Matthews Co. 

The year 18G3 was the quietest of the war upon the James 
River. In July the Federal iron-clad fleet, which then com- 
prised several monitors, hovered around Fort Drewry, but did 
not open fire upon it. On August -Ath the most important 
event of the year upon the river occurred. Maj. Gen. Foster, 
Brig. Gen. Nagle, Brig. Gen. Potter and their staffs started 
from Fortress Monroe with a strong squadron for a reconnois- 
sance of Fort Drewry. Their vessels were the monitor Sanga- 
mon and the gunboats Commodore Barney and Cohasset. Near 
Varina, about five miles below Drewry's Bluff, they reached 
.a line of torpedoes that had been planted by Lieut. Hunter 
Davidson, C. S. N., who had been placed in charge of this 
branch of defence and had brought it to a state of remarkable 
efficiency by his inventions and supervision. His torpedoes 
were connected by wires with electric arrangements on shore 
by which they could be exploded, and he, with one or more 
of the members of his torpedo corps, would daily visit the 
lines in the steam launch that had been set apart for his use 
and see that charges, fuses and firing apparatus were in relia- 
ble working order. Despite, however, all his carefulness, on 
this occasion the torpedoes failed to realize all that had been 
expected of them. The Sangamon and the gunboats were close 
upon the line of the machines when an attempt was made 
from the shore to fire them. Only one exploded, and that was 
nearly under the keel of the Commodore Barney, but a little 
too far forward to exert its great(}st force upon her. Her bow 
was lifted high in the air, planking and timbers were torn 
from her side, and she seemed to disappear in the commotion 
of the waters, but by her violent careening so much heavy 
material went overboard from her spar-deck that thus light- 
ened she righted herself. Twenty of her crew were washed 
off the deck, but all except two were rescued by boats from 
the consort vessels. '• This explosion," said Lieut. Davidson's 
report of Aug. Gth, "panic-struck the enemy, as their shrieks 
and cries could be heard a long distance, and effectually ar- 
rested their progress up the river, not one of their vessels pass- 
ing our position at any time." There were 500 lbs. of powder in 
the torpedoes, which Lieut. Davidson alludes to as being of 
the tank pattern; and, perhaps not desiring to make any closer 
acquaintance with others like it, Gen. Foster deferred until 
a more auspicious hour his reconnoissance of Fort Drewry. 
'The squadron of observation put back down the river, and at 



THE CONFEDERATE STATES NAVY. 731 

Deep Bottom, on the following day, steamed unawares within 
range of a Confederate artillery and infantry force masked 
Ijehind the thick forest growth of the river bank. The already 
crippled Commodore Barney received a shell in her boiler, the 
engine of the Cohasset was damaged by a solid shot, and only 
the impenetrable turret-ship came out of the fight unscathed. 
'• The officers don't want to try it over again," wrote a seaman 
of the Barney in a letter that found its way into print, " and I 
don't blame them." 

The lethargy that prevailed on the James in 1863, gave 
way the next year to extreme military and naval activity, 
and from May, 1804, to the close of the war, momentous 
events succeeded each other in swift and stirring procession. 
In that month the Confederate squadron ready to resume 
belligerent operations was the most formidable of which the 
navy was possessed. There had been added to it the iron- 
clad Virginia, a vessel of the same type as her famous name- 
sake, minus the submerged ends; but plated with six inches 
of armor on the sides of her casemate, and eight inches on 
the ends. Her battery consisted of two G-inch and two 8-inch 
Brooke rifled guns, so j^laced that three could be fired in 
broadside. Another recruit to the squadron was the iron-clad 
Fredericksburg, but she was a much weaker ship, having but 
four inches of armor. She also carried four guns, all G-inch 
rifles. The iron-clad Richmond was still on duty, as were 
the gunboats previously mentioned as constituting the naval 
force in 1862. Com. John K. Mitchell relieved Capt. French 
Forrest in the command of the squadron; the Virginia was com- 
manded by Com. R. B. Pegram, the Richmond by Lieut. Com. 
W. H. Parker, and the Frederickshurg by Com. T. R. Rootes. ' 

On May 5th, 1864, Gen. B. F. Butler effected the transfer of 
the Federal army of the James from the York River to Bermuda 
Hundreds under the protection of four monitors, the iron-clad 
Atlanta, captured near Savannah, and seven gunboats. One 
duty assigned to the latter was the dragging of the river for 
torpedoes, but on the 6th the gunboat Commodore Jones rested 
near Four and a Half Mile Creek, directly over one of Lieut. 
Davidson's tank machines which was connected by a wire 
with a galvanic battery secreted in a pit on shore and operated 
by three of the subordinates of his corps. At the proper 
moment they transmitted the spark, the 400 pounds of powder 
Avhich the machine contained exploded, and the enemy's ves- 
sel was literally blown into fragments. More than half her 
crev/ were killed or wounded by the concussion or were thrown 
into the river and drowned. Her total loss was stated to be 
75 out of a ship's company of 130. Fifty were killed outright 
and the mangled portions of their bodies were mingled with 
the splinters of the vessel that thickly strewed the surface of 

1 Lieut. Com. Parker was for much of the time and was several times transferred from that 
;iu command of the schoolship Patrick Henry, vessel to the Richmond, and vice versa. 



732 THE CONFEDERATE STATES NAVY. 

the water. On the next day the gunboat Shawsheen was de- 
stroyed in the same manner near Turkey Bend, and all of her 
people not killed were made prisoners. 

The Federals obtained some recompense for these losses. 
When the Commodore Jones was destroyed, a boat from an- 
other gunboat put for the shore and there captured Acting 
Master P. W. Smith, C. S. N., and Jeffries Johnson, a private of 
the submarine battery service, who were in charge of the tor- 
pedoes. The captors at once examined them as to the loca- 
tion of other infernal machines, and while Master Smith 
courageously refused to betray his cause by giving the infor- 
mation which would enable the enemy to avoid them. Private 
Johnson is said by the report of the Federal fleet captain to 
have weakened when he was placed in the forward gunboat 
searching for torpedoes, and to have told all he knew concern- 
ing the points where they were laid down by Commander 
Davidson. From his revelations the Federals were enabled 
to take up a number of the explosive machines and make 
more rapid progress up the river. They found that each of 
the pits, in which a man was stationed to fire torpedoes, con- 
tained a simplified form of the Bunsen electric battery, from 
which insulated wires led under ground and under water to 
the tank that held the powder, and conducted the spark that 
fired the charge. Within a month the Federals moved twenty 
torpedoes from the river, one containing a charge of 1900 lbs, 
of powder. What destruction they might have caused but for 
the treachery of one man is beyond the bounds of speculation. 

The movement of Butler's army to Bermuda Hundreds 
was made known at Drewry's Bluff on May 5th by messages 
from the Confederate signal men. It was seen that the jjost 
was in danger of an attack from the land side. Lieut. Col. 
Terrett of the marine corps was commander of the position, 
but in his temporary absence he w^as represented by Maj. 
Frank Smith. Com. Mitchell and Capt. Pegram were also 
away, and Capt. W. H, Parker was the senior officer on the 
river. Very few troops were at the fort, and Capt, Parker 
took on shore all the men that could be spared from the squad- 
ron and assisted Maj, Smith to man the inner line of defences, 
their force being too weak to hold the outer line. They sent 
dispatches to Gen. Lee and to Richmond asking for reinforce- 
ments, and remained in arms all night expecting an attack 
that they knew they were too feeble to resist. Gen, Bushrod 
Johnson arrived with his brigade at daylight, but was com- 
pelled to move in obedience to orders, and in the afternoon 
the alarin was given that the enemy were close at hand. Pro- 
visions and ammunition were thrown into the fort, and Capt, 
Pegram, who had returned to the Bluff, arrayed the squadron 
so that it might render all possible aid to the defence, but 
Butler never came. It was his one opportunity to capture 
Drewry's Bluff, which within the next twenty-four hours was- 



THE CONFEDERATE STATES NAVY. 733 

heavily reinforced. On the IGth Gen. Beauregard drove But- 
ler back to Trent's Reach, and by erecting a strong battery at 
the Howlett House held him in that safe position and obtained 
an additional command of the river. 

Torpedoes were attached to tlie bows of all the vessels of 
the Confederate squadron now, and they were frequently 
drilled with them. At the end of May the obstructions were 
sufficiently removed to permit the vessels to pass through, and 
they went through and anchored off Chapin's Bluff. An 
engagement with the Federal fleet was immediately expected, 
and on May 30th Admiral Lee, the Federal commander, sent 
the following dispatch to Secretary Welles : 

" A deserter from the rebel vessel-of-wsir Ha mpton, reports to-day that 
the enemy liave now below Drewry's Bluff three iron-elads, six small gun- 
boats, plated with boiler-iron, each mounting two guns of 6-inch and 4- 
inch bore, all fitted with torpedoes, and nine fire-ships, fitted with com- 
bustible material, with which they propose to attack the fleet in James 
River, at as early a moment as pi'acticable, by sending down their fire- 
ships first, followed by the iron-clads and other vessels." 

So impetuous a desire had been expressed by the Federal 
authorities for an engagement between their fleet and the Con- 
federate vessels, that it is impossible to underrate the surprise 
felt when it became known that the Federals were obstruct- 
ing the river at Trent's Reach, by sinking hulks in order to 
prevent the Confederate squadron from coming down. The 
official correspondence of Gen. Butler, Adm. Lee and Secretary 
Welles, contained in the latter's report for 1864, irresistibly 
establishes the conclusion that, if the Federal commanders 
were anxious to try the gage of battle with Com. Mitchell's 
squadron, their confidence in their ability to win a victory was 
not shared by their superiors. Adm. Lee was informed early 
in June that the passage of the river was to be barred, and on 
the 7th he entered his protest to the Navy Department: 

" The navy," he said, " is not accustomed to putting down obstructions 
before it, and the act might be construed as implying an admission of 
superiority of resources on the part of the enemj*. The object of the 
operation would be to make the river more secui-e against the attempts of 
the enemy upon our vessels by fii'e and explosive rafts, followed by tor- 
pedoes and ii*on-clad vessels and boats. * * * Of course myself and officers 
desire the opportunity of encountering the enemy, and feel reluctant to 
discourage his approach. But the point of embarrassment with me is the 
consequences that would follow a failure of the campaign should the novel 
plan of the enemy succeed in crippling the monitor force." 

Adm. Lee's object was to place the responsibility of obstruct- 
ing the river entirely upon Gen. Butler, and thus acquit the 
navy of erecting a barrier against an action with the Con- 
federate squadron, but the wily military lawyer was altogether 
too shrewd to permit the burden to be placed upon his 
shoulders. On June 2d, he had written to the Admiral: 

" I have no difficulty as to the point at which we desire to secure the 
river. It is the right of my line near Curtis' house at the ravine, but 
whether the river should be secured by obstructions or by vessels, or a 



734 THE CONFEDERATE STATES NAVY. 

disposition of your obstructions or of the vessels of your navy, neither my- 
self nor my engineers have any right to feel ourselves competent to give 
our opinion. The vessels ai-e wholly at your service, but upon your 
judgment, not mine, must rest theii* use.'' 

This clever strategy threw upon the Admiral the onus of 
deciding whether he would rely upon the fighting qualities of 
his fleet to protect the army lines, or whether he would resort 
to obstructions for protection. He appealed the question to 
Mr. Welles, but meanwhile gave Butler a non-commital 
answer, in which he said : 

" The first consideration with me is the necessity of holding this river 
beyond a peradventure for the great military purposes of Gen. Grant and. 
yourself. In consulting my own desires, I Avould doeveiything to induce, 
and nothing to prevent, the enemy from trying to assert their strength in 
a pure naval contest, which in my opinion would give us a naval victory. 
The only contingency of such a battle is the unknown effect of the novel 
instruments of war — torpedo vessels — which are to be employed by them, 
and which, as the attacking party, give theni perhaps an advantage which 
might possibly balance our certain superiority in all other fighting material." 

This diplomatic fencing between the army and the navy 
was brought to a termination by Gen. Grant himself. On 
June 11th, Secretary Welles replied to Adm. Lee by declining 
to decide the question of the obstructions and referring it 
back to the discretion of the latter, but before Lee received 
this answer Grant had been badly defeated at the battle of 
Cold Harbor, and was rushing his army across to the south 
side of the James. He did not elect to take the chances of the 
Federal ships being driven out of the river by Com. Mitchell, 
and he issued his peremptory orders that the hulks already 
provided should be scuttled to form the obstructions on Trent's 
Reach Bar. This was done, and when booms and cables were 
stretched between them the river was closed. The navy was at 
any rate saved from the discredit of voluntarily seeking protec- 
tion from its antagonist, and Mr. Welles Avas allowed the lati- 
tude of boasting in his next annual report of what it might 
have done if it had not been overruled. 

The Federal fleet avaihible for an engagement embraced 
the first-class monitors Saugus, Tecumseh, Canomcus and On- 
ondaga, mounting 11-incli and 15-inch guns, and 150-pounder 
rifles, and some dozen of heavily-armed gunboats, while the 
Confederate force that could be depended upon for effective 
work was really limited to the three iron-clad rams and Da- 
vidson's torpedo-boat; but still Grant was not willing that 
there should be a naval action, even with the odds so favorable 
to the Federals. Until the obstructions were so far finished 
as to make it evident that the enemy would not accept his 
challenge to a combat Com. Mitchell remained near Trent's 
Reach, and then withdrew to Drewry's Bluff. Loth, however, 
to abandon all effort to disturb the enemy, he established a 
naval battery on the hill at Hewlett's House, from which, by 
firing across the neck of land around which the river makes 



THE CONFEDERATE STATES NAVY. 735 

one of the many great curves that intervene between City 
Point and Richmond, he might hope to reach the fleet in 
Trent's Reach. Manning this work with some of his seamen, 
his iron-clads were instructed to co-operate from a position on 
the north side of Dutch Gap, and the gunboats to remain close 
at hand for any assistance feasible for them to render. The 
Virginia. Frederickshiirg, and the gunboats got into position 
on the morning of June 21st, but the Bichvtond was delayed 
in consequence of a wheel-rope parting, and fouling the pro- 
peller; and did not arrive at the scene of action until after- 
noon. The naval battery opened fire briskly upon the moni- 
tors at 10:30 A. m. and the squadron joined in the work, the 
vessels being concealed from the view of the Federals by the 
trees. It was an artillery duel at moderately long range that 
was not of serious effect to either party concerned. The mon- 
itor Saugus was struck once and the Canonicns twice by shot 
from the battery, but the damage was trifling; 229 projectiles 
were fired by the monitors, and the sole result was to silence 
one gun in the naval battery. Mitchell's vessels were not 
once struck, and the firing was discontinued at sunset. 

The squadron was not again engaged until August loth, 
when a portion of it participated in harassing the working 
parties on the canal which Gen. Butler was building at Dutch 
Gap for the purpose of opening a new route from below Hew- 
lett's Battery to the upper reach of the James River. From 
time to time the pick and shovel brigade on this useless pro- 
ject of the commander of the Federal army of the James had 
been shelled by the guns of the naval battery at Howlett's so 
severely that from a dozen to a score was the daily average 
of casualties among them; but on the 13th they were attacked 
with a more definite purpose. At 5 a. m. the Virginia and 
Fredericksburg opened fire from a position about a mile dis- 
tant, while the Richmond and several of the gunboats dropped 
down to Cox's Reach, and with the battery on Signal Hill and 
at Howlett's took part in the cannonade. The Federal monitor 
Saugus, and the gunboats Mackinaw and Delawar^e, endeavored 
to protect the working parties by firing upon the Confederate 
vessels, but their fire was altogether unproductive of results. 
As the Confederate squadron was partially hidden from the 
enemy by a wooded bluff, the guns of the latter could only be 
aimed by directions from the masthead of the Mackinaiu, and 
in fact were so elevated that it was only by chance that they 
could hit their mark. The Virginia was struck twice and the 
Fredericksburg once, but suffered no damage beyond the start- 
ing of a few bolts. They paid no attention to the enemy's 
vessels, but all day long maintained a slow and accurate fire 
upon the laborers in the canal, with the result, according to 
the Federal reports, of killing and wounding thirty men. 

While a demonstration of this character seemed, standing- 
alone, to be aimlesSj it was, in truth, an incident of the policy 



736 THE CONFEDERATE STATES NAVY. 

of annoying the Federals that produced beneficent conse- 
quences. It compelled the detention of a powerful iron-clad 
fleet in the James that might otherwise have been detached 
for operations against Southern ports, and it constantly trou- 
bled Gen. Grant concerning the security of his all-important 
line of communication by water. The authorities at Wash- 
ington thought that the monitors could be withdrawn from 
the James for operations against Charleston or Fort Fisher, 
but when they proposed to strip Adm. Lee of this element of 
his force, his vigorous remonstrance was so energetically sup- 
ported by Grant that the administration was obliged to recede 
from its purpose. '' Whilst I believe," wrote Grant on June 
9th to Lee, " we will never require the armored vessels to meet 
those of the enemy, I think it would be imprudent to with- 
draw them. * * * They stand a constant threat to the 
enemy, and prevent him taking the offensive. There is no 
disguising the fact that if the enemy should take the offensive 
on the water — although we would probably destroy his whole 
James River navy — such damage would be done our shipping 
and stores, all accumulated on the water near where the con- 
flict would begin, that our victory would be dearly bought. " 
Lee's reasoning was in accordance with that of Grant. He 
told Mr. Welles that the application of a few torpedoes would 
clear a passage through the barricade, and proposed the ques- 
tion: "What, if the draft of the rebel iron-clads allow them 
to pass the bar in Trent's Reach, would become of the commu- 
nications of the army if our iron-clads were withdrawn?" 
They were not withdrawn, and the sleep of the General and 
the Admiral was not haunted by the spectre of Com. Mitch- 
ell's squadron sinking and burning the James River armada. 

Making use of another period of inaction on the river. 
Acting Masters John Maxwell and Hines and three men from 
the squadron on Sept. 17th went into Warwick River with 
an open boat and captured the Federal schooner Jane F. 
Dui^fee and her officers and crew, numbering eight persons. 
The vessel was bonded and her people paroled. This exploit, 
successfully performed so far within the enemy's lines, re- 
flected much credit upon those engaged in it. 

The most severe test to which the squadron had been sub- 
jected was that which they experienced on October 22d, 1864, 
in an encounter with a new battery at the Boulware House on 
the left bank of the river, nearly two miles below Chapin's 
Bluff, and connecting with the fortification on Signal Hill. 
These works had been erected by the Federals since their cap- 
ture of Fort Harrison on September 19th, and their arma- 
ment included several 100-pounder Parrott rifles. They were 
masked until the morning of the engagement, when the forest 
growth in front of them was cut away and they were revealed 
within practicable range of the Virginia, Richmond, Fred- 
ericksburg, Hampton and Drewry, lying near Cox's Landing. 



THE CONFEDERATE STATES NAVY. 737 

The small gunboats, which were not calculated to withstand 
the fire of the heavy Federal ordnance, moved out of their 
reach, not however before Lieut. Alexander's vessel, the 
Dreivry, received a shell which struck one of her gun car- 
riages, wounding two men severely and three slightly. Com. 
Mitchell, with his flag-ship, the Virgmia, passed down to 
within 500 yards of the battery, signalling Capts. Maury and 
Rootes to follow with the Richmond and Fredericksburg ^ and 
for two hours they maintained so steady and well-directed a 
fire that the replies of the enemy grew slower and then nearly 
ceased, whereupon the squadron, which had almost exhausted 
their ammunition, returned toward Drewry's Bluff. It was 
admitted by the correspondents of Northern papers that the 
aim of the Confederate gunners was remarkably precise, shell 
after shell bursting in the- earthen face of the battery and 
driving the men from their pieces. This being the first test of 
the resisting quality of the casemates of the ships under a 
close fire of heavy rifled guns, the result was of much prac- 
tical importance and interest. It was encouraging except in 
the case of the Fredericksburg, the weakest of the three ves- 
sels. Capt. Rootes had gallantly exposed her to the sharpest 
of the enemy's fire, and as the Federal officers had acquired 
from deserters an acquaintance with the details of the several 
ships, their thickness of plating and weight of battery, it is 
rather more than conjecture that they intentionally ham- 
mered the Fredericksburg harder and more frequently than 
they did her stronger consorts. Her comparatively vulner- 
able casemate was struck several times, and although the 
wooden backing was not penetrated a few plates were started 
and bolt-heads knocked off ; yet there was no damage done 
that incapacitated her from continuing the battle, and she 
emerged from the ordeal in better trim than could have been 
expected. The only loss in men suffered was on this vessel, a 
shell that exploded immediately upon the grating of the roof 
of the casemate wounding seriously two and slightly four of 
her crew. With the Virginia it was demonstrated that her 
thick armor was proof against the 100-pound conical bolts 
from the enemy's rifles. She was hit by seven projectiles, no 
one of which did more than make a slight indentation in the 
six inches of iron. Not a bolt was started, and she came out 
of the engagement as tight and sound as when she went into 
it. Nearly the same thing may be said of the Richmond, ex- 
cept that she was more frequently struck and that her smoke- 
stack was shot away. 

This affair offered the four Federal monitors an enticing 
opportunity to engage the Confederate squadron if their com- 
manders were spoiling for a fight. As we have seen, Adm. Lee 
had already indicated that the obstructions on Trent's Reach 
bar could be removed, with little trouble or loss of time, suffi- 
ciently to make a gateway for the passage of vessels, and as the 



738 THE CONFEDERATE STATES NAVY. 

nearest Confederate battery was 2.000 yards distant it could 
not have materially interfered with their working parties 
making the opening. Com. Mitchell, whom his associates in 
the old navy knew as an officer who would not have declined 
such an engagement, remained in the vicinity of Dutch 
Gap quite long enough to have permitted the monitors to come 
up to him, but they did not stir from their moorings. It is no 
impeachment of the courage of their officers that the vessels 
were held off; but it is another fragment of evidence that the 
supreme Federal authorities were cautiously averse to an 
honest fight with the Confederate ships. AH through the 
autumn of 1864 the latter were most of the time below the ob- 
structions at Drewry's Bluff and in the attitude of challenging 
the enemy to a combat that was never accepted, notwith- 
standing the asserted confidence of Gen. Grant and Adm. 
Lee that the Federals would be victors in a naval battle. The 
Admiral does, indeed, in his dispatches speak of tlie channels 
above Trent's Reach being too shallow for his vessels, but the 
monitors were of no deeper draft than the Confederate iron- 
clads, and in the negro boatmen who had flocked to him he 
possessed as capable and skillful pilots as any on the river. 

On Dec. 7th the Richmond again came down within a mile 
of Trent's Reach, the Virginia and Fredericksburg following, 
and challenged Fort Brady, a Federal work on the right bank 
of the James, to a shelling match. It was nearly sunset when 
the firing began, and it ceased with the approach of darkness. 
The Richmond was rapped on her casemate with a big rifle- 
bolt, but it did no harm, and none of the other ships were hit. 

The closing naval event of the year upon the James and 
contingent waters was the disastrous Federal expedition to 
Rainbow Bluff, on the Roanoke River, on which occasion 
Lieut. Davidson's torpedo inventions made a flattering record 
for him. Five steamers composed the expedition, which on 
the evening of Dec. 9th came to anchor near Jamesville. The 
gunboat Otsego, fitted with a torpedo catcher, was exploring 
for infernal machines, but she failed to detect two that ex- 
ploded directly under her and blew her whole bottom out. On 
the next day the gunboat Bazely was also sunk by a torpedo, 
and the river was found to be so full of them that the flotilla, 
now reduced to three vessels, fell back with all the speed that 
it could make. On the way out of the river the steamers were 
attacked by sharp-shooters from the shore and almost disabled 
before they reached the James. Some twenty men were lost 
by the torpedo explosions and the fire of the sharp-shooters. 

We are nearing the finale of the James River squadron, 
but before it shared in the fate which overtook the Confederate 
States its ships and its men were to do their part in the heroic 
struggles of the perishing Confederacy. The gloom that over- 
spread the South when the dawn of 18G5 introduced the ulti- 
mate months of the war was nowhere darker than over the 



THE CONFEDERATE STATES NAVY. 739 

horizon of Richmond, and with the ponderous weight of 
Grant's armies pressing upon the enfeebled lines of Lee, mili- 
tary resistance was fast giving way. Yet one hope remained 
— that if the squadron could pass down the James, it might 
disperse the Federal fleet at City Point and there destroy 
Grant's base of supplies; Gen. Lee's veterans might pursue 
this advantage by an attack in mass upon the military lines 
that were being tightened around Richmond and even break 
them at any important points — that if all this could be accom- 
plished the throttling grasp of the enemy would be shaken off, 
the capital would be relieved and new strength gained for the 
further struggle. It was the mission of the navy to begin the 
execution of this bold and brilliant programme, which had 
been planned in conferences between Flag-officer Mitchell and 
Gen. Lee. To the unflinching spirit of Mitchell, chafing at 
the forced inaction of his ships, it came as the most welcome 
incident of his career upon the James. 

The circumstances that prevailed in the third week of 
January seemed to be a harbinger of success. Their suspicions 
of a naval raid from the direction of Richmond lulled by their 
confidence in the security of the obstructions, which had been 
planted with torpedoes, the Federals had sent to the attack on 
Fort Fisher all their monitors except the Onondaga, or Quint- 
ard battery, as it was sometimes called, a powerful double-turret 
vessel, mounting two 15-inch guns, and two very heavy rifles ; 
but for all her formidable character she could scarcely be 
forced into a fight, as the sequel showed. A flood in the river 
was awaited to afford the Vif^ginia plenty of water in which 
to manoeuvre, and the outlooks were instructed to report the 
indications of a freshet, which, it was believed, might wash 
out the Federal booms stretched across Trent's Reach. The 
high water came on January ^2d, and all day the ice was run- 
ning out in great fields and hummocks. That night Lieut. 
C. W. Read, in command of naval Battery Wood, sent Master's 
Mate Billups and two men down the river in a dug-out to ex- 
amine the obstructions, and received from Billups the report 
that, after carefully sounding, he had ascertained that for a 
width of 80 feet there was a depth of 14 feet through the 
obstructions, which were only closed by a large spar lying 
diagonally across the entrance. Read went at once to Gen. 
Pickett's headquarters and reported the result of the observ- 
ations. Gen. Pickett directed him to hasten to Petersburg and 
advise Gen. Lee. Gen Lee asked him if he thought the channel 
sufficiently wide and deep to admit the passage of the Con- 
federate iron-clads. He replied that he had no doubt of it, and 
that at any rate it might be tried. Gen. Lee ordered him to go at 
once to the Secretary of the Navy and ask that the iron-clads 
be sent down that night. He rode as fast as possible to Rich- 
mond, and went to see Mr. Mallory and explain everything to 
him. Without the least hesitation the latter wrote an order to 



740 THE CONFEDERATE STATES NAVY. 

Flag-officer Mitchell, directing him to move as soon as possible 
if he deemed it practicable. 

Lieut. Read delivered the orders to Com. Mitchell at 3 P. m. 
of the 23d, and the commanders of the iron-clads were promptly 
directed to prepare for the movement. They were Lieut Dun- 
nington, of the flag-ship Virginia; Lieut, Kell, of the Richmond, 
and Lieut. Sheppard of the Fredericksburg. The remainder of 
the squadron comprised the gunboat Drewry. the torpedo boat 
Torpedo, and the torpedo launches Scorpion, Wasp and Hornet, 
as it was contemplated that torpedoes should be employed 
against the Federal vessels. Capt. Read was placed in com- 
mand of the launches. His narrative of the expedition says : 

"Just after dark we got under way and proceeded down the river, 
the wooden gunboats and the torpedo-boats being placed on the star- 
board side of the ironclads. The night was dark and very cold. We 
passed three or four miles in range of the enemy's batteries and were not 
discerned, tlie Federal pickets being all under cover in their rifle-pits 
around the fires. When we arrived near the obstructions, Capt. Mitchell 
brought the fleet to anchor. He then went in the Scorpion, with 
Flag Lieut. Graves and myself. We went down and sounded through the 
obstructions, which verified tlie report that Billups had made. While we 
were sounding, the Federal picket boat discerned us and gave the alarm. 
As the enemy occupied both banks, a heavy fire of big guns, field-pieces 
and musketry was opened on us, and a perfect rain of missiles swept 
over our heads. Capt. Mitchell was the coolest man under fire tliat I ever 
saw ; he stood by the man at the lead, and was not satisfied until sound- 
ings had been made many times across the gap in the obstructions. The 
spar that was lying diagonally across above tlie opening of the obstruc- 
tions, was anchored at each end. A few licks with a cold chisel set it 
adrift. We then went on board the F7'ederiel;shurg, which was the 
lightest draft of the iron-clads. Capt. Mitchell ordtied Sheppard to get 
under weigh, which was soon done, and Capt. Miti-heil himself took the 
ship through the obstructions. He then returned to the Virpinia in the 
Scorpion. When we went on board the Virginia, we found that she had 
been anchored too close to the north shore and had grounded. The 
Richmond was in the same condition. The tugs were pulling at those 
two ships, but could not move them. The firing from the southern shore 
was now tremendous and much more accurate than at first. The Confed- 
erate batteries had opened all along the line. About 4 o'clock next 
morning Capt. Mitchell sent me down in the Scorpion with orders to the 
Fredericksburg to return. I found Sheppard about a mile below the ob- 
structions, and piloted the ship up the river and anchored her close by the 
iron-clads aground near the Confederate battery at the Howlett House." 

The grounding of the Virginia and Richmond was the 
virtual collapse of the enterprise, the successful consummation 
of which was balanced upon a quick dash upon the enemy 
and a surprise. While Mitchell was on his way to the Fred- 
ericksburg Lieut. Sheppard, puzzled to account for the failure 
of the other ships to follow him through tlie obstructions, had 
sent Master E. T. Eggleston to look for them, but before the 
latter found them the flag-officer had communicated with the 
Fredericksburg and ordered her return, as stated by Lieut. Read. 

The break of day disclosed the Confederate squadron re- 
assembled in Trent's Reach directly under the guns of Fort 
Parsons, which opened upon them a tremendous fire from 



THE CONFEDERATE STATES NAVY. 741 

rifled guns and mortars. Shortly a shell pierced the Drewnj 
and shattered her, but her people had been just previously re- 
moved to another vessel. Next the torpedo launch Wasp was 
smashed by a shot, and the other wooden steamers took 
shelter under a bank where the missiles could not reach them. 
Several projectiles struck the iron-clads, but did not pierce 
their armor or at all impair their fighting capacity. But a 
more dangerous enemy was at hand. The monitor Onondaga, 
which had at first retired down the river upon discovery at 
daylight of the proximity of Mitchell's squadron, came up 
again at nine o'clock, and brought her 15-inch guns to bear 
on the Virginia and Richmond, which were still helplessly 
grounded. ^ 

They endeavored to reply, but their batteries could not be 
worked from the embarrassing position in which they were 
situated, and when the port shutters were opened to allow a 
gun to be run out the musketry fire from the Federal infan- 
try on the high land of the right i3ank of the river was so fierce 
as to prevent any accurate aim. Tlie same cause interfered 
with the gunners of the Fredericksburg, and the small number 
of shots which they succeeded in discharging passed ineffec- 
tively by the Onondaga. Her position was on the broadside 
of the Virginia, and she planted a 15-inch solid shot squarely 
above the after-port of the flag-ship, knocking a clear hole 
through her armor and wood backing and sending in a whirl 
along the gun-deck huge iron fragments and wooden splinters 
that killed six and wounded fourteen of the crew. Luckily 
she was floated by the rising of the tide anjd moved out of 
the range of shot that would pierce any armor then placed 
on a ship. The Richmond got off at the same time. She 
had been less exposed than the flag-ship and was not injured. 

Flag-officer Mitchell summoned a council on board the 
Virginia, of the commanders of vessels, at noon. Lieut. Read 
states, as he was the junior, his opinion was asked first. He 
advised an immediate attack on the Onondaga, while the 
squadron had the advantage of daylight for passing through 
the obstructions, and for striking her with the torpedoes, and 
trying the effect of steel-pointed shot upon her turrets. The 
opinions of the other officers were divided, some preferring 
to wait until after dark; but the decision was to resume hos- 
tilities at 9 p. M., at which time the Virginia headed down 
the stream with the Scorpion on her port side, followed by 
the Richmond and Hornet, and the Fredericksburg in the 
rear. As the squadron arrived opposite the Point of Rocks, 
a bold bluff half a mile above Trent's Reach Bar, a blazing 

1 Capt. Parker, of the Onondaga, vfaa tried his ship, but he was found giiilty and sentenced 

hy court-martial on the charges of keeping out to be dismissed from the navy of the United 

of this danger, to which he should have exposed States. Secretary Welles disapproved the sen- 

himself and failing to do his utmost to over- tence on the ground of technical irre^iularity in 

take and capture or destroy a vessel of the the findings of the court, but Capt. Parker was 

enemy. His defence was that he only retired relieved of his command and placed on the re- 

dovvn the river to obfa,in room in which to work tired list. 



742 THE CONFEDERATE STATES NAVY. 

calcium light that threw a broad glare over the river was 
turned upon them from a Federal battery, and simultane- 
ously the forts broke the murky night with the flashes of 
scores of guns trained upon the channel. The pilot who was 
conning the Virginia from the roof of her casemate lost con- 
trol of himself and rushed for the comparative safet}^ of the 
pilot-house. Once there, he declared that it was impossible 
to steer the ship from the small eye-holes in the house, and 
that he could not have from them a broad enough field of 
vision to take her through the obstructions. The expedition 
liad reached its end. Com. Mitchell gave the signal for re- 
treat, and in a few hours the squadron was at anchor near 
Chapin's Bluff. 

The Federals strengthened the obstructions in the river 
after this episode, and added two monitors to the fleet as a 
safeguard against another such raid. It was the expiring 
effort of the Confederate squadron that had just been frus- 
trated by untoward influences not to be foreseen or averted, 
but the withdrawal of the shijjs was not accepted by some 
sternly venturesome spirits among their officers as the final- 
ity of all projects for assailing the enemy upon the water. 
Torpedo operations were still possible; and by the use of this 
favorite weapon, which in the Confederacy had been devel- 
oped to a state of efficiency previously unknown to the world, 
the clutch of the enemy might be shaken off where it bore 
hardest. 

On the morning of February 10th, 18G5, a party of about 
100 officers and men in the uniform of the C. S. navy assem- 
bled for inspection at Drewry's Bluff. The weather was bit- 
terly cold, and as the arms and equipments were inspected it 
was easily seen that serious work and imminent peril were to 
be encountered by the close attention given to the examination 
of weapons, and the expression of the men, who, in those stir- 
ring times, were familiar with danger and hardships. The 
detachment was under the command of Lieut, C. W. Read, 
and the other officers were Lieut. W. H. Ward, Master W. F. 
Shippey, Passed Mipshipmen Scott and Williamson, all of the 
navy, and Lieut, of Marines Crenshaw, Lieut. Read had or- 
ganized the expedition, which embraced ninety seamen and 
marines, which was to effect in one way what the squadron 
had failed to do in another — to gain possession of the river 
and compel Grant to abandon his position at City Point. The 
details of the plan were to carry torpedo-boats on wheels to a 
point beyond the Federal left wing, near Petersburg, ' cross 
the Blackwater River, launch the boats upon the James, below 
City Point, capture any passing tugs or river steamers, fix the 
torpedoes to them, ascend the river and blow up the monitors. 
These destroyed and the obstructions removed, the Confederate 

1 "A Leaf from My Log -Book." Master Society Papers, Volume XII., 1884, pages 416- 
W. F. SLippey, C. S. N. Southern Historical 421. . 



THE CONFEDERATE STATES NAVY. 743 

iron-clads could make short work of the wooden gun-boats, 
and the James would be open from Richmond to Hampton 
Roads, Master Shippey, the only chronicler of the expedition, 
has told how it was conducted, and why it failed. His narra- 
tive runs thus: 

" The boats were placed in chocks on four wagon-wheels, torpedoes, 
poles and gear inside, and each drawn by four mules. One Lewis, a vol- 
unteer officer of the navy, had been sent ahead to reconnoitre, and was 
to meet us at the ford of the Blackwater and pilot us to the James. How 
he fulfilled his engagement will be shown in the sequel. This man Lewis 
was mate of an American ship lying in Norfolk harbor at the time of the 
secession of Virginia, and had left his ship to join the Confederates, had 
served faithfully in the army, been wounded at Bull Run, transferred to 
the navy and commissioned as acting lieutenant, and was considered 
worthy of trust and confidence. 

" Our first day's march brought us to Gen. Anderson's headquarters, 
the right of our army, where we encamped that night, and, breaking 
camp early the following morning, we struck out from our picket line to 
gain the old Jerusalem plank road. Our march was in three detach- 
ments, the advance under Read and Ward, about one hundred yards 
ahead of the wagon train ; Crenshaw, with his marines, about the same 
distance m rear of them, and Shippey commanding the centre, with the 
wagon train. Fortunately, we met no stragglers or foraging parties of 
the enemy, and were not disturbed, and after a good day's march we 
bivouacked in good spirits and very tired. The following day's march 
was without incident worthy of mention, an occasional false alarm or 
seeking the cover of woods to screen us from chance observers. Indeed, 
we were out of the line of travel; the Federals did all their business at 
City Point, and there was little more to attract any one to this part of the 
country than to the Siberian deserts. 

" During the night the weather turned very cold, and our poor, tired 
fellows lay close to the fires. The following morning we took up our 
march in the face of a storm of sleet, and we had to stop after a few hours, 
the sleet being so blinding that our mules could not make headway, be- 
sides the road being frozen and slippery. We took shelter in an old 
deserted farmhouse only a few miles from our rendezvous on the Black- 
water, once, doubtless, the happy home of some Southern family, now 
changed into the rude scenes of a soldiers' bivouac. 

" While resting and ' thawing ' out here by the warmth of bright fires 
in big fireplaces, impatiently awaiting the breaking up of the storm i\nd 
anxious to continue our journey, a young man in gray uniform came in 
and informed us that our plan had been betrayed, and that Lewis was at 
the ford to meet us, according to promise, but accompanied by a regiment 
of Federals lying in ambuscade and awaiting our arrival, when they were 
to give us a warm reception. Had it not been for the storm and our hav- 
ing to take shelter, we would have marched into the net spread for us, 
and most likely all have been killed, or suffered such other worse punish- 
ment as a court-martial should inflict. 

" This young man had been a prisoner of war at Fortress Monroe, and 
from his window heard the conversation between Lewis and the Yankee 
officer, in which the former betrayed us, and the plan to capture the 
whole party, and having perfected his plans of escape, resolved to put 
them in execution that night, and, if possible, frustrate his designs by 
giving us information of his treachery. 

"After a hurried council of war, it was decided that we should go 
back about a mile and find a hiding place in the woods, efface our tracks, 
and remain concealed, while Lieut. Read should make a reconnoissance to 
satisfy himself that things were as bad as had been reported, and if, 
indeed, we would have to return to Richmond without accomplishing: our 
object. Accordingly, we hitched up and filed out into the road and took 



744 THE CONFEDERATE STATES NAVY. 

it back, and when we thought we had gone a safe distance, turned into 
the woods and camped, Read taking leave of us, disguised, and saying he 
would rejoin us the next day, when if he did not lay sunset we were to 
conclude he was captured and make our way back to Richmond. The 
night passed drearily away, the weather being very cold and we afraid to 
make fires for fear of exposing our situation should they be already on 
the hunt for us, as we had no doubt they would be as soon as they discov- 
ered we were not going into their trap; and the following day, though 
but a short winter one, seemed endless, so great was our anxiety for our 
leader, who had thrust his head into the lion's jaws. At length, about 4 
P. M., Read made his appearance in camp, cool and collected as ever, and 
told us that what we had heard was true, and gave orders to hitch up, 
form line and retreat. The enemy's cavalry was already scouring the 
country in search of us, and every road of retreat was guarded. We 
marched by night, avoiding main roads, and during the following day 
halted and concealed ourselves in the woods. 

" Headed off at one turn, we took another and pursued our way, re- 
solved to sell our lives dearly should the enemy fall upon us. Every path 
now seemed guarded, and our retreat apparently cut off, when an old 
gentleman in citizen's clothes and a ' stove-pipe' hat on, who had joined us 
as guide, determined to take us through the water of the Appomattox, 
and thus 'take soundings' on them. There was a horseshoe bend in the 
river, which, by fording, we could pass through between their pickets and 
reach our picket-lines. This was decided upon, and our guide marched 
us to the ford. It was not a pleasant prospect, that of taking water with 
the thermometer hanging around freezing point, but it was better thaa 
falling in the hands of Yankees, so of the two evils we choose the least. 
My teeth chatter yet to think of that cold wade through water waist deep, 
covered with a thin coat of ice, but we passed it successfully, wagons and 
all, and then double-quicked to keep from freezijig ; our clothes freezing 
stiff on us as we came out of the water. 

"We had now the inside track of our pursuers, and leaving them 
waiting for us to march up one of the many roads they had so welL 
guarded, made our way back towards our lines, which, we reached 
safely, without loss of a man, wagon or mule. 

"The results accomplished by this expedition were nothing, but I 
thought it worthy of a place in history, because of the effort. Our flag 
waved in the James River two months after the events I have endeavored 
to describe, but of the hundred and one men who composed this expedi- 
tion, fully seventy-five were in the naval hospital in Richmond, suffering 
from the effects of their winter march, on the sad day on which we 
.turned our backs upon that city." 

Rear Adm. Semmes was appointed to the command of the 
James River squadron, and entered upon his duties on the 
18th of Februar}^, 1865. As reorganized, the vessels and their 
commanders were the Virginia, Capt. Dunnington; Richmond, 
Capt. Johnson: Ff^edericksburg, Capt, Glassel; Hampton, Ca,pt. 
Wilson; Nansemond, Capt. Butt; Roanoke, Capt. Pollock; 
Beaufort, Capt. Wyatt; Torpedo. Capt. Roberts. The squad- 
ron was not heavily manned, many of its officers and men 
having been detached to the naval brigade, which, under 
command of Com. John Randolph Tucker, was distributed in 
the fortifications on Drewry's Bluff and in Battery Brooke, 
Battery Wood and Battery Semmes. 

Accustomed to the rigid discipline of the navy which he 
had enforced on the Alabama, Semmes was not prepossessed 
by the condition in which he found the squadron, although he 




ADMIEAL RAPHAEL SEMMES, C. S. N. 



THE CONFEDERATE STATES NAVY. 745 

could not but recognize that it was an unavoidable conse- 
quence of the foreshadowed triumph of the Federals. The 
personnel of the crews had lost its distinctive naval character, 
and with the exception of the principal officers and about half 
a dozen sailors in each ship, the men were drawn from the 
army. Demoralization prevailed and desertions were frequent. 

"Sometimes [the Admiral wrote], an entire boat's crew would run 
off, leaving the officer to find his way on board the best he might. The 
strain upon them had been too great. It was scarcely to be expected of 
men, of the class of those who usually form the rank and file of ships' com- 
panies, that they would rise above their natures, and sacrifice themselves 
by slow but sure degrees, in any cause, however holy. The visions of 
home and fireside, and freedom from restraint, were too tempting to 
be resisted. The general understanding, that the collapse of the Confed- 
eracy was at hand, had its influence with some of the more honorable of 
them. They reasoned that their desertion would be but an anticipation 
of the event by a few weeks. "^ 

The evacuation of Charleston and Wilmington and the 
destruction of Confederate vessels at those places, released three 
hundred officers and men of the navy, who were ordered to 
duty at Richmond and assigned to the batteries near Drewry's 
Bluff. With this addition the naval brigade became a large 
and important force, and the familiarity of its men with the 
handling of great guns was apparent in the bombardments 
that were the most common occurrences on the lines around 
Riclimond during Feb. and March, 1865.^ The men were also 
organized into companies by the commanding officer, Com. 
Tucker, and drilled as infantry. Among the officers on duty 
with the brigade at the time were Capt. T. T. Hunter, Lieuts. 
W. G. Dozier, Clarence L. Stanton, M. M. Benton,' W. H. 
Ward, F. N. Roby, D. M. Trigg, C R. Mayo, W. L. Bradford, 
Gwathmey, Marmaduke and Gardner; Lieut, of Marines A. S. 
Berry, Master's Mate Charles Hunter, and a large contin- 
gent of midshipmen. The same causes which had sent these 
many seamen and their officers from the Southern ports to 
Richmond had also multiplied the Federal naval force in the 

1 " Memoirs of Service Afloat." Gaines at Mobile. After passing an examination 

2 Lieut W H Mnr<lan"h writer • " Thp la^t he was promoted to be master and assi-iied to 
ueut. w u.Murclaugn writes. J-^e last service on the captured ship Harriet Lane at 

L^^"^ ^-A"- ^? '"''^ '1^^ °^°^ °4 ^''^^''^ Galveston; thence to the 1^66 at Slireveport. 

■ f r^H^ Department at Richmond. Became ^a., and thence to duty at Richmond in Nov. 

n from the Secretary s office, and in replying ^g^,^ ^ ^ j ^j^/^^^ j^I ^il^ j^^ ^,,,^^ j^. 

to a question from Com Forrest and Lieut. ^. '^ ^ ^^jl^ Buchanan aud placed iu charge 

^.,.|.Y,. . T ^"■' }^'b?ther they could do anything ^ equi/ping the Tennessee. He wan co.i.mis- 

T2^'r. I t'""^'- t7°" ''^"h° a great deal. ^ J^ aVlieuteuant in 1803. and in May. 1864, 

Jfif • f ^ officers, they are the best heavy assigned to command of the gunboat 

artilleTists we have. I went to see the President ^„;^.„^ ^'^ ^^^ j^^^^ j^.^^^. „,dron. In July 

ifl t?,« 1 '''t„ f'lt'^'-J" \ 7 ^"\* """"f," lie and his crew participated in the Point Look- 

IZZtl In^lt ?. °* ^^'^ ^^^^ *" ^^""^ ^ "^^^^ out expedition. He next served on the Talla- 

lue same request. hassee, and then in torpedo operations at Charles- 

3 Mortimer Murray Benton was born at Gov- ton. On the evacuatiim of that city he was or- 
ington, Ky., Feb. 18th, 1841, and entered the dered to Drewry's Bluff, commanded a com- 
U. S. navy as midshipman at the naval academy pany of the naval brigrade and was made jiris- 
at Annapolis in Sept. 1858. In April. 1860. he oner at the battle of Saylor's Creek. In 1869 he 
resigned, and in June, 1861, was appointed lieut. was ordained deacon, and the next year priest, of 
of engineers in the Ky. State Guard. Feb. 1862, the Protestant Episcopal Church, and is now 
he received a commission as mid.shipman in the (1887) rector of the Parish of the Advent, Louis- 
C. S. navy, aud was ordered to the gunboat ville. 



746 THE CONFEDERATE STATES NAVY. 

James, where had been concentrated the most of the vessels 
that were previously engaged in operations on the coasts of 
North and South Carolina. The assembling of this imposing 
and mighty fleet seemed to forbode an attack upon the capi- 
tal by water, but as Adm, Semmes says, Richmond was secure 
on that side. No fleet of the enemy could have passed his three 
iron-clads moored across the stream in the only available 
channel, with obstructions that would hold it under the fire of 
the ships and the flanking batteries; and if Adm. Porter, the 
new commander upon the river, ever thought of such a move- 
ment he never attempted it. The remainder of the winter 
passed slowly and tediously into the spring, and Semmes' 
visits to the Navy Department for instructions or suggestions 
from the government resulted merely in permission to him to 
do about as he pleased. It may be presumed that if the rest- 
less and intrepid sailor who carried the Alabama into a dozen 
seas had found any employment for the James River squadron 
the barnacles would not have gathered upon his hulls, but the 
opportunities for action were numbered with the past. He has 
himself told how, as he sat in his cabin, on board theVirginia, 
in March, and studied upon the maps the approach of Sher- 
man, and knew of the reinforcement of Grant by the army of 
Sheridan, the prospect was to him hopeless enough. Rich- 
mond was invested by 160,000 men, and Lee defended it with 
33,000 ragged and half-starved troops, with which he was com- 
pelled to guard an intrenched line of 40 miles in length, extend- 
ing from the north side of the James River, below Richmond, 
to Hatcher's Run, south of Petersburg. In all military history 
there is recorded no more stubborn and skillful defence of a 
beleaguered city, but it could not last much longer. The fate 
of Richmond was decided on the morning of April. 2d, when 
Grant broke through the Confederate lines at Petersburg. 
Adm. Semmes was at dinner on the Virginia that afternoon 
when he received this message from the Navy Department: 

"Confederate States op America, ) 

" Executive Office, Richmond, Va., April 2d, 1865. i" 
"RearAdmiral Raphael Semmes, CommawcZm^ JomesiJi'wr /Sgwadrow; 
"Sir : Gen. Lee advises the government to withdraw from this city, 
and the officers will leave this evening, accordingly. I presume that Gren. 
Lee has advised you of this and of his movements, and made suggestions 
as to the disposition to be made of your squadron. He withdraws upon 
his lines toward Danville this night ; and unless otherwise directed by 
Gen. Lee, upon you is devolved the duty of destroying your ships this 
night, and with all the forces under your command joining Gen. Lee. 
Confer with him, if practicable, before destroying them. Let your peo- 
ple be rationed, as far as possible, for the march, and armed and equipped 
for duty in the field. Very respectfully, your obedient servant, 

"S. R. iiAJaiuOnY, Secretary of the Navy. "" 

The enemy being only a few miles distant it was impera- 
tive that the Admiral should conduct his movements with care- 
ful secrecy. At nightfall he got the squadron under way and 
ran up to Drewry's Bluff, intending to blow up the iron-clads 



THE CONFEDERATE STATES NAVY. 747 

there, throw their crews on the wooden gunboats, and proceed 
in the latter to Manchester, opposite Richmond, on his way to 
join Gen. Lee. But these plans he was compelled to change 
when, an hour or two after dark, the flames that lit up the 
horizon on the north side of the James revealed to him that 
the army was burning its quarters as it left the intrench- 
ments. Concealment on his part was no longer practicable. He 
made his preparations for burning the fleet, first serving out 
arms, provisions and clothing to the men who were to ex- 
change the decks for the shore. The various occupations 
occupied them until a late hour. It was between two and 
three o'clock on the morning of April 3d before the crews of 
the iron-clads were all safely embarked on the wooden gun- 
boats and the iron-clads were well on fire. The little squadron 
of wooden boats then moved off up the river by the glare of 
the burning iron-clads. '' They had not proceeded far before 
an explosion like the shock of an earthquake took place, and 
the air was filled with missiles. It was the blowing up of the 
Virginia, the late flag-ship. The spectacle was grand beyond 
description. Her shell-rooms had been full of loaded shells. 
The explosion of the magazine tlirew all these shells, with 
their fuses lighted, into the air. The fuses were of different 
lengths, and as the shells exploded by twos and threes, and 
by the dozen, the pyrotechnic effect was very fine. The ex- 
plosion shook the houses in Richmond and waked the echoes 
of the night for forty miles around.'' 

At one of the bridges across the James the boats were de- 
tained until after sunrise on account of the draw being down 
to allow of the passage of troops. Then the Admiral landed 
his 500 sailors in the midst of the troops and civilians hurrying 
away from the forsaken city. The wooden gunboats were 
fired and, wrapped in flames, floated down the stream, while 
he asked himself what he was to do with his seamen, loaded 
down with pots and pans, mess-kettles, bags of bread, chunks 
of salted pork, sugar, tea, tobacco and pipes. His orders were 
to join Gen. Lee, but he did not know where to find him, he 
was without transportation, and it was as much as his men 
could do to stagger under their loads. Fortunately, he found 
at the railroad depot a small locomotive and some cars, and 
the steam engineers from the squadron soon had the former 
in running condition and a train made up ; but while still 
directly opposite Richmond the engine stuck on an up-grade ; 
it was not strong enough to pull the train. Another locomo- 
tive was discovered in the railroad shops, and after it was 
hitched on the two drew the train off at the rate of six miles 
an hour. It reached at midnight of April 4th the city of Dan- 
ville, having passed Burksville Junction an hour and a half 
before Sheridan's cavalry tore up the rails. Here the Admiral 
found President Davis and Secretary Mallory, who ordereil 
him to form his command as a brigade of artillery for the 



748 THE CONFEDERATE STATES NAVY. 

occupation of the defences around Danville, his own rank ta 
be that of brigadier general. He arranged with Capt. Sidney 
Smith Lee and Adjt. Gen. Cooper for the transformation of his 
sailors into soldiers. Only 400 men were left him, but these 
he broke in two skeleton regiments, appointing Capts. Dun- 
nington and Johnston their colonels. Midshipman Semmes 
was assigned to a position on the staff; Mr. Daniel, the Admiral's 
secretary, became the other aide, and Capt. Rutt was appointed 
Assistant Adjutant General, Admiral Semmes writes: 

" "We remained in the trenches before Danville ten days ; and anxious 
and weary days they were. Raiding parties were careering around us in 
various directions, robbing and maltreating the inhabitants, but none of 
the thieves ventured within reach of our guns. Lee abandoned his lines 
on the 3d of April, and surrendered his army, or the small remnant that 
was left of it, to Grant, on the 9th, at Appomattox Court-House. The 
first news we received of his surrender came to us from the stream of 
fugitives which now came pressing into our lines at Danville. It was 
heart-rending to look upon these men, some on foot, some on horseback, 
some nearly famished for want of food, and others barely able to totter 
along from disease. It Avas, indeed, a rabble rout. Hopes had been 
entei'tained that Lee might escape to Lynchburg, or to Danville, and 
save his army. The President had entertained this hope, and had issued 
a proclamation of encouragement to the people before he left Danville. 
But the fatal tidings came at last, and when they did come we all felt 
that the fate of the Confederacy was sealed." 

These fatal tidings were the melting away of Gen. John- 
ston's army and its dispersion in accordance with the terms 
arranged between that commander and Gen. Sherman at 
Greensboro' on May 1st. This agreement included the ad- 
nciiral's command, wiiich he dispersed on the same day. 

While the flag-officer afloat was making his way out of 
Richmond and to Danville, as just described, with the men of 
the squadron. Com. Tucker's naval brigade evacuated the posi- 
tions at Drewry's Bluff on April 2d, and was attached to Gen. 
Custis Lee's division of Gen. Ewell's corps, which formed the 
rear-guard of the Confederate army on the retreat from 
Richmond. It was the post of danger, and never in any of 
the great emergencies of the war did the sailors win brighter 
renown than during this perilous march and at the battle 
of Saylor's Creek. From the 2d to the 6th of April they were 
allowed no rest and were without food; the spring rains and 
the passage of troops, wagons and artillery had mired the 
roads knee-deep; clouds of the enemy's cavalry hovered 
around them and swooped down upon their flanks; but they 
tramped on. maintained a compact organization and responded 
quickly to the orders of commanders. Upon no portion of the 
dwindling army did the sufferings of the retreat fall heavier 
than upon this little plucky band, and none bore them with 
more fortitude. The story of their conduct at Saylor's Creek 
is an illustrious ending of their history. 

That last of the great battles of the war was fought 
on April 6th. Swell's depleted ranks were enveloped by the 



THE CONFEDERATE STATES NAVY. 749 

masses of Sheridan's infantry and cavalry, and came to a 
stand at the creek for their final resistance to the overwhelm- 
ing thousands of the enemy. The naval brigade held the 
right of the line, where it repulsed two assaults of cavalry and 
one of infantry with its firm formation and rapid, steady fire, 
the Federals splitting on its front and going to the right and 
left of it. In one of the dashes of the cavalr3^ Gen Ewell and 
his staff were captured, and he passed the order of surrender 
to his troops, whose line, except that held by the sailors, had 
been pierced by the Federal charges. The naval brigade and 
200 marines, under command of Maj. Simmons, were holding 
precisely the same position then which had been assigned 
them in the morning. Com. Tucker was informed that Ewell 
had ordered a surrender, but refused to believe it. The brigades 
of infantry on either side of him had ceased firing, but with 
the remark, "I can't surrender," he ordered his men to con- 
tinue the engagement. Gen. Wright, the commander of the 
Federal Sixth corps, had directed the fire of a dozen batteries 
upon him, and a mass of cavalry were making ready to ride 
him down, when he was informed for the second time, by 
Lieut. Clarence L. Stanton, C. S. N., who was on staff duty, 
of the surrender, and he followed the example of the infantry. 
He had continued the fighting fifteen minutes after they had 
lowered their arms, and the naval colors were the last to be 
laid down. The bravery of the sailors was observed along the 
Federal lines, and when they did surrender the enemy cheered 
them long and vigorously. ' 

The salutations of the foe to the men who '' didn't know 
when to surrender," brought to a close the history of the navy 
of the Confederate States upon the waters of Virginia. Un- 
consciously, Com. Tucker and his three hundred sailors had 
emphasized with a force beyond the limitations of language to 
convey, the part which this branch of the service had borne 
through the years when Virginia was the great fighting ground 
of the war. They had given tlie final proof of the strength of 
the convictions which enrolled them under the Southern colors, 
and of their unswerving fidelity in the painful hour of irresist- 
ible disaster. They had sought every opportunity to fire a 
shot or strike a blow for the liberties of their States ; they had 
unflinchingly obeyed orders leading them into combat against 
outnumbering enemies ; and from they day when the Virginia 
swept Hampton Roads to that upon which they stood in em- 
battled line at Saylor's Creek they made an un smirched record 
as hard and honest fighters, obedient subordinates and loyal 
patriots. 

1 Capt. W. H. Parker says in his " Recollections recalled to his memory the battle of Saylor's 

of a Naval Officer," that Com. Tucker told him Creek. Wright said he remembered with what 

afterwards that he had never been in a land obstinacy one portion of the Confederate line 

battle before, and supposed that everything was had been held, and could not account for it 

going on well. Some years after the war Lieut. until he found that it had been held by 

Mayo, then in command of a Chesapeake Bay sailors who did not know when they were 

steamer, had Gen. Wright as a passenger and whipped. 



CHAPTER XXI I I 
THE TORPEDO SERVICE. 



ON July 7th, 1861, occurred the earliest instance of the use 
of torpedoes in the war between the States, in an attempt 
to destroy an enemy's vessel. The effort was directed 
against the Federal squadron in the Potomac River at 
Aquia Creek, the torpedoes consisting of oil casks which buoyed 
cylinders of boiler-iron containing the explosive material. 
Fuses led from the casks into the cylinders, and each pair of 
casks was connected by a rope in order that, going down 
stream with the tide, they would bring up against the bows of 
an enemy's ship, the cylinders would swing against her side 
and the explosion would take place. The apparatus was sent 
down by the Confederates on the ebb tide, but being observed 
from the squadron, a boat's crew extinguished the fuses and it 
was harmlessly secured. In the latter part of July the Federals 
found adrift in Hampton Roads a barrel of powder so arranged 
with a floating line, that if the line fouled tlie anchor chains 
or the wheel of a ship it would fire a percussion cap placed 
upon the powder. This was probably the invention of some 
Confederate at the Norfolk navy-yard, and had been rendered 
innocuous by the leakage of the barrel. 

Subaqueous and subterranean infernal machines came 
into use about the same time. During January, 1863, in some 
experiments on the Mississippi River with a submarine tor- 
pedo, the Confederates blew up an immense flat-boat '" so high 
that only a few splinters were heard from; '* and on entering 
Columbus, Ky.,in March, the Federals found pear-shaped iron 
casks three feet long, and half as much in diameter, filled with 
grape, canister and powder, buried in mines under the river 
bank, and having an electric firing arrangement communi- 
cating with stations in the town. Other torpedoes (called the 
pronged torpedoes), were picked up in tlie river. On February 
13th, 1862, the U. S. gunboat Pembina discovered in the 
Savannah River, near the mouth of the Wright River, a 
battery of five tin-can torpedoes anchored by grapnels and 

f750) 



THE CONFEDERATE STATES NAVY. 



751 




connected with wires, which by 
the tension exerted upon them 
by the contact of a passing ves- 
sel would fire friction tubes (can- 
non primers) inserted in the 
head of each powder chamber. 
One of these machines was ex- 
ploded that night when a convoy 
of artillery was but 200 yards 
distant, and this induced the 
Federal commander to suspect 
that some of them were con- 
nected by galvanic wires with 
Fort Pulaski. Torpedoes of this 
description were placed in large 
numbers in the rivers along the 
Southern coast. Anotherpattern 

:\L;-'^-^^''^' was the "frame torpedo," which 

THE PMONiiED TORPEDO. 1 SO scriously delay cd Burnside's 

progress up the Neuse River, in March 18G2, and was used in nar- 
row channels both for obstruc- 
tion and destruction. They were 
thus described: 

" Three heavy pieces of timber, 
placed in the position, at the bottom of 
which was placed a box filled with old 
iron, stones and other heavy materi- 
als, was sunk in the river, and then 
inclined forward at an angle of forty- 
five degrees by means of ropes and 
w^eights. This heavy frame was capped 
by a cylinder of iron, about ten inches 
in diameter. Into this was fitted 
a shell, which was heavily loaded, 
resting on a set of springs, so ar- 
ranged that the least pressure on 
the' cylinder would instantly dis- 
charge the shell by means of a per- 
cussion cap ingeniously placed."' 




A FKAME TOUPKDO. 




A FKAME TORPEDO. 



1 A, iron rod armed with prongs to fasten upon 
bottom of boats going up-stream and act upon B, 
a lever connecting with trigger to explode a cap 
anc" ignite powder. C, canvas bag containing 70 
Iba powder. D, anchors to liold torpedo in place. 

1 lis torpedo consisted of a stout sheet-iron 
cyl ider, pointed at both ends, about 554 feet 
long and 1 foot diameter. The iron lever was 



3% feet long, and armed with i^rongs to catch in 
the bottom of a boat. This lever was constructed 
to move the iron rod on inside of cylinder, thus 
acting upon the trigger of the lock to explode 
the cap and fire the powder. The machine was 
anchored, presenting the prongs in such a way 
that boats going down-stream should slide over 
them, but those coming up should catch. 



752 



THE CONFEDERATE STATES NAVY. 



In the retreat of the Confederates from Williamsburg, Va., 
in May, 1862, Gen. G. J. Rains, subsequently chief of the tor- 
pedo service, arranged some ordinary shells beneath the road 
and fitted them with sensitive primers. A body of Federal 
cavalry suffered severely from the explosion of these primitive 
torpedoes as they rode "^over them, and Gen. McClellan com- 
plained of what lie styled this " most murderous and barbar- 
ous conduct." Gens. Joseph E. Johnston and Longstreet 
forbade Rains to use these implements of warfare, and tlie 
question was referred to Mr. Randolph, Secretary of War, 
who decided that torpedoes must only be used in a parapet or 
on a road to repel assaults or check the enemy, or in a river or 
harbor to drive off blockading or attacking fleets. After the 
battle of Seven Pines, Gen. Lee suggested to Rains the em- 
ployment of torpedoes in the James River. The latter was 




tJ. S. lEON-CIAD " CAIRO " (BLOWN UP BY CONFEDERATE TORPEDO). 



placed in charge of the submarine defences, and claims to have 
put in position, at Drewry's Bluff, the first submarine torpedo 
made. Lieut. Hunter Davidson. C. S, N., lays claim to not only 
the first successful application of electrical torpedoes, but also to 
having established the system upon the James River. Capt, 
M. F. Maury.C. S. N.,was the predecessor of Davidson in charge 
of the work, but went to Europe before it was far advanced, 
Avhere he continued his experiments and invented an ingenious 
method of arranging and testing torpedo mines, which he was 
about to put into use at Galveston against the blockaders when 
Gen. Lee surrendered. Still another claimant to early opera- 
tions with electric torpedoes is Lieut. Beverley Kennon, C. S. N., 
who writes that he experimented with devices of his own on 
Lake Ponchartrain in August, 1861. He also states that at 
Vicksburg, in the autumn of 1862, he gave torpedo instruction 
to Acting Master Zedekiah McDaniel, C. S. N., who, with Act- 
ing Master Francis M. Ewing. subsequently blew up the U. S. 
iron-clad gunboat Cairo in the Yazoo River. The expedition 



THE CONFEDERATE STATES NAVY. 753 

to which that vessel belonged was under the command of 
Lieut. Com. Thomas O. Self ridge, U. S. N., and embraced also 
the Pittsburg, Marmora, Signal and ram Queen of the West. 
On December 12th, 1863, the vessels were a little below Haines' 
Bluff, where McDaniel and Ewing were stationed in charge of 
the torpedoes. Two were fired without doing any dainage, but 
the third exploded under the Cairo's bow and sent her to the 
bottom in 12 minutes. The torpedo which accomplished this 
was a large demijohn inclosed in a wooden box and fired with 
a friction primer by a trigger line leading to torpedo pits on 
shore. It was the first instance of the destruction of a vessel- 
of-war engaged in active warfare by a torpedo. 

In October, 18G2, the ''Torpedo Bureau" was established 
at Richmond, under the charge of Brig. Gen. G. J. Rains, and 
the "' Naval Submarine Battery Service" was organized under 
command of Capt. M. F. Maury, who relinquished it to Lieut. 
Hunter Davidson. An act of Congress, April 21st, 1862, pro- 
vided that the inventor of a device by which a vessel of the 
enemy should be destroyed should receive 50 per cent, of the 
value of the vessel and armament, and the general appro- 
priation bill of May 1st, 18G3, embraced an item of $20,000 for 
this branch of the public service, to be expended under the 
direction of the Navy Department, which was the first ap- 
propriation of the kind. By the act of February 17th, 1864, 
$100,000 was appropriated for the construction of submarine 
batteries, and by the act of June 13th, 1864, $250,000 was ap- 
propriated for the same purpose. Legislation, however, was 
not as prompt as it should have been. ' 

Torpedo stations were established at Richmond, Wilming- 
ton, Charleston, Savannah and Mobile, with sub -stations at 
other points. The men of the corps were sworn to secrecy and 
granted extraordinary privileges on account of the perilous 
and arduous nature of the service. Several boats engaged 
in laying torpedoes were destroyed with all their crews by 
accidental explosions. 

The spar torpedo was an important invention which played 
a conspicous part in this service of the Confederacy. Many 
such machines were left by the Confederates at Charleston 
and Richmond when those places were evacuated. Some were 
cylindrical-shaped copper vessels with convex ends for boats 
and tugs; others were larger and were shaped like an egg, the 
butt being carried forward to bring the greater power of the 
charge nearest to the object to be destroyed. All were in- 
tended to be operated at the extremity of a pole or spar pro- 
jecting from the stem of the torpedo boat or other vessel. 

This spar was attached to the vessel by a goose-neck, 
fitted to a socket bolted to the bow, near the water-line. 

1 "For three years the Confederate Congress a.cclamation, and S6,000,000 appropriated, but too 

legislated on this subject.a bill passing each house late, and the delay was not shortened by this 

alternately for an organized toi'pedo corps, until enormous appropriation." Gen. G J. Rains, So. 

the third year, when it passed both houses with Historical Society Papers, Vol. III., Nos. 5-6, p. 256. 

4fl 



754 



THE CONFEDERATE STATES NAVY. 



Guys from the spar to the side of the vessel kept the spar 
in its position when the torpedo was submerged for an attack, 
and it was lowered and raised by 
tricing lines and tackles. Usually 
seven fuses made to explode by con- 
tact were fixed to each torpedo. Gen. 
Beauregard and Com, Wm. T. Glas- 
sell, C. S. N., ' state that the spar tor- 
pedo was designed by Capt. Francis D. 
Lee of the engineer corps, on duty 
at Charleston, and Glassell mentions 
that after seeing the device success- 
fully tested there, he endeavored to 
induce Com. Ingraham. flag-officer at 
Charleston, to equip a flotilla of such 

boats for oper- 
ations against 
the blockaders. 
But Ingraham 
did not believe 
in what he 
called ' ' new- 
f a n g 1 e d n o- 
tions," and it 
was only by the 
aid and at the 
expense of 
Geo. A. Tren- 
holm that Glas- 
sell at last fitted 
out some row- 
boats with the 
spar-torpedoes. 
He obtained 
volunteers for 

an expedition, but the flag-officer re- 
fused to sanction it, on the ground that 
his rank and age did not entitle him to 
the command of more than one boat. 
spAB TORPEDO. 3 Finally, Glassell started out with one 





SPAK TOEPEDO. 2 



1 Commander W. T. Glassel was a lieutenant 
in the U. S. navy, and returned from China in 
the Hartford in the summer of 1862. Immediately 
upon his arrival in Philadelphia, (August 5th, 
1862), he was informed that he must take a new 
oath of allegiance or be sent to Fort Warren. 
He refused to take this oath, on the ground that 
it was inconsistent with one he had already 
taken to supjiort the Constitution of the United 
States. He was kept in Fort Warren eight months, 
and then exchanged as a prisoner of war, on the 
banks of the James River. Being actually placed 
in the ranks of the Confederate States, he 
entered the navy as lieutenant, his commission 
being dated August 5th, 1862, the same day on 



which he was sent to Fort Warren. He received 
orders to rejiort for duty on the iron-clad Cliicora 
at Charleston, and participated in the attack upon 
the Federal blockading fleet. He died at Los 
Angelos, California, on the 28th of January. 1879. 

' This class of torpedo was generally used on 
all the Confederate gunboats. The braces were 
intended to support the weight of the torpedo, 
particularly when lifting out of water. 

3 This class of torpedo was among the first 
used. It was a soda water copper tank supported 
by iron straps, and had five chemical orsensitive 
fuses projecting from the upper half of the 
hemispherical surface. 



THE CONFEDERATE STATES NAVY. 



755 



row-boat and a crew of six men. 
and approached the Federal 
frigate Poivhatan at one o'clock 
in the morning. He was aiming 
to strike her with his torpedoes 
when one of his men, from ter- 
ror or treason, backed his oar; 
the otliers gave up in despair; a 
boat put out from the enemy's 
ship; and thus thwarted Glas- 
sell cut the torpedo loose and 
returned to Charleston, 

On February 28th, 1863, the 
monitor Montauk destroyed the 
C. S. cruiser Nasliville in the 
Ogechee River, Ga. ; and as she 
was returning to her anchorage a tor- 
pedo exploded under her. By running 
her upon a mud-bank and stopping the 
hole blown in her hull, she was saved 
from sinking, but she was retired from 
service for a month 
while repairs were 
being made. This 
disaster and the loss 
of the Cairo made 





SPAB TORPEDO. 1 



THE ELECTEIC TORPEDO. 



the Federal naval commanders ex- 
ceedingly cautious about venturing 
into waters where the presence of 
torpedoes was suspected; and the 
government applied to Capt. Erics- 
son, the constructor of the Monitor, 
to furnish something to remove or 
destroy the submarine batteries. 
The next vessel to suffer was the U. S. 
iron-clad ram Baron DeKalh, which 
was completely destroyed on the 
Yazoo River, July 22d, 1863. The 
torpedo which sunk her was anchored 
in tJie channel, and burst under her 
when she struck it in passing over. 
On August 8th, as the U. S. steamer 
Commodore Barney was descending 
the James River an electric torpedo, 
fired from the shore, was exploded 
just astern of her. She was badly 
disabled, and some men were washed 
from her deck and drowned; and but 



1 This form of " ram torpedo " was taken from 
the iron clad Charleston, nt Charleston, S.C. It was 
made from a strong wood cask, and had 7 sensi- 



tive fuses. It contained about ISOlbs. of fine pow- 
der, and was fixed on the end of an iron spar about 
30 ft.long, attached to the bow near the water line. 



756 



THE CONFEDERATE STATES NAVY. 



for the fact that the electric 
battery had acted slowly, she 
would have been destroyed. 

The electric torpedo repre- 
sented in the diagram afforded 
the best protection to the wires, 
and brought the charge very 
near the object to be destroyed. 
It was made of |-inch boiler 
iron and filled with fine pow- 
der. Two wires connected it 
with the electric battery on 
shore, the conductor being 
covered with gutta percha, the 
submerged ends being addi- 
tionally protected 
by a covering of 
tarred hemp, and 
weighted with 
chain. The torpe- 
do was anchored 





THE DRIFT TORPEDO. 



THE DRIFT TORPEDO. 



to bolts (C and D), and castings were bolted 
J to the ends (A and B). the former to cover 
^ and protect the circuit wires. ' 

The drift torpedo gave the Federals in 
James River great annoyance. It was a 
tin case containing about 70 pounds of 
powder. A number of wires from the 
friction fuse led from the powder to small 
pieces of drift-wood on the surface of the 
water. The torpedo was floated at the 
proper depth by a line fastened to a float- 
ing log. The torpedo was turned adrift at 
night, with the view of fouling the trigger 
lines by the propellers of the enemy's ves- 
sels. In January, 1863, one of these tor- 
pedoes was picked up by the U. S. gunboat 
Essex in the Mississippi River. 

On August 17th, 1863, the Federals 
picked up in Light-house Creek, Charleston 
harbor, a torpedo made of three metallic 
cases, on the upper side of which were 
delicately arranged hammers connected 
with cords. The cords were to catch on a 
vessel, when the cases would swing against 
her, the hammers would fall on percussion 
caps, and thus the explosion would be 
caused in the powder chambers under the 
caps. Another style of torpedo that the 



1 ■' Barnes Submarine Warfare," p. 77. 



THE CONFEDERATE STATES NAVY. 



('or 



Federals discovered around Charleston they christened "devil 
fish." These were about four feet long, very slender, and 
shaped like a fish. A number were fastened together by lines 
of wire which would explode their fuses on becoming entangled 
with the bows of vessels. On November 14th, Capt. Gansevoort, 
of the U. S. iron-clad Roanoke captured a machine floating 
down the James River that looked like a big lantern gone 
adrift. The wick was fixed to communi- 
cate with a combustible substance sup- 
posed to ignite by friction, and from it a 
tube ran down to a can containing about 
35 lbs. of powder. There were several of 
these torpedoes similarly constructed and 
lashed together. 

In November, 1863, a number of the 
keg torpedoes invented by 
Gen. Rains were taken up off 
Charleston by the Union fleet. 
Lager- beer barrels were con- 
fiscated everywhere in the 
Confederacy for making these 
instruments, and when calked 
and pitched, loaded with from 
35 to 120 pounds of powder, 
capped with friction fuses and 
moored in a channel, they 





A KEG TORPEDO. 



A EAFT TOBPEDO. 1 



proved excellent for defence, causing the loss of more vessels 
than any other kind used by the Confederates. Six vessels and a 
steam launch were blown up by them in Mobile waters, between 
March 38th and April 18th, 1865; and they also destroyed the Con- 
federate steamers Ettiican and Marion in Charleston harbor, 
having drifted from their moorings into the navigable channel. 
Another design was a raft torpedo, such as was secured 
by the U. S. gunboat Gertrude, w^estward of the main channel 



1 ^— The open top of the box. B— The irnn 
tank. C — Brass tube. D — Iron rods connecting 
from tube to the end of the raft. E, F — Parts of 
spars morticed to the runners of raft. G — The 



runners on which the box lay. /?— The mooring. 
/—Tube with iron rods attached. J— The place 
where the warp was cut. K, L — Braces across 
the top. 



758 THE CONFEDERATE STATES NAVY. 

in Mobile Bay, Jan. 30th, 18G4, The moorings were cut by an 
officer in charge of a boat who found on the raft a box five 
feet long, four and a half feet wide and four and three-fourths 
feet high, inclosing a powder-tank two and one-fourth feet 
square, and three feet high. 

The U. S. frigate New Ironsides narrowly escaped destruc- 
tion during the bombardment in Charleston harbor, April 7tli. 
1863, when she laid for an hour directly over a boiler-iron 
torpedo containing 2,000 pounds of powder off Fort Wagner. 
It was designed to be exploded from an electric battery on 
shore, but every attempt to fire it failed, and the operator 
was suspected of treachery, until it was ascertained that one 
of the wires had been cut by an ordnance wagon passing- 
over it. In August the first attempt was made to destroy 
this ship with a torpedo-boat. It was an improvised affair 
made from the razeed hulk of a gunboat that had been 
abandoned at Charleston before completion. Capt. Lee, of 
the engineer corps, obtained it from Secretary Mallory. and 
fixed a spar torpedo to the bow. Capt. Carlin, of the block- 
ade-runner Ella and Annie, offered his services as commander 
and a volunteer crew was obtained from the squadron. The 
boat ran close aboard of the New Ironsides, but became en- 
tangled with her anchor chains, and on being discovered 
from the deck retreated into the harbor. On October oth, 
the second attack was attempted, and although the huge 
iron-clad was not sunk she was so much injured as to be 
withdrawn from the coast of South Carolina, and she 
took no active part in the war afterward until the bombard- 
ment of Fort Fisher. The assault of October 5th was made 
by a David, one of the double - ended steam torpedo craft 
constructed in the Confederacy. They were of wood or iron, 
forty to sixty feet long, and about seven feet in diameter at 
the centre. The boiler was forward, the engine aft, and be- 
tween them was a cuddy-hole for the captain, engineer and 
whatever crew the boat might carry, and which was entered by 
a hatchway. The torpedo was carried on a spar that protruded 
from the bow, and which could be raised or lowered at will 
by a line passing back into the cuddy-hole. A two-bladed pro- 
peller drove the craft along. The torpedo was made of copper, 
with a mechanical fuse, and carried from fifty to seventy 
pounds of powder. When ready for action, the boat was so 
well submerged that nothing was visible except her stunt 
smoke-stack, the hatch-coaming and the stanchion upon 
which the torpedo-line was brought aft. 

Lieut. W. T. Glassell was placed in command of the first 
David built, which had been constructed at private expense 
by Theodore Stoney, of Charleston, and had under him C. S. 
Tombs, engineer of the iron-clad Clucora, James Sullivan, 
fireman of the Chicora, and J. W. Cannon, assistant pilot of 
the iron-clad Palmetto State. The night selected for the 



THE CONFEDERATE STATES NAVY. 



^59 



expedition was slightly hazy, and shortly after nine o'clock the 
David was within 300 yards of the New Ironsides, off Morris 
Island, and making directly for her side, when she was discov- 
ered by a sentinel. Without making any reply to his hail, 
Glassell kept on and fired with a shotgun at the officer of the 
deck (Acting Master Howard), who fell mortally wounded. 
The next moment the David struck the frigate, the torpedo 
exploded, the little craft plunged violently, and a deluge of 
water thrown up by the concussion descended on her smoke- 
pipe and hatchway. Her fires were extinguished and her 
machinery jammed. In the midst of a rattling fire of mus- 
ketry from the Neiv Ironsides, Glassell directed his men to 
save themselves by swimming, as it seemed impossible that 
the David could be made to move. After being in the water 



Midship section. 




Tteu' wl\cn immers^4- 
VIEWS OF A CONFEDEEATE " DAVID." 



himself more than an hour, he was picked up by the boat of a 
transport schooner and handed over as a prisoner to Adm. 
Dahlgren, who ordered him into confinement on the guard- 
ship Ottawa. ' 

Engineer Tombs started to swim down the harbor with the 
intention of catching the chain of the monitor, but changed 
his mind when he saw that the David was afloat and had 
drifted away from the frigate. Swimming to her he found 
Pilot Cannon, who could not swim, holding on for life. Tombs 
got into the boat, pulled Cannon on board, fixed the engine, 
started up the fire under the boiler and headed for Charleston, 
where he arrived the next morning. The David bore the scars 
of 13 bullet holes received from the small arms of the New 
Ironsides. Sullivan, the fireman, saved himself by catching 
the rudder chains of the frigate, from whence he was taken on 
hoard as a prisoner. 

1 Lieut. W. T. Glassell, Southern Historical Society Papers. Vol. IV., No. 5, Nov. 1877. 



760 THE CONFEDERATE STATES NAVY. 

Upon examining the Neiv Ironsides, it was found t^iat the 
torpedo exploded only three feet under water and against 4^ 
inches of armor, and 27 inches of wood backing. By the ex- 
plosion the ponderous ship was shaken from stem to stern. It 
knocked down a bulkhead, started some timbers, and threw 
two or three rooms into confusion. A marine was dashed 
against the ceiling and his leg broken, while several other 
men were slightly injured. The attack upon this ship made 
such an impression on the Federal naval commanders, that 
every imaginable precaution was taken to guard against tor- 
pedoes, and high steam was carried at night on all the vessels 
so that they could move at speed upon the instant. 

Lieut. Glassell was promoted to commander, and Engineer 
Tombs to lieutenant for their participation in this affair. 
Capt. M. M. Gray was in charge of the submarine defences of 
Charleston at this time, and v/as exceedingly active in develop- 
ing this mode of warfare. Sixty officers and men were then 
on torpedo duty at that point. 

The fish torpedo boat that destroyed the Federal gunboat 
Housatonic off Charleston harbor was built at Mobile in 1863, 
by Hundley & McClintock, and was arranged with a pair of 
lateral fins by the use of which she could be submerged or 
brought to the surface. Her motive power was a hand pro- 
peller worked by eight men, and it was intended that she 
should dive under a vessel, dragging a torpedo after her which 
would explode on contact with the hull or keel of the enemy, 
the ''fish *' making off on the other side. She was provided 
with tanks which could be filled or emptied of water, to increase 
or decrease her displacement, but there was no provision for 
a storage of air. During an experiment at Mobile she sank, 
and before she could be raised the whole crew were suffocated. 

Beauregard, in February 1864, accepted this boat for use 
at Charleston. Lieut. Payne, C. S. N., and a crew of eight 
men were preparing to take her out for action one night when 
she was swamped by the wash of a passing steamer and all 
hands except Payne were drowned. Again she was raised 
and once more sunk — this time at Fort Sumter wharf, when 
six men were drowned, Payne and two others escaping. When 
she was brought to the surface, Hundley took her into the 
Stono River, where, after making several successful dives, 
she stuck her nose into the mud and every soul on board per- 
ished by suffocation. For the fourth time she was raised 
and experiments were made with her in Charleston harbor. 
She worked beautifully until she attempted to dive under the 
receiving ship Indian Chief, when she fouled a cable and once 
more she proved a coffin for every man within her. Divers 
brought her up a week later, and Lieut. George E. Dixon, of 
Capt. Cothran's Co. of the 21st Ala. Inf'y, asked permission of 
Gen. Beauregard to try her against the Housatonic, a splendid 
new ship-of-war, which lay in the North Channel off Beach 



THE CONFEDERATE STATES NAVY. 7G1 

Inlet. Beauregard consented, but only on the condition that 
she should not be used as a submarine machine, but operating 
on the surface of the water and with a spar torpedo in the 
same manner as the David. All the thirty or more men who 
had met death in the "fish" were volunteers, but Dixon had 
no difficulty in finding another volunteer crew ready to take 
the same risks. They were Arnold Becker, C. Simpkins, James 

A. Wicks, F. Collins, and Ridgway, all of the Confederate 

navy, and Capt. J. F. Carlson, of Capt. Wagoner's company 
of artillery. It was a little before nine o'clock on the evening 
of Feb. 17th, when Master J. K. Crosby, officer of the deck of 
the Housatonic, detected the torpedo-boat, a scant hundred 
yards away from the ship. It looked to him. he said, " like a 
plank moving along the water," and before he decided to give 
the alarm, he had lost the seconds in which he might have 
saved his vessel. When he did pass the word, her cable was 
slipped, her engine backed and all hands called to quarters; 
but Dixon had closed on her and fired his torpedo on the star- 
board side, just forward of her mainmast. A hole was knocked 
in her side extending below her water line and she went down 
in four minutes. Five of the Housatonic s people were killed 
by the shock or drowned; the remainder took refuge in the 
rigging, from which they were rescued by other vessels of the 
fleet. But the victory of the " fish " was fatal to herself and 
her crew. Whether she was swamped by the column of water 
thrown up by the explosion, or was carried down by the suc- 
tion of the sinking Housatonic will never be known; but she 
went under never to rise again, and the lives of all on board 
were sacrificed. After the war, when the wrecks off Charles- 
ton were removed, she was discovered lying on the bottom 
about 100 feet from the Housatonic, with her bow pointing to 
the latter. 

A somewhat similar torpedo boat was dredged up in July, 
1878, in the canal, near Spanish Fort. New Orleans. It had 
undoubtedly been built by the Confederates and sunk when 
they evacuated the city in 18G2. 

The next torpedo boat attack was directed against the 
U. S. steamer Memphis in North Edisto River, S. C, March 6th, 
1S64, and was made by a David. It failed because the torpedo 
boat was seen from the steamer in time to allow her to get 
under way, and the David in running under her counter is 
supposed to have broken the torpedo pole by coming into con- 
tact with her screw. Although a heavy fire was aimed at the 
David she escaped under cover of the night. 

General Beauregard was deeply interested in a scheme to 
construct at Charleston an iron-clad torpedo-ram on designs 
prepared by Captain F. D. Lee. In 1863, the State of South 
Carolina appropriated S50,000 to aid in building one or more 
such craft ; but the Confederate Navy Department was sparing^ 
in granting assistance, preferring to expend its resources- 



762 THE CONFEDERATE STATES NAVY. 

upon the iron-clad gunboats. Nevertheless, in Feb., 1863, the 
vessel was ready to receive her iron plating and only $20,000 
more was needed for her completion. That amount was never 
obtained, and the incomplete torpedo-ram fell into the posses- 
sion of the enemy when they found their way into Charleston. 
On April 9th, 1864, Com. Hunter Davidson, in his steam 
torpedo-boat, Torpedo, having made the run of 120 miles down 
the James River from Drewry's Bluff, exploded a torpedo along- 
side the U. S. steam frigate Minnesota, flag-ship of Rear-Ad- 
miral S. P. Lee, at anchor off Newport News. This affair was 
particularly daring, as the river swarmed with the enemy's 
vessels, and a guard tug was lying by the Minnesota, but her 
commander had allowed his steam to go down. Davidson 
hit the great ship full and fair, but his torpedo charge was 
only 53 pounds of powder and it failed to break in her sides. 
A frame was shattered, planks started, several gun-carriages 
broken, and a lot of stores damaged. The daring Confed- 
erates got away without harm. 

In March. 1864, amongst a lot of correspondence captured 
from a Confederate mail-carrier on the Red River, was a letter 
dated at Richmond, January 19th, and addressed by T. E. 

Courtenay to Col. H. E. Clark, of the 
7th Mo. Cav., C. S. A., in which the 
writer spoke of certain torpedo in- 
ventions of his own. and alluded to a 
bill to be presented to the Confed- 
erate Congress for the establishment 
of a secret service corps for the 
destruction of the property of the 
enemy. One of these devices was 
the " coal torpedo," which Lieut. 
Barnes, U. S. N., in his book on 
"Submarine Warfare," said "ap- 
coAi TORPEDO. pears to be an innocent lump of coal, 

but is a block of cast-iron with a core containing about ten 
pounds of powder." When covered with a mixture of tar and 
coal-dust, it was impossible to detect their character. They 
could be placed in coal-piles on barges from which Federal 
vessels took their supplies, and exploded with terrible effect 
in their boilers. It was said that to this torpedo was traced a 
number of mysterious explosions, including the destruction of 
Gen. Butler's headquarters' boat, the Greyhound, on the James 
River, November 27th, 1864. 

The machine which caused the great explosion at City 
Point, on the James River, Aug. 9th, 1864, was a Confederate 
clock-work torpedo — a box containing a quantity of powder, 
and a clock arrangement set to fire a detonating cap at a given 
hour. John Maxwell and R. K. Dillard, of the torpedo corps, 
arrived at City Point in disguise, as laborers, and the former, 
with the machine in charge, handed it to a man on a Federal 




THE CONFEDERATE STATES NAVY. 



763 




CLOCK-WORK TORPEDO. 



"barge, with the remark that the captain had told him to put 
it on board. Maxwell retired to watch the effect. The clock- 
work had been set to run an hour, and at 
the end of that time the explosion occurred, 
destroying several vessels loaded with 
ordnance stores, and the warehouses on 
the wharf, filled with army supplies, and 
killing and wounding some fifty men. 

The wharf-boat at Mound City, 111., 
containing the reserve supplies of ammu- 
nition and stores for Adm. Porter's fleet, 
was blown up by a similar contrivance. 
On April 1st, 1864, the U. S. army trans- 
port Maple Leaf was totally destroyed by 
a floating torpedo, in the St. John's River, Fla. ; and exactly 
abreast of the spot the transport steamer General Hunter^ 
was blown up on the 5th of April, in the same way. Also, on 
April 15th, the U. S. iron-clad Eastport was sunk in the Red 
River, by a floating torpedo. On April 18th a bold effort was 
made by the submarine corps in Charleston to destroy the 
U. S. steam irigsite Wabash, one of the blockaders, with a David, 
but they were discovered and flred into, and they retreated. 

When Admiral Lee convoyed Gen. Butler's army up the 
James River to Bermuda Hundreds in May, 1864, he organized 
a torpedo picket division that in a few days secured eleven of 
the Confederate ''infernal machines;" but despite these pre- 
cautions, the gunboat Commodore Jones was on May 6tli 
knocked into fragments at Deep Bottom by an electric torpedo 
containing 2,000 pounds of powder, and exploded from pits on 
shore by men of Com. Hunter Davidson's corps. Forty officers 
and men of the gunboat were killed. The men who fired the 
torpedo ran from the pits ; one of them (Mr. Britten) was 
killed by a shot from the Federals, and the other two were 
made prisoners. Gen. Butler sent one of them to Lieut. 
Homer C. Blake, commanding the gunboat Eutaw, with the 
instructions : " If you can use him, do so; if not, hang him." 
Blake handed him over to Lieut Fyffe, who soon started up the 
river with the prisoner lashed to the cutwater of his ship. '' He 
only went about 300 yards," Blake said, " when the man called 
out: ' Stop, captain, for God's sake! There's a torpedo just over 
there.' This one removed, it was not long before another was 
pointed out by the terrified man, and so we cleared the channel." 

At Dutch Gap, on the James River, the Federals would 
sometimes pick up floating torpedoes sent against the fleet, at 
the rate of a hundred a day. These torpedoes were suspended 
in pairs to wooden buoys, and were connected by trigger-lines 
which would explode them on contact with a ship ; but the 
Federals guarded against them by putting out booms and 
nettings in such a way that the torpedo floats were sheered 
off and passed harmlessly by. 



764 



THE CONFEDERATE STATES NAVY. 



The most dangerous torpedoes were stationary ones, planted 
across the shallows at frequent intervals. They comprised a 

spar fastened by a universal joint to a 
fixed block at the bottom of the river 
and bearing the torpedo at its summit. 
Swinging with the current and tide, 
this torpedo was always kept at a uni- 
form depth below the surface, and was 
out of sight. The torpedo was studded 
with sensitive caps, and no matter 
where a ship touched it it would ex- 
plode. They could not be grappled, 
for, and it was only b}^ good luck, care 
and ingenuity that the Federals got 
them out of the channel. 

In May, 1864. the U. S. Potomac 
flotilla cleared the Rappahannock 
River of torpedoes, taking up four and 
exploding six. On the 9tli of that 
month, the transport Harriet A. Weed 
was destroyed by a torpedo on the St. 
John's River, ten miles below Jack- 
sonville. Out of 44 persons on the 
steamer five were killed, and all the- 
remainder were more or less injured. 
This was the third vessel lost in 
the St. John's within sixty days in the 
same manner, and on June 19th the 
transport Alice Price was blown up 
on the same stream by a torpedo. 
Following the destruction of the Price 
occurred the most fearful work of sub- 
marine batteries during the war — the 
loss of the monitor Tecumseh, with 
over 100 of her officers and men, dur- 
ing Farragut's attack on the defences of Mobile Bay, August 
6th. 1864. ' After the capture of the bay forts the city was 
protected for nearly ten months from the Federal fleet by the 
torpedo system in the channels of approach. Besides the- 
Tecumseh, eleven U. S. vessels, men-of-war and transports, 
were sunk by torpedoes in Mobile Bay; some of them after the 
Confederates had evacuated the city. The Confederates had 
at Mobile a torpedo-boat named the St. Patrick, with which 
Lieut. Walker, C. S. N., on Jan. 37th, 1865, attacked the Federal 
flag-ship Octorara; but the torpedo did not explode and no 
damage was done. AVhile the Federals were removing the 
obstructions in Mobile Bay, on Aug. 3oth, 1864, a torpedo ex- 
ploded, killing five men and wounding nine. On Dec. 7th, 
the U. S. gunboat Narcissus was sunk in the bay by a torpedo; 

1 See Chapter on Alabama Waters. 




A BOTJTANr TORPEDO. 



THE CONFEDERATE STATES NAVY. 765 

and in April, 1SG5, a launch from the U. S, iron-clad Cincinnati 
exploded a torpedo for which she was grappling, and three 
men were killed. 

In 1863 the U. S. government took up the idea of a torpedo 
service, for which it had previously savagely denounced the 
Confederates, and invited plans from inventors and mechanics. 
In that year numerous torpedoes were placed in the Roanoke 
River to prevent the Confederate ram. Albemarle from descend- 
ing to attack the Federal gunboats in Albemarle Sound. Adm. 
Dahlgren, in February, 1864, wrote to the Navy Department 
that he " had attached more importance to the use of torpedoes 
than others had done," and he suggested the offer of $20,000 or 
$30,000 prize-money for the capture or destruction of a David. 
Adm. Farragut had very little faith in torpedoes at first, but 
on March 25th, 1864, he wrote to the Department from Mobile 
Bay, that he would have torpedoes, and added : " Torpedoes 
are not so agreeable when used on both sides ; therefore I have 
reluctantly brought myself to it. I have always deemed it 
unworthy of a chivalrous nation, but it does not do to give 
your enemy such a decided superiority over you." 

A spar torpedo was attached to the monitor Manhattan 
for use during the attack on Mobile, but it was previously 
carried away by heavy seas washing over the deck. 

In the action of May 5th, 1864, between the Albemarle 
and a fleet of U. S. gunboats, the Miami was rigged with a 
spar torpedo, and endeavored to strike the Confederate ram, 
but was unsuccessful, owing, as her commander stated, to the 
clumsiness of his vessel. The most important event in the 
use of the spar torpedo by the Unionists was the destruction 
of the Albemarle, at Plymouth, N. C, Oct. 28th, 1864. Lieut. 
W. B. Cushing, U. S. N., effected this achievement with a 
steam launch that had originally been intended for the torpedo 
picket service in Charleston harbor. He found the Albemarle 
at the wharf, with a pen of logs around her, about 30 feet 
from her side, and under a sharp fire from the ram and on 
shore, he made a way through and over the logs, succeeded in 
lowering his torpedo-pole, which projected twenty-eight feet, 
against the side of the ram, and exploded the torpedo. A 
large hole was broken under the water-line of the ram, and 
she went down in a few minutes. Cushing's own boat was 
swamped by the rush of water, and of his thirteen officers 
and men, all but himself and one other were either shot, 
drowned, or made prisoners. He escaped by swimming. 
Lieut. A. F. Warley, C. S. N., commanding the Albemarle, 
stated that the pickets gave no notice of the approach of the 
enemy, and that the artillery stationed by the vessel for 
protection gave no assistance. She was raised by the Federals 
in April, 1865, and an Admiralty Court appraised her value at 
$282,856, of which $79,954 was distributed as prize-money 
among the men who destroyed her. 



76G THE CONFEDERATE STATES NAVY. 

A Federal gunboat expedition up the Roanoke River, Dec, 
1864, came upon a nest of torpedoes opposite Jamestown. On the 
9th the " double-ender " Otsego, was destroyed by one of them ; 
on the next day the Bazely was sunk close by, and shortly af- 
terwards Picket-boat No. 5. met the same fate ; and the expe- 
dition was abandoned. These calamities were followed on 
January 15th, 1865, by the destruction of the monitor Potopsco, 
in Charleston harbor, while she was covering the boats en- 
gaged in dragging for torpedoes. She struck one herself, and 
went down like a pig of lead, carrying with her seven officers 
and about sixty men. She had torpedo-fenders and netting 
out at the time. Three boats, with drags, had preceded her, 
searching to some depth the water they had passed over, while 
steam-tugs and several boats were in different positions on her 
bow. stern and quarter. 

The channels of Cape Fear River, from Forts Fisher and 
Caswell up to Wilmington, were carefully planted by the Con- 
federates with electric and barrel torpedoes; and the operators 
for the electric torpedoes were stationed with their firing ap- 
paratus in the bomb-proofs of the forts. When Adm. Porter 
and Gen. Butler, in the winter of 1864-65, were ordered to the 
command of the Federal naval and military forces for the as- 
sault on Fort Fisher, the latter conceived the notion of demol- 
ishing the fort and '• paralyzing" the garrison by the explo- 
sion of the hugest powder-boat ever devised. Porter was an 
unwilling party to the scheme, as he perceived its absurdity. 
An old steamer, the Louisiana, was procured, and 180 tons of 
powder placed on board, to be exploded by a time fuse that 
would burn 90 minutes. She was towed in on the beach, within 
400 yards of the fort, and her big display of fireworks went off 
between one and two o'clock on the morning of Dec. 24th, with 
the result of hurting nobody and scarcely disturbing the sleep- 
ing men in the fort. At the time Midshipman Clarence Cary, 
C. S. N., with others of the officers and crew of the C. S. 
steamer Chickamauga, occupied a deserted hut a little way up 
the beach outside the fort, and were nearer than the garrison 
to the powder-boat, and yet they slept through the explosion 
and "supposed its report," writes Mr. Cary, "no more than 
that of a distant gun. Possibly the first ton or so of powder 
ignited blew the remainder harmlessly into the sea, or 
it may be the ship got adrift in the hour and half the 
time fuse allowed her after she was abandoned, and thus 
wreaked her expected havoc at some remote point, where 
only the fish and sea-gulls, instead of sleeping men, were 
within range." 

After the capture of Fort Anderson, the Federals were 
busy in removing the torpedo defences between that point 
and Wilmington. On Feb. 20th, 1865. Adm. Porter says, "the 
Confederates sent down 200 floating torpedoes from Wilming- 
ton upon the fleet. One damaged the gunboat Osceola, and a 



THE CONFEDERATE STATES NAVY, 767 

second blew to pieces a cutter from the SJiawmut, killing and 
wounding four men.'' Porter spread fishing nets across the 
river to catch the torpedoes as they came down. 

On Feb. 17th. 1865, the Confederate flag of truce steamer 
Schulfz, Capt. HilL ran over a torpedo in the James River, a 
few miles above Cox's Landing, and quickly sank. Several 
members of the Richmond ambulance committee were on 
board, but were saved, and the only lives lost were those of 
two of the guards and two firemen. Adm. Dahlgren's flag-shii3, 
the Harvest Moon, was destroyed by a torpedo in Georgetown 
Bay, S. C, March 1st, with a loss to him of everything on 
board except the clothes he stood in. He was rescued by a 
gunboat. On March 4th, tlie U. S. transport Thorn was blown 
up in Cape Fear River, just below Fort Anderson; and on the 
13th, the gunboat Althea met destruction on Blakely River, 
Mobile, losing two men killed and three wounded. Suc- 
ceeding the evacuation of Charleston by the Confederates, 
the Federals picked up a hundred torpedoes in the harbor, 
and in the Cooper and Ashley Rivers. One exploded on 
March 17th under the U. S. survey steamer Bihh, and damaged 
her engines. 

The worst destruction in the concluding months of the 
war was done around Mobile. On March 28th, 1865, the U. S. 
monitor Milwaukee was destroyed in the Blakely river by a 
buoyant torpedo, and the next day the monitor Osage was 
sunk on Blakely Bar by asimilar machine ; she lost two killed 
and ten wounded. On April 1st the gunboat Rodolph was 
blown up near the scene of the Milwaukee's catastrophe, with 
a loss of four killed and eleven wounded. The U. S. gunboat 
Scioto, on April 14th, was sunk off Mobile bj' striking a tor- 
pedo, and had four men killed and six wounded. On the pre- 
ceding day, the U. S. steamer Ida was destroyed below the 
obstructions in Mobile Bay. On the 14th the cutter of the 
iron-clad Cincinnati hit a torpedo in the ba}^ with the usual 
result, and on the same day the gunboat Itasca was blown 
up ; five men were killed and six injured by these two dis- 
asters. Late the same afternoon the steamer Rose was des- 
troyed, and two men were killed and three wounded. A few 
days later the transport St. Malay's was blown up by a torpedo 
in the Alabama River, and the steamer Hamilton from New 
Orleans, with the Third Mich, cavalry on board, was struck by a 
torpedo in the Lower Gap channel entrance to Mobile, making 
a wreck of the boat, and killing and wounding thirteen per- 
sons. Thus in less than a month ten vessels of the Federal 
Government, including two monitors, were destroyed by the 
Confederate torpedo service, a fact that may be left to stand 
alone as an evidence of its efficiency. 

The last craft to suffer from a torpedo was the U. S. gun- 
boat Jonquil, which was much injured on June 6th, 1865, by 
an explosion in the Ashley River, near Charleston. 



?68 



THE CONFEDERATE STATES NAVY. 



Now that torpedo warfare is recognised as legitimate by 
all the nations of the world, history cannot omit to record 
that the Confederate States were the first government to bring 
it into existence as a formidable and practicable weapon. 
The torpedo and the steam-ram were the valuable contribu- 
tions to the science of war and its implements which they 
made during their brief existence. 



United States Vessels Destroyed or Injured by Con- 
federate Torpedoes. 



Dec. 


12, '62 . 


Feb. 


28, '63. 


July 

Aug. 


22, " . 

8, " . 


Sept. 
Oct. 


6, " \ 


Feb. 


17, '64. 


April 


1. " . 


" 


9, •" . 


" 


15, " . 


<• 


15, " . 


May 


6, " . 
9, " . 


June 


19, " . 


Aug. 


5, ". 
9. " . 


Nov. 


27, " . 


Dec. 


7, " . 


" 


9, " . 


" 


10, " . 


" 


10, " 


Jan. 


15, " . 


Feb. 


20, " . 


" 


20. " . 


March 1, " . 


'• 


4, " 


" 


12. " . 




17, " 


" 


20, " . 


•• 


28, " . 


•' 


29, " 


April 


1, " . 

13, " 




14, " . 


•• 


14, " 


" 


14, " . 


,, 


14, •• . 


June 


&, " '. 



Tonnage. 



Cairo, iron-clad 

Moutauk, monitor 

Baron DeKalb, iron-clad 

Com. Barney, gunboat. 

John Farroii, transport 

New Ironsides, iron-clad. 
Housatonic, sloop-of-war. . . 

Maple Leaf, transport 

Minnesota, frigate 

General Hunter, transjiort . 

Eastport, iron-clad 

Com. Jones, gunboat 

H. A. Weed, transport 

Alice Price, transport 

Tecumseh, monitor. ...... 

Several vessels 

Greyhound, transport 

Karcissus, gunboat 

Otsego, gunboat 

Bazely , gunboat 

Ijaunch No. 5 

Patapsco, monitor. 

Osceola, gunboat 

Lavmch, Sbavvmut 

Harvest-Moon 

Thorn, transport 

Althea, gunboat 

Bibb, coast survey steamer. . 

Massachusetts, gunboat 

Milwaukee, monitor 

Osage, monitor 

Rodolph, gunboat 

Ida, tug . 

Scioto, gunboat 

Cincinnati, tug 

Itasca, gunboat 

Rose, gunboat 

St. Mary's, transport 

R. B. Hamilton, transport . . 
Jonquil, gunboat 



Yazoo River 

Ogeechee River 

Yazoo River 

James River 

Off Charleston 

St. John's River 

Newport News 

St. John's River 

Red River 

James River 

St. John's River 

Mobile Bay 

City Point, James River. 

James River 

Mobile Bay 

Roanoke River 

Charleston, S. C 

Cape Fear River 

Georgetown, S. C 

Cape Fear River 

Blakely River 

Charleston, S. C , 

Blakely River 

Mobile Bay 

Blakely River 

Mobile Bay 

Alabama River 

Mobile Bay 

Aahley River 



512 
844 
512 
513 



1240 
508 

3307 
350 
800 
542 
290 
320 

1034 

"966 
101 
974 



844 
974 



546 
403 



1155 
970 
523 
217 
101 
507 



Injury. 



Destroyed. 

Serious. 

Destroyed. 

Disabled. 

Serious. 

Destroyed. 

Serious. 
Destroyed, 



Sunk. 
Destroyed. 



Slight. 
Destroyed. 



Slight. 

Destroyed. 

Sunk. 

Destroyed. 



Serious. 



,-<# 






k'. 




COLONEL LLOYD I. BEALL, 

CONFEDERATE STATES MARINE CORPS. 



CHAPTER XXIV. 

THE CONFEDERATE STATES MARINE CORPS. 

BY act of Congress of the Confederate States, March 16th, 
1861, the establishment of a corps of marines was provided 
for, and subsequent legislation of May 20th enlarged its 
numbers and elevated the rank of its principal officers. It 
was, in fact, organized under the second act, whose provisions 
were that it should consist of: " 1 colonel, 1 lieut. col., 1 major, 
1 quartermaster with rank of major, 1 adjutant with rank of 
major, 1 serg. -major, 1 quartermaster-sergeant, 10 captains, 
10 first lieutenants, 20 second lieutenants, 40 sergeants, 40 cor- 
porals and 840 privates, 10 drummers, 10 fifers and 2 musicians." 
The pay and emoluments were the same as those of the 
army, except that the paymaster and adjutant received the 
same as the quartermaster, and seamen's rations were allowed 
to enlisted men. Enlistments were for three years or the war; 
recruits to receive a bounty of $50 and re-enlisted men $40. An 
act of Sept. 24th, 1862, authorized the addition of 20 sergeants, 20 
corporals, 20 drummers, 20 fifers and two principal musicians; 
and by an act of Oct. 2d, 1862, men enrolled for the army were 
permitted to choose service in the marine corps or the navy. 

Previous to the war the U. S. marine corps was an excep- 
tionally fine and well-disciplined body of men, and from it 
came the nucleus of the corresponding establishment of the 
Confederate service. Its headquarters were at the Washing- 
ton navy-yard, and the following officers resigned and tendered 
their swords to the Confederate Government : 

Maj. Henry B. Tyler, of Va., adjutant of the corps; Capt. and Brevet 
Maj. Geo. H. Terret, of Va. ; Capt. Robert Tansill, ^ of Va. ; Capt. Algernon S. 

1 Capt. Tansill was on duty on theU. S. frigate ment. The States forming the Confederacy did 

Congress, at Monte Video, when the inaugural not relinquish that right, and I believe each 

address of President Lincoln was received State has a clear and unquestionable right to 

there. On May 17th, 1861, he tendered his secede whenever the people thereof think proper, 

resignation ; and in his letter, after stating that and the Federal government has no legal or 

he bad read the address, and that it seemed to moral authority to use physical force to keep 

him that if the policy therein announced was them in the Union. 
caiTied out civil war must ensue, added: "Entertaining these views, I cannot consci- 

" In entering'the public service I took an oath entiously join in a war against any of the States 

to support the Constitution, which necessarily which have already seceded, or may hereafter 

gives me a right to interpret it. Our institutions, secede, either North or South, for the purpose 

according to my understanding, are founded of coercing them back into the Union. Such a 

upon the principles and right of self -govern- war, in my opinion, would not only certainly 
49 (769) 



770 



THE CONFEDERATE STATES N.4.VY. 



Tavlor, ^ of Va. ; Capt. John B. Simms, of Va. ; First Lieut. Israel Grreene, of 
Va* :'First Lieut. John K. H. Tatnall, of Ga. ; First Lieut. Juhus E. Meire, of 
Md.: First Lieut. Geo. P. Turner, of Va.; First Lieut. Thos. S. Wilson, of 
Mo.; First Lieut. Andrew J. Hays, of Ala.; First Lieut. Adam N. Baker: 
Second Lieut. George Holmes, of Fla.; Second Lieut. Calvin L. Sayre, of 
Ala.; Second Lieut. Henry L. Ingraham, of So. Car., and Second Lieut. 
Baker K. Howell, of Miss. 

Most of these officers arrived in Richmond by the time 
that the seat of the Confederate government was transferred 
from Montgomery to that city; and, with the exception of 
Capt. Tansill and Lieut. Turner, they tlienceforth served in 
the C. S. marine corps. They met at Richmond, in May 1861, 
more than a hundred men of their former command in the 
Federal service, who fully shared in their enthusiasm for the 
Confederate cause and had left their comfortable berths under 
the old flag to risk their lives and fortunes in the yet untested 
possibilities of the success of the South. 

There had been no concert of action by wiiich so many of 
the former men and officers of the U. S. marine corps were as- 
sembled at Richmond, but it was not an unfortunate accident 
for tlie Confederacy that they did come together at that time. 
They formed the skeleton of the organization that it was 
desired to establish, and brought it into order and being with 
a celerity that would have been impossible to unskilled hands. 

The organization of the corps, which had begun at Mont- 
gomery, was completed at Richmond. Col. Lloyd J. Beall,^ a 



and permanently destroy the Confederacy, but, 
if successful, establish an 'unlimited despotism 
on the ruins of our liberty. No personal con- 
sideration or advantage, however great, can 
induce me to aid in a cause which my heart tells 
me is wrong, and I prefer to endure the most 
terrible hardships rather than to prosper in the 
destruction of the freedom of my country. And, 
believing, sir, that it would be disingenuous in 
me to retain my commission imtil the govern- 
ment might retjuire my services in such a con- 
test and then decline to serve. I consider it but 
lirudent and just to now tender my resignation 
as a captain in the United States marine corps." 
The action of the Navy Department in the case 
of Cajit. Tansill was one of the many incidents 
of the war that Northern historians, conecious 
that they could not be glossed over by apologetic 
casuistry, chose to pass by without mention. 
Although his sole offence consisted in his ex- 
pression, in his letter of resignation, of the 
reasons that prompted him to the step, upon his 
arrival in New York, on August the 'iSd, 1861, 
he was arrested by the order of Secretary Welles, 
and placed in imprisonment in Foi-t Ijafayette. 
No bearing or trial was ever granted him ; but 
on the day after sending him to prison, Mr. 
Welles forwarded him, not an acceptance of his 
resignation, but the information that.by direction 
of the President, his name had been stricken 
from the roll of the U. S. marine corps. From 
Fort Lafayette, Capt. Tansill was transferred to 
Fort Warren, Boston harbor, and was not 
released until -Jan. 10th, 1802, when he was 
formally exchanged. The gross injustice done 
him wais recognized in an act of the Confederate 
Congress of Aiiril 11th, 1863, which provided that 
'• officers of the navy and marine corps who re- 
signed from the navy and marine corps of the 
United States in consequence of secession, and 



who were arrested and imprisoned in con- 
sequence of such resignation, and who sub- 
sequently joined the navy and marine corps of 
the Confederate States," should receive "leave 
of absence, pay for and diiringthe term of such 
imprisonment, and up to the time of their 
appointment in the navy and marine corps of 
the Confederate States." 

1 Algernon S. Taylor had been an officer of the 
f. S. army, and in 1838 was transferred to the 
marine corps as a second lieutenant. He rose to 
the rank of captain in that corps, and on April 
26th, 1861, he offered his resignation to the 
Secretary of the Navy. It was notaccepted, but 
he was dismissed from the service. Going to 
Eichm.md. Capt. Taylor offered his services to 
Gen. Lee, and was commissioned a colonel of in 
fautry in the Provisional army of Va. He was 
ordered by Gen. Lee to establish a school of 
instruction and mustering in depot at Culpepper 
C H.,and*after the amalgamation of the army of 
Viiginia with the Confederate States forces, he 
was requested by Secretary Mallory to take 
charge of the quartermaster's and commissary's 
departments of the marine corps, with the rank 
of major. He remained in that position until 
the evacuation of Richmond, when he was 
ordered to send all his books and jjapers by his 
assistant, Lieut. Venable, to Danville^, where they 
were destroyed. Maj. Taylor joined Lee's retreat- 
ing army, and surrendered at Appomattox C. H. 

- Colonel Beall, now approaching fourscore 
years, is a resident of Richmond. His books 
and papers were destroved by fire about the 
close of the war, and in that disaster were lost 
many of the most valuable records of the corps. 
" The corps," he says, in a letter to the author, 
" was composed of enlisted men, many of whom 
were old soldiers and commissioned officers, a 



THE CONFEDERATE STATES NAVY. 771 

former officer of the U. S. army, was appointed commandant 
with the rank of colonel. A commission as paymaster, with, 
the rank of major, was issued to Richard Taylor Allison, who 
had held similar rank and office in the U. S. navy. ' 

Other commissions issued at Richmond, made Henry B. 
Tyler lieut. colonel of the corps; Geo. H. Terret. major; Capt. 
Greene, who captured John Brown, at Harper's Ferry, when 
the U. S. marines attacked his fortress in the engine-house at 
tlie arsenal, was made adjutant, with the rank of major ; Lieut. 
^^J^ Taylor became quartermaster, with the rank of major ; and 

T^Simms, Tatnall, Holmes, Meire. Wilson and Hays, were ap- 
pointed captains. Sayre and Howell were made lieutenants, 
and the lists of that rank were subsequently filled up by ap- 
pointments made from time to time. Capts. Thom and Van 
Benthuj'sen, and all the lieutenants, except Sayre and Howell, 
were appointed from civil life, or from the army and navy, 
while the other officers, with the exception of Col. Beall, came 
from the U. S. marine service. 

The corps remained in and around Richmond, practically 
unbroken, until the summer of 1862. It was engaged in the 
battle with the Federal iron-clads Monitor, Naugatuck and 
Galena, at Drewry's Bluff, on May 15th, when its service at the 
guns assisted the artillerists of the army and navy in the re- 
pulse of those vessels. Major Terrett commanded the corps 
on that occasion, and soon after detachments from it were or- 
dered to other stations, and to vessels preparing for sea, or for 
the coast defence. Because of the great lack of trained sea- 
men in the Confederacy, the veteran marines were of ines- 

, timable value on board the ships to which they were attached, 
and they were made use of in numerous capacities that em- 
braced the duties of sailors. One squad of marines that fought 
at Drewry's Bluff had previously formed a part of the ship's 
company of the Virginia, and had helped work her guns in the 
battles in Hampton Roads. They were under the command 
of Capt. R. Thom, and remained with the ship until she was 
destroyed. Other detachments served on the Sumter and the 

number of whom had seen service before in the commanding the Maryland troops in Baltimore, 
U. S marine corps and elsewhere. The corps proffering his services. At the same time he 
was thoroughly trained and disciplined, and in informed President Davis of what he had done, 
all encounters with the enemy the officers and Owing to the interruption of railway travel 
men were consiiicuous for their courage and north of Baltimore, no officer could be imme- 
good conduct." diately obtained to relieve him at the Washing- 
1 Richard Taylor Allison is a native of Jef- ton navy-yard ; and, in compliance with the 
ferson county, Ky., and removed to Baltimore request of Secretary Welles, he remained on 
in 1815. In 1849 he was aijpointed paymaster in duty as paymaster until May 1st. His successor 
the TJ. S. navy by his nncle, President Taylor. took charge on that date, and he did not discover 
He served flrst in the Pacific squadron and on until the end of the war that the Navy Deisart- 
the coast of California ; then in the Japan expe- ment had not accejited his resignation, but had 
ditiou, under Com. Perry,' and next in the dismissed him from the service. As soon as he 
squadron in the Chinese waters. Returning was relieved he went to Richmond and tele- 
home in 1856, he was assigned to duty as in- graished thence to President Davis, who sum- 
spector of provisions at Washington, and after- moned him to Montgomery and appointed him 
Avards was appointed paymaster at the Wash- paymaster of the marine corps. He nerved in that 
ington navy-yard. He occupied that position capacity until the close of hostilities and sur- 
on April 20tli, 1861, when he tendered his resigna- rendered with Gen. Johnston's army at Greens- 
tion to Secretary Welles, being moved to that boro', N. C. Since then he has resided in 
action by the occurrences of the previous day Baltimore, where he was honored with the 
in Baltimore, and wrote to Gen. Geo. H. Stewart, position of clerk of the Superior Court. 



772 THE CONFEDERATE STATES NAVY, 

Alabama during their cruises, and were commanded by Lieut. 
B. K. Howell, who was highly commended by Capt, Semmes. 
Lieut. James Thurston cominanded the marine guard on the 
Atlanta, during her brief and ill-starred career in the waters 
around Savannah, and had charge, with his men, of a division 
of the guns, in the short engagement in the Ogeechee that 
ended with her surrender. When Adm. Buchanan took the 
Tennessee out to fight Farragut's fleet in Mobile Bay, he had 
on board a marine guard, under the command of Lieut, David 
G, Raney, which was assigned to one of the gun divisions, and 
was largely instrumental in the quick and eflicient work with 
her battery that inflicted such great damage upon the enemy. 
In the same battle a detachment of marines, under the com- 
mand of Lieut, J, R. T. Fendall, served on the gunboat 
Oaines, and escaped to Mobile with the crew, after the vessel 
was beached under the guns of Fort Morgan. At the defence 
of Fort Fisher, Dec. 24th-35th, 18G4, and Jan. 5th, 1865, a 
body of marines participated. They were commanded by 
Capt. A. C- Van Benthu3^sen, and Lieuts, Henry N. Doak and 
J. Campbell Murdoch. Finally, such companies and detach- 
ments of the corps as were not isolated at Mobile, or were not 
away at sea, or had not been captured, were gathered around 
Richmond in Feb. and March, 1865, and were then assigned to 
the former positions of the marines in the fortifications on 
Drewry's Bluff. Then they made up a part of the naval brigade, 
under Com. John R. Tucker, and with the sailors held out at 
the battle of Saylor's Creek, after Gen, Ewell had surrendered. 
This mention is to be taken only as a scant index of the ser- 
vices of the marines. Their inadequacy in numbers to the tasks 
required of them necessitated the breaking up of the corps into 
small detachments, and hence they participated in many actions 
their share in which has not been recorded. The report of Col. 
Beall, dated Oct. 30th, 1864, shows that the aggregate strength 
of the corps then was but 539 men, of which number two cap- 
tains, three lieutenants, and sixty-two privates were prisoners 
in the hands of the enemy, and thirty-two recruits had recently 
been received at the Charleston naval station from the con- 
script camp near Raleigh, N, C. The report continues : 

" The marine corps is distributed at the following naval stations : 
Mobile, Savannah, Charleston. Wilmington, and at Drewry's Bluff ; also 
on board of the three iron-clad steaiuei's in the James River, and as 
guards at the Richmond navy-yards. Marine guards have been assigned 
to the armed steamers Tallahassee and Chicka?nauga, destined to operate 
against the enemy's commerce on the sea. 

"Since my last report the marines have been under the enemy's 
fire at Drewry's Bluff and on the James River ; also in the land and naval 
engagements near Mobile, on the 5th and 6th of August last. A marine 
guard under the command of Lieut. Crenshaw was attached to the Con- 
federate steamship I'allaJiassee during the late cruise, when much damage 
was inflicted upon the enemy's shipping at sea. 

" Upon all occasions wlien the marines have been called upon for 
active service, they have displayed the promptness and efficiency of well 
disciplined soldiers." / 



CHAPTER XXV. 
THE CONFEDERATE STATES NAVAL ACADEMY. 



TO establish a naval school for the proper training of the 
younger officers of the Confederate navy was a project 
to which Secretary Mallory had given much thought 
from the time of his entrance upon the duties of his 
office ; but although such an institution was amply authorized 
by a section of an act of Congress approved March 16th, 1861, 
which provided that the naval laws of the United States not 
inconsistent with the act be applied to the navy of the CoiT- 
federate States, it was not until 1863 that steps to form the 
academy were taken. Acting midshipmen had previously 
been appointed, and by an act of Congress approved April 
31st, 1862, their number was limited to 106 and that of passed 
midshipmen to twenty. On March 23d. 1863, Mr. Mallory laid 
the foundations of the school by an order for the examination 
by a board of officers of the acting midshipmen at the several 
stations in seamanship, gunnery, mathematics, steam engi- 
neering, navigation, English studies, French, drawing and 
drafting. Captains Sidney Smith Lee, Samuel Barron and 
others were assigned to duty as examiners, and in the mean- 
time Lieut, Wm. Harwar Parker' was selected as commandant 
of the school to be formed, and instructed to formulate regu- 
lations for its government. The C. S. steamship Patrick Henry, 
of the James River squadron, was chosen as the schoolship ; 
a mast fully rigged with square yards was stepped in her for 

1 Lieut. Parker was a son of Com. Foxhall Una Sounds; had commanded the gunboat Bfaw- 
Parker, U. S. N., and brother of Com. Foxhall fort at the battle of Hampton Roads, and was 
A. Parker, U. S. N. While one brother went "executive officer of the iron-clad Palmetto State, 
with the South, the other remained in the Fed- at Charleston, in the breaking of the blockade, 
eral navy during the war, and attained distinc- His professional writings were tised as text- 
tion. Wm. H. Parker entered the U. S. navy in books at Annapolis and in the Confederate 
1841, when he was 14 years old, and graduated Naval Academy. They were "Elements of Sea- 
at the head of a class at the Naval Academy that mauship," " Harbor Koutine and Evolutions." 
gave to the United States and Confederate States " Naval Tactics," " Naval Light Artillery Afloat 
service more distinguished officers than any and Ashore," and " Remarks on the Navigation 
other -single class. Previous to the war between of the Coasts between San Francisco and Pan- 
the States, he had attained high reputation as an ama." After the war he commanded vessels of 
officer and instructor, and held the position of the Pacific Mail Steamship Company, was sub- 
assistant professor of mathematics at the Anna- sequently President of the Maryland Agi-i- 
polis Institution. In the Confederate navy he cultural College, and is now (1887) U. S. consul 
had taken part in the battles in the North Caro- at Bahia. 

(773) 



774 THE CONFEDERATE STATES NAVY. 

the practice of the midshipmen and quarters for them were 
fitted up. On July 23d, i863, Com. John M. Brooke, in charge 
of the office of ordnance and hydrography at Richmond, who 
had supervision of the establisliment of the academy, "ap- 
proved and recommended for adoption " the regulations pre- 
pared by Lieut. Parker, and on their approval by Secretary 
Mallory the naval school went into operation. 

In the fall of ]863, the Navy Department selected the fol- 
lowing academic staff : 

Lieutenant W. B. Hall,' commandant of midshipmen; 
Lieutenant Oscar F. Johnston, professor of astronomy, navi- 
gation and surveying ; Lieut. Thomas W. W. Davies, assist- 
ant ; Lieut. C. J. Graves, instructor in seamanship ; Lieut. 
James W. Billups, assistant ; Lieut. Wm. Van Comstock, in- 
structor in gunnery ; Master George M. Peek, mathematics ; 
Master George W. Armistead, physics ; Master George A. 
Pepley, French and German ; — Sanxey, infantry tactics ; 

, sword master ; assistant surgeons, W. J. Addison, James 

G. Bixley; paymaster, Wm. M. Ladd; second assistant engineer, 
E. G. Hall; boatswain, Andrew Blakie; gunner, E. R. Johnson 
(subsequently William F. Brittingham) ; sail-maker, William 
Bennett. 

The staff remained almost intact until the school perished 
with the Confederacy. In the summer of 1864, Lieut. O. F. 
Johnson relieved Lieut. Hall as commandant of midshipmen 
in order that the latter might devote more attention to the in- 
struction of the classes, and in November, Lieut. B. P. Loyall 
relieved Lieut. Johnson. The only other change of import- 
ance was that later Com. James Henry Rochelle was ordered 
to the school as commandant of midshipmen and executive 
officer. As far as the exigencies of war would permit, the or- 
ganization, studies and discipline of the school were modeled 
upon the curriculum of the U. S. Naval Academy. Cadets 
were appointed by members of Congress from their respective 
districts and by the President from the Confederacy at_ large, 
and the school began work with fifty acting midshipmen. 

1 Lieut. Wilburn B. Hall was appointed to the was cut off by the United States ships-of-war and 
U. S. naval academy from Louisiana in 1855 and batteries, running in under a terrific fire from 
graduated at the head of his class. In 1861 he Federal guns in broad daylight and through a 
was attached as acting flag-lieutenant to Com. line of thirteen vessels. He marched the crew 
Inman, commanding the squadron on the Afri- of the Harriet Lane across the State of Texas to 
can coast, and at the outbreak of the war re- man the iron-clad Louisiana on Red River, and 
turned to the United States in a captured slave- subsequently commanded the Webb, Savannah, 
ship with 700 negroes on board. Lieut. Hall Drewry, Resolute and other vessels. He married 
was ordered to talie them bacli to Africa and de- the daughter of Com. Ingraham, the greatgrand- 
liver them to the Liberiau government. He then daughter of Henry Laurens, president of the 
entered the Confederate service, for which he Revolutionary Congress, as well as of John Rut- 
purchased and carried South from New York ledge, Governor, with power of dictator, of 
tlie steamer Hunters He took this vessel into South Carolina, in the Revolution, and later 
Charleston, March 18th, 1861, with the flag of Ju.stice of the U. S. Supreme Court. He was 
Georgia flying from her masthead. During the detached from the naval academy at his own 
war Lieut". Hall served on and commanded vari- request Nov. 1864, and ordered to the iron-clad 
ous vessels and at various stations. He was with Chicora, at Charleston, S. C. Since the war 
Com. Tatnall at the fall of Port Royal, in all the Lieut. Hall has served as major of engineers on 
actions around Richmond, Charleston, and dur- the staff of the Khedive of Egypt, being selected 
ing its siege, as well as in those aroimd Savan- for that position by General W. T. Sherman, 
nah and in its adjacent waters. He aided Tat- He is now (1887) a leading instructor in Balti- 
aall to provision i'ort Pulaski when that fort more. 



THE CONFEDERATE STATES NAVY. 775 

They were required to be not under fourteen or over eighteen 
years of age, and on the roll were represented many of the 
most distinguished families of the South. After passing a 
physical examination and an examination on such elementary 
studies as reading, writing, spelling and the four principles of 
arithmetic, they became acting midshipmen and entered upon 
their studies, which comprised six departments and twenty-two 
branches. There were four annual courses and the midship- 
men were arranged into four classes, each class pursuing one 
of these courses. The studies of the fourth class embraced 
practical seamanship, naval gunnery and artillery and infantry 
tactics, arithmetic, algebra to equations of the first degree, 
English grammar and descriptive geography; those of the third 
class, practical seamanship, gunnery and artillery and infantry 
tactics, algebra, geometry, plane and spherical trigonometry, 
physical geography, history and the French language ; tliose 
of the second class, seamanship and steam, gunnery and field 
artillery, astronomy, navigation, application of algebra and 
trigonometry to mensuration of planes and solids, political 
science and French ; those of the first class, seamanship and 
naval tactics, gunnery, infantry tactics, navigation, surveying, 
French and Spanish. 

The Academic Board held examinations in each June and 
December, and the December examination was attended by a 
board of visitors, composed of three captains and two com- 
manders, who ascertained and decided upon the qualifications 
of the midshipmen for promotion; and as rapidly as the latter 
were deemed proficient they were ordered to ships, batteries 
or other duty. But while the cadets of the U. S. Naval Acad- 
emy were being trained far away from the scene of hostilities, 
at Newport, R.. I. , where it had been removed during the war, 
those of the Confederate school received their professional ed- 
ucation in the face of actual warfare, in which they were fre- 
quently called from their studies to engage. The Patrick 
Henry was usually stationed near Drewry's Bluff, the scene of 
desperate fighting, and by the time they were sent to distant 
service they were versed in the practice as well as the theory 
of war. If the routine of a day was not broken by a sum- 
mons to man the guns on shore, or do scouting, or take 
part in boat expeditions, it was full of hard work on board. 
The morning gun was fired at seven o'clock, and at eight a 
breakfast of hard-tack and a decoction of sweet potatoes or 
beans that masqueraded as coffee was served. Sick call, 
studies and recitations occupied the hours until two o'clock, 
and then came a dinner of salt -junk, perhaps a mess of 
vegetables, and the inevitable corn-meal that became a sta- 
ple article of diet when wheat-flour climbed toward $1,200 
per barrel in Confederate currency. School exercises and 
dress parade took up the remainder of the afternoon, and 
the day ended with tattoo at 9:30, and taps at ten o'clock. 



776 THE CONFEDERATE STATES NAVY. 

Near the close of the war, when it became necessary to have 
the boys on shore pretty much all the tune to stand to the 
guns, they occupied huts in the Drewry's Bluff batteries. It 
was a truly unique education for them — school-boys one hour 
and fighting men the next, dropping their books to take up 
their carbines and cutlasses, exchanging in a moment their 
studies for places in the trenches a few hundred yards distant 
from those of the enemy — and amidst the stern and awful re- 
alities of the final struggle around Richmond they retained 
the happy, hearty, healthy spirit of brave boys and combined 
it with the courage and understanding of men. Such a train- 
ing nourished and strengthened their finest qualities, and it is 
not remarkable that so many of them have since risen to posi- 
tions of great honor and trust, and exemplified the virtues 
and worthy ambitions of civil life. 

The school had been in existence scarcely a year before 
their mettle was tested and approved. This was in May, 1864, 
when Gen. Butler landed his army at Bermuda Hundreds and 
there were but 3,000 Confederates between the Appomattox 
River and Richmond. Com. J. K. Mitchell, commanding the 
James River squadron, threw his men into the fortifications, 
while the midshipmen were placed in the iron-clads, Lieut. 
Parker taking one detachment to the Frederickshurg, and 
Lieuts. Hall and Johnson another to the Virgifiia. The How- 
lett House battery became the left flank of Lee's army on the 
James, and was itself defended by the ships. In the succeed- 
ing engagements with the enemy's gunboats and monitors 
around the Hewlett House and Drewry's Bluff, the midshipmen 
were landed under the command of Lieut. W. B. Hall, and 
took part in several interesting skirmishes with the Federal 
sharp-shooters. During all the summer of 1864, the young 
academicians had more fighting than studying to do. Lieut. 
Billups was left in command of the Patrick Henry, and tlie 
midshipmen who remained on board were mostly employed in 
directing scouting parties, leading the boat expeditions, and 
working in the batteries. A lull in the heavier fighting along 
the river that occurred in September permitted the resumption 
of exercises on the schoolship under Lieut. Hall, and a month 
later Lieut. Parker was relieved of the command of the Fred- 
ericksburg and returned to the Patrick Henry; which, when 
the midshipmen occasionally took up their quarters on shore, 
was moored first at Wilton and then at Rockets, on the water 
front of Richmond. 

When the fall of Richmond became imminent, Secretary 
Mallory determined to transfer the naval school to some 
point in the interior of the Confederacy. Lieut. Graves was 
sent into North Carolina, South Carolina and Georgia to ex- 
amine concerning localities and buildings, but could only re- 
port that the movements of the enemy prevented the selection 
of any site to which the institution could safely be removed. 



^'.niimnuinmiiintmiiiiiniitiniiinnniiiiniumiirnninni 




£aBK£4w^?9«!'^£«a^^»Ss.^9iS>£s.'»e«^^Sf*C<.V 



THE CONFEDERATE STATES NAVY. 777 

The protection of the bridge over the James River at 
Wilton was entrusted to the midshipmen in the Patrick Henry, 
and althougli then a part of the line of battle the routine of the 
academy was kept up with some approach to regularity. The 
sixty yoimg men and their ten officers made up an admirable, 
well-drilled, disciplined and efficient corps. Lieut. Parker had 
his orders to prepare the ship for sinking in the obstructions 
of the river if necessary, and he rented a warehouse at the 
corner of Franklin and 24th Streets in Richmond for the home 
of the midshipmen, and the location of stores. This was 
done in March 18G5, but there was so little suspicion afloat 
that Richmond was so soon to be evacuated, that he spent the 
night of April 1st in the city, and it was not until the after- 
noon of April 2d that he received the order to have the corps 
audits officers at the Danville depot at 6 o'clock p.m., and 
report to the Quartermaster General of the army. He directed 
Lieut. Rochelle to execute the order, while he would remain 
by the ship, expecting the corps to return within a few days. 
In an hour or two he found out that the abandonment of the 
capital was intended, and then leaving Lieut. Billups and ten 
men to burn the ship, he joined the corps at the Danville 
depot. Billups and his squad performed their duty, but in 
the subsequent movements never overtook their comrades. 

No higher compliment could have been paid the mid- 
shipmen, than the final duty entrusted to them. It was the 
guardianship of the train which contained the archives of 
the Confederate Government and the specie and bullion 
funds of the treasury. The corps left Richmond on the 
evening of April 2d, and proceeded to Danville in charge 
of the treasure, where Midshipman Raphael Semmes, Jr. 
was detailed to the staff of his father, the Admiral, and Mid- 
shipman Breckenridge was made personal aide to his father, 
the Secretary of War. From the 3d to the 9th the corps re- 
mained at Danville, and then moved southward. Greensboro, 
N. C, was reached on the 10th, and Charlotte on the loth. 
At Charlotte the money was transferred to the mint, but taken 
out again when the escort started for Chester, S. C. At Ches- 
ter the railroad was abandoned and a wagon train made up. 
The gold was packed in small square boxes, and the silver in 
kegs, and the road was taken for Newberry, S. C. Mrs. 
Jefferson Davis and her child (now Miss Winnie Davis, the 
"daughter of the Confederacy") had joined the escort at 
Chester, and travelled in an ambulance to Newberry, where 
they arrived on the 15th, and left on the cars the same day for 
Abbeville, S. C. At Abbeville the treasure was transferred once 
more to wagons, and on the 17th the midshipmen took up the 
march for Washington, Ga., which was reached on the 19th, 
and Augusta on the 20th. In all this toilsome, perilous, and 
responsible march, Lieut. Parker was looking for President 
Davis or some responsible officer of the Treasury Department 



778 THE CONFEDERATE STATES NAVY. 

to whom he could hand over his precious trust. Beside his 
brave midshipmen, he had with him a company of good 
men under Capt. Tabb, who had joined him at the Charlotte 
naval station ; but this force was small in comparison with 
the number of marauders he might at any time chance to 
meet. The impoverished and ravaged country was swarming 
with them— bummers, looters and deserters hanging on to the 
rear of Sherman's arni}^, half-starved Confederates rendered 
desperate by suffering, roving bands of negroes, and all the 
rabble that infested that war- swept region. They were to be 
feared ; and moreover, great numbers of Federal cavalry were 
riding on Sherman's flanks, and were on several occasions so 
near to the treasure train that they might have swooped down 
upon it. Its guards, as Parker knew and said, would have 
died fighting around it ; but an attack by an overwhelming 
force upon such a tempting prize as millions of gold and 
silver was alwaj^s possible ; and he was strongly urged to 
divide the treasure among the men following him. But he 
and the corps of midshipmen were inviolate in their sense of 
duty, and when he placed the coin and bullion in the vaults 
of a bank at Augusta, they were intact. He turned the 
charge of the treasure over to a Treasury officer, whom he 
found in that city, but the midshipmen continued to guard it. 
They remained in Augusta during the armistice between 
Gens. Johnston and Sherman, Parker declining to obey an 
order to disband the corps so long as they were responsible for 
the safety of the treasure. On the termination of the armis- 
tice they took the gold and silver out of the bank and returned 
to Washington, Ga,, still searching for President Davis. Then 
they struck off for Abbeville, where they arrived on April 
29th. The treasure was stored in a warehouse, and President 
Davis and his escort came into town the next day. Secretary 
Mallory accompanied him, and by the Secretary's orders 
Lieut. Parker turned the treasure over to the Acting Secretary 
of the Confederate Treasury, who directed it to be delivered 
to Gen. Basil Duke, who commanded the cavalry detachment 
escorting Mr. Davis. Neither Lieut. Parker nor any of the 
midshipmen or officers ever knew how much money there was 
in the packages, which were not broken while in their charge. 
The corps of cadet midshipmen was disbanded at Abbe- 
ville on May 2d, 1805, though the orders did not so read, and 
its members were never surrendered to the enemy or paroled. 
The order .issued to each man simply said : 

"Abbeville, S. C, May 2d, 1865. 
" Sir : You are hereby detached from the Naval St-hool and leave is 
granted you to visit your home. You will report by letter to the Hon. 
Secretary of the Navy as soon as possible. Paymaster Wheliss will issue 
you ten days' rations, and all quartermasters are requested to furnish yo^u 
transportation. 

" Respectfully your obedient servant, 

"Wm. H. Parker, Commanding.''\ 



THE CONFEDERATE STATES NAVY. 779 

To have dismissed them so shabbily as indicated in the 
above order would have been a shameful reward for their 
faithful and arduous service, and at the intercession of Capt. 
Parker and a committee of five cadets, Postmaster General 
Keagan obtained the sura of $1,500, which gave $40 in gold to 
each midshipman, upon the receipt of which they started for 
their respective homes in the distant States of the Confed- 
eracy. The high esteem in which President Davis held the 
corps of cadet midshipmen was manifested by him when in- 
formed at Abbeville by Capt. Parker that the corps had been 
disbanded by the order of Secretary Mallory. "Captain." he 
said, "I am very sorry to hear it," and repeated the regret 
several times. Upon being told that the corps had been dis- 
banded on the peremptory order of the Secretary, the President 
replied : '' Captain. I have no fault to find with you, but I am 
very sorry Mr. Mallory gave you the order." The very great 
regret of the President was accounted for when his escort of 
four skeleton brigades of cavalry were seen. Though there 
were many in the command ready to follow and defend the 
President, yet demoralization had entered there too. Arms 
Avere being sold or thrown away, and it was apparent that but 
little reliance could be placed upon that escort. Hence the 
regret with which he learned that the young men, the sons of 
the leaders of the cause, organized, educated and trained to 
the discharge of duty, had been scattered, and could no longer 
guard and protect him in his proposed journey to the trans- 
Mississippi. 

Though the Confederate Naval Academy produced no 
record of its usefulness, yet the young men who were taught 
upon the decks of the Patrick Henry learned valuable lessons 
of self-reliance and duty, which in after life made them, 
without an exception, earnest, thoughtful, law-abiding men. 
Among those midshipmen we recall the names of Colonel 
Morgan, after the war a captaiU in the Egyptian army and 
subsequently consul general in Australia ; XVindom K. Mayo, 
commander of steamers and collector of customs at Nor- 
folk, Va. ; Jeff. Davis Howell,' who lost his life in the brave 

1 Jefferson Davis Howell was born at Natchez, had struck, when he was borne to his bed. I 

Mississippi, in 1846. His father, William Burr would also recommend him to your notice." 

Howell, born in New Jersey, was appointed an At the close of the war in May, 1815, Lieut, 

ensign and third lieutenant in the 15th Regiment Howell was retained in the artillery branch of 

of the U. S. Inf , on August the 19th, 1813. He the service, but declined the honor, and soon 

was promoted to second lieutenant in March, after resigned. He married Margaret Graham 

1814, and served throughout the war of 1812- Kemp, native of Virginia. She was the daughter 

14. While serving as an officer of marines in of Col. Kemp, of Natchez, Miss., where Mr. 

McDonough's victory on Lake Champlain, on Howell resided for many years; he afterwards 

board the ship Saratoga, Lieut. Howell greatly removed to New Orleans, where he was appoint- 

distinguished himself. Captain White Youngs, ed deputy surveyor of the x^ort. He had eleven 

of the 15th Inf., commanding a detachment of children, Jefferson Davis Howell being the 

acting marines, in his report to Com. McDonough youngest. He was named after Hon. Jeflerson 

thus mentions him : " Second Lieut. W^illiam Davis, who had married his sister on February 

H. Howell, 15th Inf., in the U. S. ship Saratoga, 26th, 1845. 

rendered me every assistance; notwithstanding Jefferson Davis Howell was educated at Bur- 

his having been confined for ten days of a fever, lington, N. J., Washington, D. C., and Richmond, 

yet, at the commencement of the action, he was Va. He was of an active and adventurous 

found on deck, and continued until the enemy temperament, and like most young men in the 



780 



THE CONFEDERATE STATES NAVY. 



discharge of duty when the Pacific mail steamship which he 
commanded was wrecked ; the Hon. C. R. Breckenridge, at 
present a member of the U. S. House of Representatives; 
Colonel J. T. Scharf. the author of this work, land commis- 
sioner of Maryland, commissioner of the National Exposition 



Soutb, shared in the excitement just preceding 
the outbrealj of the war between the States. He 
was well versed in the political history of the 
time, and his convictions as well as his sympa- 
thies induced him to espouse the cause of the 
Southern States. Though but sixteen years of 
age he entered a military organization in New 
Orleans, and after faithfully serving in the army, 
on February '2ith, 1863, he received an appoint- 
ment as midshipman in the navy of the Con- 
federate States, and was ordered on board the 
Kchoolship Patrick Henry, then lying at Drewry's 
Bluff, James Eiver, to stand an examination. 
Letters of recommendation being required from 
his previous commanders, they were obtained. 
All of these 8i:)oke.in the highest terms of praise 
of his tjallant and meritorious conduct in the 
military service, his uniform good behavior and 
the promptness and faithfulness with which he 
discharged all the duties required of him in 
camp and elsewhere. After passing his examin- 
ation. Midshipman Howell was ordered to 
Charleston, S. C, where he performed hard ser- 
vice during the winter of 1863-C4, in picket-boat 
duty, between Fort Sumter and Morris Island. 
While engaged in this arduous and exposed ser- 
vice, he captured an armed picket-boat of the 
enemy engaged in the same duties ; assisted in 
laying a number of torpedoes in Charleston 
harbor, and aided in placing a raft of logs around 
Fort Sumter to prevent another assault. After 
the evacuation of ( harleston in 18G5, Midship- 
man Howell was assigned to the artillery with 
the rank of lieutenant in the naval brigade of 
Adm. Semmes, formerly the commander of the 
C. S. steamer Alabama. He was captured, par- 
roled, and joined his sister, Mrs. Jefferson Davis, 
at Washington, Ga., and was with her at the 
time of the capture of President Davis. He was 
imprisoned at Fort McHenry for several months, 
and upon being released went to Savannah, 
Ga., where he was again imprisoned. From 
thence he joined his brother in Canada, and 
accompanied him to England. Keturning to the 
United States by way of Portland, Me., he was 
again arrested and sent to Foi-t Warren, where 
he was detained for a few weeks and then finally 
released. He returned to Canada, and from 
thence went to New York to find himself with- 
out means or employment. Scorning to live on 
his friends, he went to sea befoi'e the mast, and 
made seve al voyages to Bordeaux, the Cape de 
Verde Islands, and elsewhere in the Atlantic. 
His devotion to duty and his thorough .com- 
petency were soon recognized, and he speedily 
rose to the rank of mate. While serving in this 
capacity, in some evolution of the ship he 
was so injured as to compel liim to remain 
ashore for several months. He then accepted a 
positiim upon the staff of the New York News. 
Tiring of an inactive life ashore, he obtained a 
berth on board the Pacific mail steamer Ariel as 
quartermaster, and sailed from New York in the 
fall of 1869, for China ; thence he returned to 
San Francisco. During his brief residence in 
that city, he served as first oflficer on the steamers 
John L. Stephens, Ajax and Oriflamme. Speedily 
rising in rank, his first command was the 
Idaho, and thereafter was given charge success 
ively of the steamers Moses Taylor, Pelicat^, Cali- 



fornia, Nevada, Los Angelas, and lastly the ill- 
fated Pacific. 

On February 23d, 1874, Capt. Howell was a. 
passenger on board of the Los Angelas; on her 
voyage from San Francisco to Victoria the 
steamer broke her propeller shaft, the helm 
refused to do its duty, and no human agency 
could be brought to dispel the discouraging 
forebodings which pressed upon the 150 pass- 
engers, and officers and crew who were on board. 
Tossed about by the waves without a sign of 
release from their agonizing situation, and drift- 
ing towards the dreaded breakers, all hands 
were in despair. At this critical moment Capt. 
Howell volunteered to take his chances of life 
or death in his effort to make the land and reach 
Astoria, where it was known aid would be 
rendered immediately. With a boat's crew he 
bravely pushed through the raging sea and 
landed on the beach above Tillamook, walked to 
Astoria, obtained a tug which came to the rescue 
of the disabled vessel and towed her into port. 
The passengers on the Los Angelas, mindful of 
the great service they owed to Capt. Howell, for 
the heroism he displayed in saving their lives, 
tendered him the following complimentary reso- 
lutions : 

" Whereas, Capt. Jefferson D. Howell, by noble 
deeds of daring succeeded in reaching Astoria, 
after we had supposed he had lost his own life in 
the vain endeavor to save us from a terrible 
death, therefore : 

Resolved — That we return our thanks to the 
Giver of all good for sparing the life of our noble 
benefactor, thus enabling him to reach a haven 
wherein succor to ovirselves was speedily ren- 
dered. 

Resolved— ThaX the action of Capt. Howell in 
this matter entitles him to our most sincere grat- 
itude, and that we hereby pledge and express to 
him that thankfulness of human hearts which is 
more precious than gold, more enduring than 
diamonds, in the tender regard which we bear 
for him, and shall ever hold towards him. so 
long as memory shall dwell within its sacred 
tabernacle." 

Talented, brave and true, and whether serv- 
ing before the mast or in command of a crowded 
steamship, always the same courteous and chiv- 
alric gentleman, Capt. Howell was beloved by 
all who came in contact with him. No man was 
ever more ready to take up the cause of the de- 
fenceless than he, and his friends can recall 
many instances of the liberality with which he 
disposed of his hard-earned salary in acts of 
generosity. In the course of conversation on 
his last voyage from Victoria, he gave an ac- 
count of how he became a communicant of 
the Episcopal Church. It seems, as he parted 
from his mother for along voyage, he promised 
to be confirmed the first opportunity. Ere the 
opportunity occurred she was in her grave, but 
he'was not the man to forget his vow. He was 
confirmed by Bishop Potter, in New York. 
While relating the circumstance, he said, with 
honest pride: " Since my confirmation I have 
never done anything that conflicted with those 
solemn vows ;" and all who know him will bear 
testimony that such was the life of this Chris- 
tian gentleman. His was an Anglo-Saxon face 




MIDSHIPMAN JEFFERSON DAVIS HOWELL, C. S. N. 



THE CONFEDERATE STATES NAVY. 



781 



at New Orleans ; William P. Hamilton, ' of South Carolina, 
and R. H. Fleming, a Presbyterian clergyman of prominence 
in A^irginia. F. C. Morehead, late commissioner general of 
the New Orleans Exposition and president of the National 
Cotton and Planters' Association, was another of the young 
middies of the Patrick Henry, as well as Clarence Gary, a 
lawyer of high standing in New York and a gentleman of fine 
literary attainments ; the Rev. J. G. Minnegerode, J. De B. 
Northrop, Preston B. Moore, William A. Lee, nephew of Gen- 
eral R, E. Lee ; John H. Inglis, a son of the late Judge Inglis, 
president of the South Carolina Secession Convention of 18G0, 
and many others of equal distinction. 



of the bighest type, with high brow, fair hair, 
and laughing blue eyes. He combined tlie 
tenderness of a woman with the courage of a 
man. His little room was hung about with the 
XJortraits of his friends, and in the centre was an 
ivory miniature of his dead mother, whom he 
adored. 

The last act of Capt. Howell was worthy of 
his life. The steamer Prtct^c was foundered in 
a gale off Cape Flattery, near Victoria. The 
survivors of the wreck rejsort that Capt. Howell 
was drowned from a raft on which some of the 
unfortunate passengers and ci'ew had taken ref- 
uge, and that he was the last man to leave the 
ship. A writer giving an account of the disas- 
ter, says : " When one of the occupants of the 
raft, a woman, was swept away, what did Howell 
do, though the sea was running mountain high, 
and experienced sailor as he was, he knew that 
once from his support he was lost forever ? He 
acted as every one was sure he would act, and 
at the cry of a perishing woman, plunged in to 
her assistance, sacrificing liis own life in the 
same locality where, seven short months before, 
by another act of heroism he .saved the lives 
of 150 persons aboard the steamer Los Angelas, 
which would have gone ashore among the 
breakers, had he not volunteered his successful 
assistance." 

1 Capt. Wm. P. Hamilton, son of Col. Paul 
Hamilton, and Catherine A. Campbell, was born 
in Beaufort, 8. C, Oct. 11th, 1845. and died May 
3, 1875. He was a great-grandson of Hon. Paul 
Hamilton, who was secretary of the navy under 
President Madison, and great-nephew of Archi- 
bald Hamilton, U. S. N., who served under 
Decatur. In Aug. 1861, William P. Hamilton 
received an appointment as midshipman in 
the C. S. navy, and served on the Lady Davis, 
imder Lieut. Com John Eutledge, at Port 
Itoyal. He was subsequently stationed on the 
steamer Nashville, until the summer of 1862, 



when he was ordered to Piichmond to stand 
his examination on the Patrick Henry. He grad- 
uated as passed midshipman, and was ordered 
to the Palmetto State, at Charleston. He partici- 
pated in the attack on the U. 8. steamer Mer- 
cedita, and the Federal blockading fleet, and 
served in the navy with distinguished gallantry 
in the defence of Charleston. In April, 1864, he 
was ordered to the ram Albemarle, at Plymoutli, 
N. C, and took a conspicuous pai-t in the fight 
with the Federal gunboats at that place. He 
returned fo Charleston, and served there 
until the close of the war. After the war he 
worked his passage to England, on the bark 
Nutfield. During the voyage the crew were 
stricken down with the yellow fever, and his 
cousin, ex-midshipman P. Hamilton Gibbs, died. 
There were not sufficient hands on board to man 
the vessel, and the helm was lashed and the 
bark allowed to run before the wind, until 
some of the sick were convalescent She 
finally arrived at Liverpool, when W. P. Ham- 
ilton shipped as a seaman on the West Indian, 
in the South American trade. Upon his return 
he passed an examination, and received a cer- 
tificate as second mate in the British merchant 
service. He first served on the John Fraser d- 
Co., and subsequently was appointed mate of 
the Royal George. After each trip from Liv- 
erpool to the East Indies, he was promoted, 
until he became master of the ship. In 1872 
he returned to Charleston, where he married. 
Finding that his wife could not endure the 
long voyages to Bombay and Calcutta, he left 
the Indian service after a year, and went 
to the Mediterranean. The following year he 
commanded the Clyde steamer Atlas, running 
between New York aud the West Indies, but 
the rapid changes of climate impaired his 
health, aud Jan. 1875 he came home to die. 
Capt. Hamilton was a gallant, amiable, cour- 
teous and model officer, and his career proved 
him to be a model man. 



CHAPTER XXVI. 
THE CONFEDERATE STATES CRUISERS. 



IN many respects the most interesting- chapter of the history 
of the Confederate navy is that of the building and opera- 
tion of tlie sliips-of-war which drove the merchant flag of 

the United States from the oceans and almost extirpated 
their carrying trade. But the limitations of space of this vol- 
ume forbid more than a brief review of the subject. The func- 
tion of commerce-destroyers is now so well admitted as an attri- 
bute of war between recognized belligerents by all the nations of 
the Avorld, that no apology is necessary for the manner in which 
the South conducted hostilities upon the high seas against her 
enemy, and while the Federal officials and organs styled the 
cruisers " pirates" and their commanders " buccaneers," such 
stigmatization has long since been swept away along with 
other rubbish of the war between the States, and their legal 
status fully and honorably established. We have not the space 
for quotations from Prof. Soley, Prof. Bolles and other writers 
upon this point, but what they have said may be summed up 
in the statement that the government and agents of the Con- 
federacy transgressed no principle of right in this matter, and 
that if the United States were at war to-day they would strike 
at the commerce of an enemy in as nearly the same manner 
as circumstances would permit. The justification of the Con- 
federate authorities is not in the slightest degree affected by 
the fact that the Geneva Tribunal dii-ected Great Britain to 
pay to the Federal government $15,500,000 in satisfaction for 
ships destroyed by cruisers constructed in British ports. 

Eleven Confederate cruisers figured in the "Alabama 
Claims"' settlement between the United States and Great 
Britain. They were the Alabama, Shenandoah, Florida, Tal- 
lahassee. Georgia. Chickaniauga. Nashville. Retribution, Sum- 
ter. Sallie and Boston. The actual losses inflicted by W\e Ala- 
bama ($6,547,609) were only about $60,000 greater than those 
charged to the Shenandoah. The sum total otf the claims filed 
n gainst the eleven cruisers for ships and cargoes was $17,900,633, 

(782) 



THE CONFEDERATE STATES NAVY. 7Sc 

all but about $4,000,000 being caused by the Alabama and Shen- 
andoah. The tribunal decided that Great Britain was in no 
way responsible for the losses inflicted by any cruisers but tl '' 
Alabama, Florida and She?iandoah. It disallowed all tV' 
claims of the United States for indirect or consequential losses, 
which included the approximate extinction of American com- 
merce by the capture of ships or their transfer to foreign flags. 
What this amounted to is shown in the "Case of the United. 
States " presented to the Tribunal. In this it is stated tlii' i 
while in 1860 two-thirds of the commerce of New York wl^' 
carried on in American bottoms, in 1863 three-fourths was cac 
ried on in foreign bottoms. The transfer of American vessel^ 
to the British flag to avoid capture is stated thus: In 186]' 
vessels 126, tonnage 71,678; in 1862, vessels 135, tonnage 64,57k, 
in 1863, vessels 348, tonnage 252,579; in 1864, vessels 106, ton- 
nage 92,052. Commanders of the Confederate cruisers have 
avowed that the destruction of private property and diversion 
of legitimate commerce in the performance of their duty was ' 
painful in the extreme to them; but in their wars the United 
States had always practiced this mode of harassing an enemy 
and had, indeed, been the most conspicuous exemplars of it 
that the world ever saw. 

The cruisers built or purchased in England for the Confeder- 
ate navy, were the Florida, Alabama, Shenandoah and Rappa- 
hannock. The latter never made a cruise, and the others were 
procured for the government by James D. Bulloch,' naval 
agent, in the manner hereinafter stated in the sketches of\ 
those vessels. He also had constructed in France the armo * d ^ 
ram Stoneivall, whose history is told in succeeding pages. His 
instructions from the administration of President Davis were 
to avoid breaches of the neutrality laws of foreign Powders. 
He was most careful to adhere to this precept, and the com- 
plications which occurred were due, not to his infraction of 

1 Capt. James D. Bulloch was born in Georgia war, being transferred to several different ships 

and entered the U. S. navy as midshipman, at as the necessities of the service required He 

an early age, in the year 1839, and was ordered was acting master of the schooner Shark at the 

at once to join the frigate United States, at time of her cruise to the Columbia Eiver and 

Boston, and cruised in that ship on the coast, to was in her when she was wrecked on the shoals 

New York and toNorfolk,Va.,and was there trans- off the mouth of that river. He returned to the 

ferred with all the officers and crew to the frigate U.S. in the Lexington in June, 1849, and after 

Potomac. He proceeded in the Potomac to the three months leave was ordered for duty on the 

Brazil station and served in her and the sloop- coast survey, and was actively employed for 

of-war Decatur until 1842, when at his own re- more than two years. 

quest he was ordered to the line of battle ship When Congress subsidized the Law line of 

Delaware, a day f)r two before the Decatur steamers for the mail route to California it was 

sailed for the U. S , on the termination of her made a condition that the ships should be com- 

cruise. He served durmg the famous cruise of iiianded by naval officers. Under that condition 

tlie Delaware in the Mediterranean Sea luider he was ordered as first oSicer of the U. S. mail 

the late Com Charles Morris, and returned to the steamer Georgia, commanded by Lieut, (now 

U. 8. in her in March, 1844. After a short leave Admiral) D. D. Porter, and succeeded Porter in 

of absence lie was ordered to the 120-gun ship the command of that vessel. Shortly after this 

Pennsylvania at Norfolk, and in Aug., 1844, a company was formed in New York to run a 

was sent to the naval school, which was then line of mail steamers to and from Cuba, New 

in Philadelphia. He passed No. 2 of his class in York and New Orleans. Bulloch was given a 

June. 184.5, and was ordered direct from the special furlough by the Secretary of the Navy 

naval school to the supply ship Erie, at New to command a steamer in that service, and 

York. He proceeded in that ship to the Pacific commanded in succession the Black Warrior, 

station and served in the squadron on the coast Cahawba. De Soto and Bienville. He resigned 

of California during the whole of the Mexican his commission as lieutenant in the U. S. navy 



84 THE CONFEDERATE STATES NAVY. 

heir regulations, but to the shifting policy of the British and 
^'rench governments. When he began to procure men-of-war 
1 England, he was sustained by the opinion of counsel that 
3 acted within the bounds of the law if they were not sent 
)ut armed and equipped, and this position was sustained by 
the decision of her Majesty's Court of Exchequer in the Alex- 
andra case; which, in brief, was, that the subjects of a neutral 
power had as much right to sell to a belligerent ships as they 
ad to sell any other munitions or implements of warfare. This 
/as the only decision ever made during tlie war bj^ a British 
ourt, upon the subject, and it justified tlie proceedings of 
/apt. Bulloch, although it was practically overruled by the 
letention of Confederate ships by order of the government. 

Bulloch, however, was successful in getting all his vessels 
to sea, except the Laird rams, whose history may be related in 
advance of that of the cruisers. He contracted in March. 1862, 
with Messrs. Laird, of Birkenhead, for two iron-clad, double 
'urret rams, each to cost £93,750, exclusive of magazines 
md battery. They were to be plated with from 4i to 5i 
'nches of armor, and carry in each turret two 9-inch rifled 
guns. With them it was expected to break the blockade of 
the Southern ports, and lay some of the Northern cities under 
ransom. In January, 1863, when they were more than half 
completed, intimation was made by Lord Russell, British 
Foreign Secretary, that he was aware of their destination, 
although Bulloch had contracted for them in his own name, 
and as a private individual, and that they would not be per- 
mitted to go to sea unless he was satisfied that they were the 
property of a government not at war. Bulloch then nego- 
tiated with the Messrs. Bravay, bankers, of Paris, to pur- 
chase the vessels, under the pretence that they were intended 
for the Khedive of Egypt, and transfer them at sea to agents 
of the Confederacy. As the Bravays had about that time re- 
ceived an order from the Khedive to buy iron-clads, the 
arrangement seemed plausible enough ; but Earl Russell — 
prompted by Mr. Adams, the American Minister — insisted 
that the transaction was not Avhat it appeared to be. The 

wliile in command of the last named ship, the Secretary of the C. S. navy and were given 
at the brealiing out of the war between the as the reasons for bis selection. His original 
States. He offered liis services to the Confederate acceptance of duty in England was made con- 
government at Montgomery, and was appointed ditional upon being ordered to command one of 
to special service in Europe, being taken into the the first cruisers built, but his services as the 
•C S. navy with the rank of commander. His agent of the navy there were so important that 
duties in Europe are recorded in the work, en- Secretary Mallory refused to permit him to go 
titled " The Secret Service of the Confederate to sea, insisting that no other individual could 
States in Europe." During his career in the TJ. S. be intrusted with the work which he was per- 
navy he performed an unusual amount of forming in Europe. In 1863 Capt. Bulloch urged 
active sea service, having been only fourteen upon Mr. Mallory his right to command one of 
months unattached during the first twelve years, the Birkenhead rams, and while the Secretary 
and he had the somewhat remarkable fortune to acceded to his request he again pressed him to 
serve in eveiy class of war vessel from a schooner consider the confusion which must follow his 
of ten guns to the ship-of-the-liue of eighty and removal from the special agency of the Depart- 
over, and while in the mail service superintended ment and requested him to sacrifice personal 
the construction of two of the ships commanded ambition for the good of the country. These 
by him. considerations prevailed with Capt. Bulloch, 
These varied exi^eriences were thought to fit who remained in Europe, and is now (1887) still 
bim for the special duties assigned to him by a resident of Liverpool. 



t * 



THE CONFEDERATE STATES NAVY. 



785 



Emperor Napoleon was appealed to by tlie Messrs. Bravay, 
to intervene and request the release of the rams as the 
property of subjects of France, but he refused to take any 
steps. "^On Oct. 9th, 1SG3, the vessels were seized by the 
British authorities, and suit was instituted for their forfeit- 
ure. The case, however, v/as never pushed, and the rams 
were sold to the British Admiralty, and enrolled in the navy 
as the Scorpion and the Wivetm. The Admiralty paid for them 
£30,000 in excess of the contract price; and while the loss of 
such formidable ships was a severe disappointment to the Con- 
federate government, the money was much needed at the time, 
and was beneficially applied to other purposes of the navy. 

The Sumter.— In April, 18G1, at the instance of Com. 
Raphael Semmes, ' chief of the C. S. Light-house Bureau, Sec- 
retary Mallory directed the Naval Board at New Orleans to 
purchase the screw steamer Hahana; the name was changed 
to the Sumter, and on the 18th of the month Com. Semmes was 
ordered to the command of the vessel, with the following officers : 
Lieuts. John M. Kell, R. T. Chapman, John M. Stribling and 
Wm. E. Evans; Paymaster Henry Myers; Surgeon Francis L. 



1 Raphael Semmes, a most famous commander 
in tlie Confeilerate navy, was born in Charles 
County, Md., Sept. '27th, 1809, and was descended 
from one of the Catholic faiuiliea who came 
from England in the second quarter of the seven- 
teenth century under the auspices of the Lords 
Baltimore and assisted in the establishment of 
religious liberty on the shores of the Western 
Continent. President John Quincy Adams ap- 
pointed him a midshipman in the U. S. navy in 
1826, but be did not enter upon active service 
until 1832. the intermediate years being spent in 
naval study at Norfolk, and,during his furloughs, 
in leading law with his brother. Samuel M. 
Semmes, at Cumberland, Md., a practicing at- 
torney in that city. His tastes for literature and 
tlie law were almost as strong as for the sea 
and at the outset of his career it seems to have 
bei'n a question with him whether to continue 
in the navy or devote himself to the iseaceful 
life of a counsellor and author. He had to make 
his decision in 1824, when, after returning from 
his first cruise he was admitted to the bar, and 
it was to remain a seaman. In 1837 he was pro- 
moted to be a lieutenant, and in 1842 removed 
his home to Alabama. At the beginning of the 
war with Mexico he was made flag-lieutenant 
under Com. Conner, commanding the squadi-on 
in the Gulf, and in the siege of Vera Cruz he 
commanded one of the naval batteries on shore. 
He was in command of the U. S. brig Somers on 
the blockade of the Mexican coast when, in 
chasing a suspicious vessel, the brig was knocked 
down by a gale of wind and most of her crew 
wei'e drowned. Lieut. Semmes was rescued, 
and after the declaration of peace he served for 
several years as inspector of light-houses on the 
Gulf coast. In 1855 he was ijromoted to the 
rank of commander, and in 1858 was assigned to 
duty as secretary of the light-house board at 
Washington. In his intervals of leisure he 
wrote " Service Afloat and Ashore during the 
Mexican War," a spirited and valuable contribu- 
tion to the history of that conflict. Upon the 
secession of Alabama, Feb. 15th, 1861, he re- 
signed his commission in the U. S. navy and re- 
ported to Mr. Davis at Montgomery, who in- 
50 



structed him to return North and endeavor to 
procure mechanics skilled in the manufacture 
and use of ordnance and rifle machinery, the 
preparation of fixed ammunition and of percus- 
sion caps. He was also to buy any war material 
that he might be able to procure. Going North, 
at Richmond he inspected the Virginia State 
arsenal and the Tredegar Iron Works with a 
view to their future use for casting cannon, 
shotand shell; and was in Washington on March 
4th, where he witnessed the preparations for the 
inauguration of President Lincoln. At Washing- 
ton ne examined the machineryof the arsenal and 
conferred with mechanics whom he desired to in- 
duce to go South. Within the next three weeks he 
made a tour through the principal work-shops 
of New York. Conn, and Mass. and found that 
Northern manufacturers were ready to sell him 
anything in the line of weapons and ammuni- 
tion that the South asked for. He i:iurchased 
large quantities of percussion caps in New York, 
which were sent to Montgomery without any 
disguise, and made contracts for batteries of 
light artillery, powder and other munitions of 
war, and succeeded in getting thousands of 
pounds of powder shipped to the South. One of 
his contracts was for the removal to the Southern 
States of a complete set of machinery for rifling 
cannon, with the requisite skilled workmen to 
put it in oijeration. Adm. Semmes always re- 
fused to betray the names of tlie thrifty Northern 
merchants who entered into these bargains and 
dined him at their residences. " It would be a 
quasi breach of honor," he wrote, "to disclose 
their names, as they dealt with me pretty much 
as conspirators against their government are 
wont to deal with the enemies of their govern- 
ment — secretly and with an implied confidence 
that I would" keep their secret." It was safe 
with him even after they took the pay of the 
Federal government with as much avidity as 
they had displayed in accepting the money of 
the South. While in New York he received a 
letter from Secretary Mallory, dated from Mont- 
gomery, March 13th, requesting him to investi- 
gate the possibilities of purchasing swift, light- 
draft steamers for the Confederate naval service. 



786 



THE CONFEDERATE STATES NAVY 



Gait: Midshipmen William A. Hicks, Richard F. Armstrong, 
Albert G. Hudoins, John F. Holden, ' and Joseph D.Wilson. To 
these before sailing were added the following : First Lieut, of 
Marines B. K. Howell; Engineers Miles J. Freeman, Wm. P. 
Brooks, Matthew O'Brien. Simeon W. Cummings; Boatswain 
Benj. P. Mecaskey; Gunner T. C. Cuddy; Sailmaker W. P. Beau- 
fort; Carpenter Wm. Robinson; Captain's Clerk W. Breedlove. 
The Sumter was a ship of 437 tons register, 184 feet long, 
30 feet beam, 12 feet depth of hold, barkentine rigged; her 
speed was from nine to ten knots an hour; she could carry 
coal but for eight days' steaming, and was slow under sail 
alone on account of her propeller dragging. On April 22d 
Com. Semmes took charge of the ship, and occupied nearly 
two months in fitting her out for service and mounting the 
battery, which consisted of an 8-inch shell gun pivoted amid- 
ships and four light 32-pounders in broadside. A crew of com- 
petent seamen was enlisted from the many merchant vessels 
laid up at New Orleans, and on June 3d the ship was put in 
commission as a vessel-of-war of the Confederate States. 



bnt conld discover 'none sviifcible for the piir- 
13use. His mission in tbe North completed, he 
returned to Montgomery on Ayril 4th to find 
that he had been commissioned commander in 
the navy of the Confederate States and placed in 
charye of the light-house bureau, which he re- 
linquished within two wrecks to go to New Or- 
leans and tit the Sumter out for sea. After the 
blockade of that ship at Gibralter by two U. S. 
men-of-war and his sale of her, he went to Eng- 
land and thence to the Azores, where he took 
command of the Alabama, having in the mean- 
time l)een promoted to the rank of captain. His 
career in that ship is elsewhere described in this 
history. Upon her loss in the battle with the 
Kearsarge he returned to England, and in London 
was presented by officers of the British army 
and navy with a superb sword to replace that 
wliich he had cast into the sea from the deck of 
his sinking ship. The invitations to subscrip- 
tions were issued from the Junior United Ser- 
vice Club, and were addressed to " gentlemen 
wishing to participate in this testimonial to un- 
flinching patriotism and naval daring " Admi- 
ral Anson and Capt. Bedford Pint of the British 
navy, were the chief movers in the affair. To 
keep company with t'le sword, a noble English 
lady iDresented Capt. Semmes with a large Con- 
federate flag, wrought with her own hands from 
the richest silk. On Oct. 3d, 1S64, after a tour 
upon the continent he sailed from England for 
Havana, from whence he reached Bagdad, a 
Mexican port on the Gulf, and passing up through 
Texas and Louisiana, reached Shreveport on 
Nov. 27th. Public ovations awaited him along 
the route and he was everywhere lionized. 
Crossing the Mississipi)i in a small skiff, in 
danger of capture from the Federal gunboats, he 
arrived on the e.ast bank, and after a short stay 
at his home in Mobile, was appointed rear-admi- 
ral in the Provisional navy and ordered to tlie 
command of the James River squadron, with 
which he guarded the water approaches to Rich- 
mond, until the city was evacuated. At Greens- 
boro', N. C, on May 1st. 186.5. he participated in 
the capituhation of Gen Johnston's army, taking 
the precatition to sign himself in the articles of 
parole as "rear admiral, S. N. and brigadier 
general, C. S. .\." — a wise foresight which proved 



available when it was afterwards claimed that 
he had deceived Gen. Hartsuff, who acted for 
Gen. Sherman, and that Hartsuff was unaware 
that he was extending pai'ole to the commander 
of the Alabama. Dispersing his men, Adm. 
Semmes went to his Mobile home and opened 
an office for the practice of law. There, on 
Dec. 15th, 1865, he was awested by a squad of 
V. S. marines in pursuance of an order of Secre- 
tary Welles, and was imprisoned, first in the 
navy-yard and then in the marine corps barracks 
at Washington. His seizure was in obedience to 
the Northern cry for the visitation of the death 
punishment upon " the pirate." and the pretext 
was. as stated by Mr. Speed, Attorney General 
of the United States, his liability to trial as a 
traitor, which he had evaded by his escape after 
the destruction of the Alabama. From his prison 
he wrote to President Johnson a letter claiming 
immunity for all past deeds under the military 
convention to which he was a party at Greens- 
boro' and the subsequent quarrel between Mr. 
Johnson and the Republican majority of Con- 
gress interrupted any proceedings looking to his 
trial. He was released under the third of the 
President's amnesty proclamations, after four 
months of confinement, and, in May, 1866, was 
elected judge of the Probate Court of Mobile 
County, but an order from President Johnson 
forbade liim to exercise the functions of the 
office. He then became the editor of a daily 
newspaper in Mobile, which he gave tip to ac- 
cept a professorial chair in the La. Military In- 
stitute. For a short time subsequently he was 
engaged in .iournalisin, but returned to Mobile 
aiiil tlie practice of law, in which he was occu- 
pied to the date of his death, Aug. 30lh, 1877. 
Besides tlie narrative of the war with Mexico, he 
intblished, in 1852, -'The Campaign of General 
Scott in the Valley of Mexico ;"' in IM'.i. "The 
Cruise of the Alabama and Sumter," and in 
1SG9, "Memoirs of Service Afloat during the 
War between tlie States." 

1 Midshipman Holden was drowned in the 
Mississippi River, May 18th. 1861, by the swamp- 
ing of a boat in which he was carrying out an 
anchor from the receiving ship Three of the 
seamen of the Sumter lost their lives at the same 
time. Mr. Holden was from Loiiisburg, Tenu. 



THE CONFEDERATE STATES NAVY. 7S7 

Com. Semmes' instructions from Secretary Mallor}^ were 
'• to do the enemy's commerce the greatest injury in the shortest 
time," and on June 30th he started to go to sea, choosing Pass 
a rdutre for his exit from tlie Mississippi into the Gulf of 
Mexico, as the sloop-of-war Brooklyn, the fastest of the Fed- 
eral blockading vessels on the station, had gone a few miles 
off to overhaul a strange sail. The Sumter was well through 
the pass before she was detected by the Brooklyn, which im- 
mediately gave chase, and on account of the "foaming" of 
her boilers the Sumter- was at one time in so much danger of 
being captured that her commander prepared to throw over- 
board his military chest and public papers. This trouble was 
soon obviated, however, and with increased speed she drew 
away from the enemy, who abandoned the pursuit about four 
o'clock in the afternoon. On July 3d, while running along the 




CONFEDEBATE STEAM CRDISER "SUMTER." 

Cuban coast, the Sumter made her first capture, which proved 
to be the bark Golden Bocket, of Maine. Her crew were taken 
off and the vessel burned. The next prizes Avere the brigan- 
tines Cuba and Machias, laden with neutral cargoes: and 
Semmes headed for Cienf ugos, Cuba, with them in tow, his in- 
tention being to discover whether Spain would follow the ex- 
ample of Great Britain and France by closing her ports to the 
prizes of the belligerents. Being compelled to cast off the Cuba, 
he ordered Midshipman Hudgins, who was in command of the 
prize-crew, to follow him into port. They parted compan}^, 
and the crew of the Cuba overpowered the prize-crew, recap- 
tured the vessel and took her into New York, where the Sum- 
ter s men were first committed on a charge of piracy, but were 
subsequently exchanged. 

The Sumter took into Cienfugos six prizes, but was refused 
permission to leave them there to await the decision of a Con- 
federate Court of Admiralty, and they were subsequently re- 
delivered to their original owners. Semmes next cruised down 



788 THE CONFEDERATE STATES NAVY. 

the Spanish Main, going as far south as Maranham, Brazil, 
and then made sail for Martinique. He made a number of 
prizes going southward, but in fifty-five days, between Maran- 
ham and Martinique, he fell in with but two vessels bearing 
the flag of the United States. The captures and burnings 
which he had accomplished since leaving New Orleans were 
fast driving the enemy's commerce from the ocean or forcing 
the transfer of his bottoms to neutrals. On November 13th, 
18G1, the Sumter proceeded to St. Pierre to coal, but before the 
work could be completed the U. S. gunboat Iroquois, Capt. 
J. S. Palmer, arrived in the harbor. Several times during the 
night the Iroquois steamed around the Sumter, as if desirous 
of attacking, but fearful of doing so in the French waters of 
Martinique, and Semmes beat to quarters and ran out his 
guns. Capt. Palmer addressed to the Governor of Martinique 
a protest against a vessel '" engaged in pirating upon the com- 
merce of the United States " being permitted to coal at the 
port, and asked that she be directed " to leave the protection 
of the French flag and the immunities of a French port." The 
Governor replied that he would not refuse an anchorage to "a 
vessel belonging to the States of the South " and tendered the 
same hospitalities to the Iroquois ; but required the latter, if 
she proposed to establish a blockade of the Confederate vessel 
to go outside of the marine jurisdiction of France. The French 
man-of-war Acheron came around from Port de France, and 
Capt. Palmer was informed that if he remained in the harbor 
he would not, under international law, be permitted to leave 
until twenty-four hours after the departure of the Sumter. He 
arranged with the captain of the American schooner Wind- 
ward, moored in the harbor, to notify him by signals if she 
sailed, and kept up a constant communication with the shore 
by boats, in violation of the laws of nations, which required 
that if he wished to communicate he must bring his ship to 
anchor, when, of course, the twenty-four hour rule would attach. 
After being blockaded nine days, Semmes determined to 
attempt an escape to sea from the greatly superior enemy, and 
selected the night of October 23d. At the sound of the eight 
o'clock gun from the fort, the vessel steamed off. Semmes 
was quite well aware that he was being watclied from the 
schooner Windivard, and that she was to notify the Iroquois 
by burning two lights if he went south and one light if he 
went north. Consequently he steered south until the two lights 
were shown and then halted under the shadow of the mountains, 
which run abruptly to the sea. The Ii'oquois, in obedience 
to the signals, went off southward at a furious pace, while the 
Sumter doubled and stood to the northward. ' Capt. Palmer 
had done his utmost to capture her, and because Semmes 
had outwitted him some of the Northern newspapers bullied 
the Secretary of the Navy into relieving him of his command. 

1 " Memoir's of Sei-vice Afloat During the War Between the States." 



'^ 




ill 



\ 



/ 



THE CONFEDERATE STATES NAVY. 789 

Com. Semmes' intention now was to cross the Atlantic 
and cruise in European waters. Off the island of Dominica, 
on Nov. 25th, he captured the ship Montmorenci, and ransomed 
her on a bond for $20,000, payable to the President of the Con- 
federate States, her cargo being- coal shipped on English ac- 
count. On the way across the ocean three prizes were taken. 

On Jan. 4th, 18G2, the Sumter anchored in the harbor of Ca- 
diz, Spain, and the next day Semmes received a peremptory 
order from the military governor to proceed to sea within 
twenty -four hours. To this he replied that it was the duty of 
Spain to extend to his ship the same hospitality that she would 
extend to the ships of the opposite belligerent; that his vessel 
was crippled, and that he had forty -three prisoners on board, 
whom he desired to hand over to the consul of the United 
States. In pursuance of orders from Madrid the prisoners 
were landed, and the Sumter was permitted to make at Car- 
racca, eight miles east of Cadiz, barely such repairs as would 
suffice to keep her afloat. On Jan. 17th, Semmes was served 
with a peremptory order to depart within six hours, and as he 
had not been permitted to coal, he had barely sufficient fuel 
to take the ship to the British port of Gibraltar, whither he 
decided to proceed. 

Between Cadiz and Gibraltar the Sumter made two prizes, 
and reached the latter port January 19th, 1862. On Feb. 3d, 
Com. Semmes received funds from Mr. Mason, Confederate 
envoy at London, but when he attempted to purchase coal he 
found that the merchants had closed the market against him. 
and an application for supplies from the government yard 
was denied. Then he sent Paymaster Myers and Thomas J. 
Tunstall, ex-U. S. consul at Gibraltar, to Cadiz, to buy a sup- 
ply. The French steamer on which they took passage for 
Cadiz made a stop at the Moorish town of Tangier, where 
they were arrested by the local authorities on the requisition 
of the U. S. consul. By the consul they were turned over to the 
commander of the Federal naval forces at Algesiras, who 
sent them to the United States in irons. 

The Sumter was now blockaded at Gibraltar by the Federal 
steamers Tuscarora, Kearsarge and Chippetva, and as she 
could obtain no coal, Semmes decided, after consultation by 
telegraph with Mr. Mason, to lay her up. All hands were 
paid off ; the officers took passage for London, and the sail- 
ors were discharged. Midshipman R. F. Armstrong and act- 
ing master's mate J. T. Hester were left in chai'ge of the 
vessel with ten men; and about April 13th or 14tli, Com. Semmes 
started for London, from whence he sailed for the Confederacy, 
but was overtaken at Nassau by orders to return to England 
and take command of the Alabama. The Sumter^ s cruise had 
lasted six months, during which time she had captured eight- 
een vessels, of which eight were burned, and the remainder 
were released or bonded, with the exception of one, that was 



790 THE CONFEDERATE STATES NAVY. 

recaptured. She was sold by auction at Gibraltar, in Dec. 
1862, and was bought by a Liverpool merchant for $19,500, 
battery and all, who changed her name to the Gibraltar. The 
commander of the Federal steamer Chippewa avowed his 
purpose to capture her if she ventured out of the harbor, but 
did not risk attempting such an outrage upon the British flag, 
which she now carried. In July, 18G3, she ran the blockade 
into Wilmington, N. C, and returned to Liverpool in Dec. 
with a cargo of cotton. After the war the U. S. government 
entered suit in the admiralty court, at London, for the recov- 
ery of the ship as a prize, but the case was decided in favor 
of her owners, and she was eventually lost in a gale in the 
North Sea, not far from where the Alabama was sunk. 

The Florida. — The first of the Confederate steam cruis- 
ers built in England was constructed by William C. Miller & 
Sons of Liverpool, under contract with Capt. J. D. Bulloch, 
naval agent of the Confederate States, and bore the dock-yard 
name of the Oreto. In March, 1862, she was ready to go to 
sea, and English officers and crew were engaged to take her 
out as an unarmed ship in order to avoid infringement of the 
neutrality regulations. She sailed from Liverpool, March 22d, 
having on board, as a passenger, Master John Lowe, C. S. N., 
Avho was instructed to deliver the vessel at Nassau to Capt. 
J. N. Maffitt. Her guns, equipments and stores were dis- 
patched to the same port in the steamer Bahama. The Oreto 
arrived at Nassau April 28th, and between that date and 
Aug. 1st was twice seized by the British governor on the 
complaint of the U. S. consul that she was intended for the 
Confederate service, but the admiralty court could only decide 
from the evidence submitted that she was properly docu- 
mented as British property, and ordered her release. At Nas- 
sau her armament was placed on a schooner, which the Oreto 
met about Aug. 10th, at Green Cay, sixty miles distant. There 
it was transferred to the steamer, which was regularly com- 
missioned as a ship of war, and the name changed to Florida. 
Her battery embraced two 7-inch and four 6-incli Blakely 
rifled guns.' Maffitt had but eighteen men in all on board, in- 
cluding Lieut. J. M. Stribling, Acting Master W. L. Bradford 
and Midshipmen Bryan, Floyd and Sinclair. The yellow fever 
broke out among them, and in five days the working force Avas 
reduced to one fireman and four deck hands. The ship was 
run into Cardenas, Cuba, in a desperate plight, and there 
Capt. Maffitt was stricken with the disease. Before he re- 
covered, the Florida was summoned to Havana by the cap- 
tain general. She was still far from being fully equipped or 
manned, and because of the stringency of the Spanish regula- 
tions Maffitt determined to run into Mobile. On Sept. 4th, 
1862, she was off the bar, and hoisting the British colors stood 
toward the three blockading vessels. Deceived by her ensign 
they allowed her to come up to them before ordering her to 



THE CONFEDERATE STATES NAVY. 791 

stop. The only response was the substitution of tlie Confede- 
rate for the British flag; the Florida received the broadside 
of the Federal sloop-of-war Oneida within pistol range, and 
for two hours the little ship was pelted by the enemy, until 
she found shelter under the guns of Fort Morgan, Two shells 
had passed through her, and her rigging was badly cut up, 
and one mtin was killed and seven wounded. Maffitt came 
out of his sick berth to handle the ship, and during the whole 
war there was no incident in which bravery and energy were 
more brilliantly displayed. 

The Florida was fully fitted out and manned at Mobile, 
and on the night of Jan. loth, 1863, made her escape to sea, 
although the blockading fleet had been strengthened with 
a view to her capture, and she was vainly pursued by one fast 
gunboat, the R. R. Cuyler. Under steam and sail (her screw 
could be lifted clear of the water, when it was intended that 
she should go under sail alone) she outran the enemy. She 
was now officered as follows: 

Lieut. Commanding, James Newland Maffitt; Lieutenants, S. W. 
Averett, ^ J. L. Hoole, C. W. Read, S. G. Stone ; Midshipmen, R. S. 
Floyd, G. D. Bryan, J. H. Dyke, G. T. Sinclair, and W. B. Sinclair;-^ Chief 
Engineer, A. M. Spidell; Assistants, Chas. W. Quinn, Thos. A. Jaekson, 
E. H. Brown ; Surgeon, Frederick GaiTettson ; Paymaster, Lynch. 

In a few days the Florida made the west end of Cuba, and 
captured her first prize, a small brig, which was burned. Put- 
ting into Havana, she remained 48 hours, taking in coal, and 
on Jan. 35th arrived at Nassau, having taken two more prizes 
in the meantime. Capt. Wilkes, commanding the U. S. '' fly- 
ing squadron "' in the West Indies, was assiduously hunting 

1 Samuel W. Averett, now one of the princi- doned and permission bad been given to the 

pals of Koanoke Female College, Danville, Va., men of the floating battery to save themselves 

graduated from the U. S. naval academy in in any way they could, or to follow their com- 

1859 and served on the sloop-of-war Wyoming mander in his efforts to I'each Gen. Mackall's 

In the Pacific squadron until about Ajiril 1st, camp, sixteen Alabamians asked Lieut. Averett 

1861, when he resigned in consequence of the to lead them to their comrades there, the others 

call of Gov. Letcher, of Virginia, upon her sous preferring to attempt escape in -small boats, two 

in the army and navy to give in their allegiance or three together, down the river and by rafts 

to their native State. Homeward bound by way acro.ss Reel Foot Lake, and many of them suc- 

of Havana, he. with the late Gen. E. B. Garnett ceeded. Averett and the Alabamians reached 

aud Engineer Geo. D. Lining, of the Wyoming, Mackall's camp, and were included in the sur- 

took passage from that port in July on the render of April 8th, 1862. He was exchanged at 

schooner Adelaide, and after evading a Federal Vicksburg in Augu.st, and soon thereafter re- 

sloop-of-war, entered Fernandiua in safety. On ported for duty on the C. S. steamer Florida, of 

reporting to the Navy Department at Richmond, which he was made executive officer serving as 

Mr. Averett was commissioned lieutenant, C. S. such until May, 1864, when he was ordered 

N., and ordered to duty at New Orleans, where home for rest aud recuperation. He expected 

he commanded the Watson, and was subse- to return to the ship with other officers and 

quently executive officer of the steamer Jackson money, but the state of his health forbade him 

aud of the steamer Gen. Polk. At a later date from engaging in active duty afterward. 
he wiis in command of the floating battery New 

Orleans at Island No. 10. He knew the channel 2 Midshipman W. B. Sinclair was drowned off 

of the Mississippi above and around the island the capes of the Delaware, July 10th, 1864, while 

tolerably well, and the nature of the defences in command of a boat that swamped in trans- 

thoroughly, aud when asked by Flag-officer ferring stores from a prize to the Florida. He 

Hollins whether he thought the Confederate gave up to a seaman the oar upon which he was 

position could be i^assed by Adm. Foote's fleet, sustaining himself, and thus sacrificed his own 

he replied confidently that if it attempted the life. The Confederate governiuent issued a 

passage by day some of the vessels would go general naval order reciting his conduct in 

through safely, while others would be destroyed, terms of the highest praise, and directed that 

but a vessel might run through on a dark night the order be read upon the quartei'-deck of all 

without receiving a shot in her hull. When the vessels in commission, with the colors at half 

fortifications on the main-land had been aban- mast. 



793 THE CONFEDERATE STATES NAVY. 

for the Florida. Reasoning that as the Florida had just ob- 
tained coal at Nassau, she would not, under the neutrality 
laws, be allowed to coal at another British port for three 
months, Wilkes concluded that she must go the French island 
of Martinique for another supply of fuel, and sent his ships off 
in that direction, to look for her. She had really gone to Bar- 
badoes, where, upon Capt. Maffitt's statement that his fuel 
had been exhausted from stress of weather, he procured 90 
tons of coal on Feb. 24th. Cruising to the southward, a halt was 
made at Green Cay, to paint the ship, and on the day after 
leaving that island the U. S. gunboat Sonoma was sighted. All 
hands were called to quarters, but although the Florida was 
slowed down, the enemy, according to a statement made by 
Lieut. C. W. Read, kept at a distance, and at the approach of 
night the Florida went on her course. Off the Windward 
Islands she had a long chase after the clipper ship Jacob Belly 
from Foo Chow, China, for New York, which she caught and 
burned. The vessel, and her cargo of tea, silks, etc., was 
valued at $1,500,000, the most valuable single prize taken by 
any Confederate cruiser. Pernambuco, Brazil, was reached 
on May 8th, and the Florida cruised along the meeting of the 
great routes of commerce off that coast, taking many prizes. 
Near there, Maffitt made a tender of the prize brig Clareiice, 
whose career will be subsequently related, and then worked 
his way back to St. George's, Bermuda, where he arrived July 
16th, 1863. He had destroyed 14 prizes, and bonded three. ' 

On July 35th, the Florida sailed from Bermuda, and after 
capturing the ships F. B. Cutting (bonded) and Avon (burned) 
arrived at Brest, France, Aug. 3od, where she remained six 
months in a government dock refitting and recruiting. Capt. 
Maffitt's health was broken, and he was relieved of command 
by Com. Joseph N. Barney, who was also seized with illness, 
and about Jan. 4th, 1864, Lieut. Charles Manigault Morris^ 
was ordered to the command of the cruiser. He got to sea 
from Brest on Feb. 12th, and went to the West Indies, but 
finding no valuable quarry there made a descent upon the 
coast of the United States. On July 10th, thirty miles off the 
capes of the Delaware, he captured the U. S. mail steamer 
Electric Spark, from New York for New Orleans, which was 
scuttled after transferring her people and passengers to a 
passing English vessel. Other prizes taken in this dash were 
the Harriet Stevens, Golconda, Margaret Y. Davis and Mond- 
amin. Morris then crossed the ocean to Teneriff e, and cruised 

1 The term bonded or ransomed means that mulated on the cruisers, and for whom they 

the captain of the captured ship, on condition could find no accommodation, 

of the release of the vessel, signed a bond for - Lieut. C. M. Mon-is resigned from the U. S. 

himself and the owners, to pay a stipulated navy when Georgia seceded, and being appointed 

sum to the President of the Confederate lieut. in the Confederate service was ordered to 

States at a fixed date (usually six months) after command of the gunboat Huntress at Savannah, 

the ratification of a treaty of peace between the After doing ordnance duty and being in charge 

United States and the Confederate States. A of the Savannah rendezvous, he was ordered to 

prize was bonded when her cargo was owned Europe for duty on the Birkenhead rams, but 

by neutral parties, or when it was desired to was detailed to the command of the Florida, in 

use her to carry to jjort the prisoners who accu- which he remained until her capture at Bahia. 



^ 



\ 




V 



i 



/ 



THE CONFEDERATE STATES NAVY. 793 

back leisurely toward Brazil, capturing- the B. F, Hoxie.Cair- 
aissanne, David Lapsley, Estelle. George Latimer, Southern 
Rights, Gireeniand, Windwa?'d, William C. Clark and Zelinda. 

The Florida anchored at Bahia, Brazil, Oct. 4th, and 
found in port the U. S. steam corvette Wachusett, Capt. Napo- 
leon Collins. Relying implicitly upon the protection of a neu- 
tral power, Morris drew the loads from his guns and gave his 
crew liberty on shore by watches. On the night of Oct. Gth 
he was himself in the town with nearly half the ship's com- 
pany, leaving her in charge of Lieut. Thomas K. Porter and 
some eighty officers and men. At three o'clock on the morning 
of the 7th, the Wachusett rammed her on the starboard quar- 
ter, fired two shots from her battery, poured in a volley from 
small arms and demanded her surrender. The FloiHda's peo- 
ple on deck replied with pistols and muskets and some fifteen 
of the crew jumped overboard, of whom nine were either 
drowned or were killed by being fired upon from the Wachu- 
sett, while they were trying to swim to the land. Lieut. Por- 
ter surrendered his defenceless ship and the Wachusett towed 
her out to sea without giving him any chance for communica- 
tion with Capt. Morris, The only Brazilian vessel present was 
a small sloop-of-war, and although she and the fort fired a few 
shots at the Wachusett the latter paid no attention. The Flor- 
ida was sent to Hampton Roads as a prize. 

So gross an outrage upon a neutral government was ut- 
terly indefensible and the United States made no attempt to 
defend it. The demiand of Brazil that the Florida be returned 
intact to her protection at Bahia with all the prisoners on 
board was conceded, and then to avoid this reparation a con- 
temptible and violent fraud was resorted to. While she was 
lying in Hampton Roads she was " accidentally " struck by 
an army transport, and then, to avoid any more such " acci- 
dental" collisions, she was moored in a secluded locality 
above Newport News, and an engineer and two assistants 
placed on board. On the morning of Nov. 28th she sank at 
her moorings, and the United States escaped the humiliation 
of returning her to Brazil. We have not the space to intro- 
duce reports of this disgraceful business, but no fair man can 
study them without reaching the conviction that the sinking 
of the ship was an act deliberately committed by those in 
charge of her in pursuance of instructions or intimations from 
very high Federal authority. Admiral Porter, who was then 
in command at Hampton Roads, goes far to confirm this belief 
by the manner in which he speaks of the affair in his "Naval 
History of the Civil War." It is tolerably well apparent that 
the engineer in charge of the ship opened the water-cocks in 
her hull and purposely left her to go to the bottom. 

The captured officers were sent in succession to prison at 
Point Lookout, Washington and Fort Warren. They were 
brutally treated and were not set free until Feb. 1st, 18G5. 



794 THE CONFEDERATE STATES NAVY. 

Tlieii they were compelled to sign an agreement to leave the 
United States within ten days of their release, and were turned 
into the streets of Boston without a dollar, but managed to 
secure passage to Europe. 

The Clarence, Tacony and Archer, — On May 6th, 1863, 
the Florida captured, off the Brazilian coast, the brig Clar- 
ence, of Baltimore, and converted her into a Confederate 
cruiser. Lieut Charles W. Read was placed in command, and 
selected as his subordinate officers from the Florida^s comple- 
ment. Quartermaster Billups, Boatswain's mate Matthewson, 
and Quarter-gunner Pride, who were made master's mates. 
Engineer Brown was also taken on board, and 16 men of the 
Florida's crew. The only armament was a 6-pounder boat 
howitzer, but with some spare spars Read constructed several 
Quaker guns that frightened some of the American merchant 
skippers whom he overhauled. He dipped his colors to the 
Florida, and squared away north and east. Off Cape Hatteras 
he captured the first prize, the bark Whistling Wind, bound 
to New Orleans with army stores. That, and a few more 
prizes, the Kate Stewart, Mary Alvina and Mary Schindler, 
were burned, and the Alfred H. Partridge was bonded off the 
capes of the Delaware, to land the prisoners. The next prize 
was the fine bark Tacony, and as she was a much swifter ves- 
sel than the Clarence, the crew and battery were transferred 
to her, and the Clarence M^as destroyed. Read now proceeded 
along the coast of New England, capturing and burning with 
immense vigor. His prizes were the Ada, Arabella, Byzan- 
tium, Elizabeth Ann, Florence, Goodspeed, Isaac Webb, Z. A. 
Macomber, Marengo, Hippie, Rufus Choate, Shattemuc, Uni- 
jDire and Wanderer. On June 25th, 1863, the schooner Archer 
was captured and converted into a cruiser in place of the Tacony, 
which was destroyed. Read desired to capture a steamer, make 
a raid down the coast, and run into Wilmington, N. C. ; and 
learning from captured fishermen that the only armed ves- 
sel at Portland, Me. , was the revenue cutter Caleb Cushing, 
he decided that she would be of use to him in the execution of 
his project. On June 27th he sailed into Portland harbor in 
his peaceful appearing schooner, without molestation, and after 
dark he took the cutter by boarding, securing her crew below 
deck. Going out of the harbor at dawn of the 28th, with the 
Archer and the Cushing, the wind failed, and tlie Boston 
steamer passed in, having on board Capt. Merriman, of the 
U. S. revenue marine, who had been ordered to Portland to 
take the cutter in search of the Tacony. The first known 
in Portland of the cutting-out of the Cushing was Merri- 
man's report that he had seen her going to sea ; and Maj. 
Andrew, commandant at Fort Preble, organized a recapturing 
expedition of troops and citizens in two steamers, and three 
tug-boats. At 11 o'clock in the morning they overtook the 
Cushing and Archer. Read opened fire on them from his 



THE CONFEDERATE STATES NAVY. 795 

guns, but by making wide detours, they hemmed him in, 
and kept out of cannon range. He then took to his boats, 
after setting a slow match to the magazine of the cutter, 
which soon blew up. Surrounded by the enemy, he surren- 
dered, and they towed the Archer into the harbor. The pris- 
oners were charged with piracy, but were finally exchanged. 

The Nashville. — The C. S. cruiser Nashville, a B.ne, swift 
side- wheel steamer of about 1,300 tons burden, was built by 
Northern owners for the trade between New York and Char- 
leston, and was seized by the Confederate authorities at the 
latter port when she entered it after the capture of Fort Sum- 
ter. She laid idle until it was decided that she should take 
Messrs, Mason and Slidell on the first stage of their journey 
to Europe, and when this intention was revoked, she was sent 
out as a Confederate States ship-of-war with the following 
officers, all of the naval service : Robert B. Pegram, lieut, 
oommanding; Charles M. Fauntleroy, first lieut.; John W. 
Bennett, second lieut,; Wm. C. Whittle, Jr., third lieut.; John 
H. Ingraham, master; John L, Auchrim, surgeon; Richard 
Taylor, paymaster; James Hood, chief engineer, and midship- 
men Dalton, Sinclair, Cary, Pegram, Hamilton, Thomas and 
McClintock, She was armed with but two 12-pounder brass 
guns, mounted on her forecastle deck, and her crew never 
numbered more than forty men. On the night of Oct. 21st, 
1861, the ship ran the blockade out of Charleston, and after 
stopping a few days at Bermuda headed across the Atlantic, 
and on Nov. 19th captured in the entrance of the British chan- 
nel the ship Harvey Birch, of New York, homeward bound from 
Havre. The passengers and crew were taken off and paroled 
and the ship burned. On the 21st, the Nashville arrived at 
Southampton, where the prisoners were landed, and enjoyed 
the distinction of being the first war vessel to fly the flag of the 
Confederate States in the waters of England. 

On Jan. 8th, 1862, the Federal steamer Tuscarot^a arrived 
in port, and her commander, Capt. Craven, established so close 
a watch of the Nashville that he was warned by the govern- 
ment officers to beware of violating the neutrality laws. This 
blockade of tlie Nashville continued during the month; but in 
the last week of January the Tuscarora moved ofi^ to the Isle 
of Wight, and Capt. Pegram demanded of the admiralty that 
in accordance with the law she be detained in British wa ters un- 
til twenty-four hours after his own vessel had sailed. The rule 
was enforced on Capt. Craven, and the Nashville went to sea 
on Feb. 3d, and reached Bermuda on the 20th, where she 
picked up a pilot, who agreed to take her into Beaufort, N. C. 
On the passage the schooner Robert Oilfillan. of Philadelphia, 
M^as made a prize and burned. The Nashville evaded the 
blockading ships at Beaufort by a daring trick, and ran in on 
Feb. 28th. Capt. Pegram found tliat the Confederate govern- 
ment had sold the vessel to private parties in Charleston, and 



796 THE CONFEDERATE STATES NAVY. 

he left her at Moorehead City in charge of Lieut, Whittle; but 
before the new owners could arrive to take possession it be- 
came necessary to run the blockade outward to save her from 
capture by Burn side's expedition. This feat was gallantly 
accomplished by Whittle under a heavy fire from the enemy, 
on March 17th. Finding it impossible to get into Charleston 
through the blockading fleet, he took the ship to Georgetown, 
S. C. , and turned her over to the purchasers, Fraser, Trenholm 
& Co. They employed her in running the blockade, and on 
her first trip to Nassau she was placed under the British flag 
and her name changed to the Thomas L. Wragg. As a block- 
ade-runner the steamer was exceedingly successful, and al- 
though several times sighted by Federal ships got away from 
them by her speed; but in the summer of 18G2, she ran into 
Warsaw Sound, Ga., and before a return cargo could be ob- 
tained, the enemy bottled her up with a flotilla of gunboats. 
She was then fitted out as a cruiser and re-christened the Rat- 
tlesnake. While watching a chance to run out of the Ogechee 
River, Feb. 27th, 18G3, she grounded in Seven Mile Reach, 
above Fort McAllister, and the next day was attacked by the 
Federal monitor Montauk, which soon set her on fire witli 
shells, and she burned until the flames reached her magazine 
and blew her into fragments. 

Yacht America. — At the beginning of the war, the Con- 
federate government bought for S60,000 the famous schooner 
yacht America, which had won the Queen's cup in the Cowes 
regatta of 1852. The intention was to fit her out as a cruiser, 
but she was blockaded in the St. John's River, Fla., by Federal 
ships, and was there scuttled by the Confederates. She was 
raised by the Federals and remained in the navy until after 
the war, when the U. S. government sold her to Gen. Benj. F. 
Butler, who still uses her as a yacht. 

The Alabama. — While Capt. Bulloch was concluding the 
negotiations for the construction of the Florida, in June, 1861, 
he opened communication with the Messrs. Laird, proprietors 
of extensive ship-yards at Birkenhead, opposite Liverpool, for 
the building of a small steam slpop-of-war, on a model which 
he described with some -exactness. He paid them £47,500 for 
the vessel, which was known in the yards as " No. 290." and 
subsequently became the Alabama. On July 29th, 1862, she 
steamed out of the Mersey, a few hours before the British For- 
eign Office sent down orders to detain her on the complaint of 
Minister Adams that she was a Confederate ship-of-war. Seven 
days later she arrived at Terceira, in the Azores Islands, where 
she was joined by the bark Agrippina, bringing her arma- 
ment and stores, and the steamship Baliaina, on which her 
officers and most of her crew had come out from England. On 
Aug. 24th she was formally commissioned as the Confederate 
States cruiser Alabama, with the subjoined list of officers : 



THE CONFEDERATE STATES NAVY. 797 

Captain, Raphael Semrnes ; First Lieut, and Executive Officer, J. M. 
Xell ; Second Lieut., Richard F. Armstrons: ; Third Lieut., Joseph ]). 
AVilson ; Fourtli Lieut., Arthur Sinclair; Fifth Lieut., Jolni Lowe ; Sv;r- 
fyeon, Francis L. Gait ; Asst. Surer., Davad H. Llewellyn ; Paymaster, 
Clarence R. Yong:e ; Captain's Clerk. Wni. B. Smith ; Lieut, of Marines, 
Becker K. Howell ; Chief Engineer, Miles J. Freeman ; Asst. Engineers, 
Wm. P. Brooks, S. W. Cumings, Mather O'Brien, John W. Pundt ; Mid- 
shipmen, Wm. H. Sinclair, Irvine S. Bulloch, Eugene Maffitt, Edwin M. 
Anderson ; Master's Mates, George T. Fullam, James Evans ; Boatswain, 
Benj. L. McCa.skey ; Gunner, J. O. Cuddy ; Carpenter, Wm. Robinson ; 
.Sailmaker, Henry Alcott. 

The Alabama was a vessel 220 feet long-, 32 feet breadth of 
beam, 1,040 tons burden. She was barkentine-rigged. and her 
propeller was so constructed that it could be lifted out of the 
water, and when this was done she was to all intents and pur- 
poses a sailing ship. Under sail alone, with the wind abeam, 
she occasionally made 10 knots an hour, and her best perform- 
ance was 11 J knots under sail and steam combined. Her ar- 
mament consisted of six 32-pounders in broadside, a 100-pounder 
Blakely rifle in the forecastle, and a smooth bore 8-inch 
shell gun abaft the mainmast. She made her debut as a war- 
ship by plunging in among the American whaling fleet, that 
between the early spring and October finds employment 
around the Western Islands. On Sept. 14th, 1862, the Ala- 
bama was off Fayal, and before the equinoctial guiles drove 
the whalers out of those waters he made prizes of a dozen of 
them. Capt. Semmes selected for his next cruising ground the 
Newfoundland Banks, and the track of tlie American grain ships 
bound from the Eastern ports to Europe. He reached this sta- 
tion October 3d, 1862, and began burning prizes, or ransoming to 
carry away his prisoners tliose containing cargoes documented 
as the indisputable property of neutrals. The first of the 
wheat ships taken was the Brilliant, and the second the Emily 
Farnham ; and the latter returning to New York under bond, 
with the information that t\\G Alabama was on the coast,a panic 
w^as created in shipping circles. Between Oct 3d and 21st, 
Semmes made sixteen captures, and then fell in with a num- 
ber of ships whose cargoes were certified to be neutral property. 
A prize court was convened in the cabin of the Alabama, and 
upon its decision that the certificates were fraudulent, the ves- 
sels and their ladings were burned. The Alabama ran down 
to within 200 miles of New York, while the Federal men-of- 
war were looking for her up on the Grand Banks. About Nov. 
18th she put into Port de France, Martinique, when some of 
the men, who had smuggled liquor on board, created the first 
and only mutiny on the ship, which the commander promptly 
suppressed by no severer measures than douching the guilty 
ones with cold water. The U. S. frigate San Jacinto made her 
appearance off the port while the Alabama was there, but the lat- 
ter's speed enabled her to go to sea past her slow and clumsy 
enemy. After coaling from a tender at Blanquilla, Venezuela, 
.Semmes laid in wait between San Domingo and Hay ti. for one 



798 THE CONFEDERATE STATES NAVY. 

of the California treasure steamers bound from Colon to ISTeAv 
York. On Dec. 7th, 1862. he captured the steamship Ariel, but 
she was outward bound from New York, with some 500 women 
and children among her passengers. As he could not take the 
prize into any port, he was forced to release her on a ransom 
bond for S261,000, payable after the recognition of the indepen- 
dence of the Confederate States. He got nothing from the 
prize, except $9,500 in money that her safe contained, while he 
might have captured a million if he had taken one of the 
steamers bound into New York. 

The Alabama next went into the Gulf of Mexico, with a 
view of attacking the expedition known to be fitting out in 
the North under Gen. N. P. Banks for a descent upon the 
Texas coast, but Banks had gone into New Orleans and 
Semmes found off Galveston a Federal squadron bombarding 
that city. By concealing the identity of his ship and steam- 
ing slowly off he decoyed a vessel of the enemy twenty miles 
away, and then halted and cleared ship for action. To a hail 
he responded first, "This is her Britannic Majesty's steamer 
Petrel,'^ and then '' This is the Confederate States steamer 
Alabama." She fired the first broadside at nine o'clock on the 
night of Jan. 11th, 18G3; the other ship replied valiantly, and 
the engagement lasted just thirteen minutes. Closing in with 
the foe Semmes found that he had defeated the U. S. gunboat 
Hatteras, Lieut. Com. Homer C. Blake, and that she was in 
a sinking condition. Blake asked for assistance, which was 
so promptly rendered, that, although the Hatteras went to 
the bottom within fifteen minutes after surrendering, every 
man on board, including the five wounded, was transferred in 
safety to the Alabama. Two men were killed on the Hatteras 
and the Alabama had but one man wounded. The latter 
steamed for Jamaica, and on Jan. 20th made the harbor of 
Port Royal, where Semmes expelled from the service his pay- 
master, Clarence R. Yonge, for debauchery. On Jan. 25th the 
Alabama left Kingston for a cruise down the Brazil coast and 
thence to the Cape of Good Hope. At the forks of the marine 
roads, in the fair- way of commerce, he captured twenty-four 
vessels, all of which were destroyed except the Co7irad, which 
was converted into the C. S. cruiser Tuscaloosa. Crossing the 
Atlantic to the southern point of Africa, two more prizes were 
taken, and on July 28th, 1863, the Alabama put into Saldanha 
Bay. On this coast he captured only the bark Sea Bride, 
which vessel, with her cargo, Semmes sold to an English 
merchant, making the transfer at Angra Pequena, in the 
Hottentot country, to avoid any fracture of the British neu- 
trality laws. For the remainder of the year he cruised in 
the Straits of Sunda, the China Sea and the Bay of Bengal, 
with moderate success. Beating up the waters of_ the Atlan- 
tic again, between Cape Town and the equatorial line on 
the Brazil coast, only two more captures were made. The 



THE CONFEDERATE STATES NAVY. 799 

ship Tycoon was taken on April 27th, 18G4, and she was the 
last of the long roll of the victims of the Alabama, 

On June 11th, the cruiser came to anchor in the port of 
Cherbourg, France, and three days later the U. S. steam cor- 
vette Kearsarge, Capt. John A. Winslow, came across from 
Southampton. The vessels fought their famous battle on 
Sunday, June 19th. Thousands of people gathered on the 
southern heights overlooking the British Channel to witness 
the combat, and the French iron-clad Couronne, and the 
English yacht Deerliound, owned and sailed by Mr, John 
Lancaster, moved to and fro outside the line of fire. A brief 
narrative of the affair is all that our limits will permit. 

From the start the Kearsarge had some advantage over her 
adversary. She was the faster ship and her seven guns threw 
at a broadside 430 pounds of shot to 360 pounds thrown by the 
eight guns of the Alabama. She obtained this superiority from 
the two 11-inch pivot guns that she carried, and these pieces 
decided the action. Moreover, her hull was protected by her 
heavy chain cables hung up and down the sides. Semmes 
claims that for this reason she was practically an iron-clad 
and that Winslow took an unfair advantage of him. It is 
true, however, that the Kearsarge was not hit so frequently 
during the engagement as to make this a question of great 
practical importance. She had 163 officers and men, and the 
Alabama had 149. The annexed report of Capt. Semmes to 
Secretary Mallory was dated from Southampton on June 21st, 
and embraces most of the needful particulars of the battle. 

"Southampton, June 21st, 1864. 
" Sir : I have the honor to inform you, that in accordance with my 
intention as previously announced to you, I steamed out of the harbor of 
Cherbourg between nine and ten o'clock on the mornino: of the 19th of 
June, for the purpose of engagins: the enemy's steamer Kearsarge, which 
had been lying off and on the port, for several days previously. After 
clearing the harbor, we descried the enemy, with his head off shore, at 
the distance of about seven miles. We were three-quarters of an hour in 
coming up with hiiu. I had previously pivoted my guns to stai'board, 
and made all preparations for engaging the enemy on that side. When 
within about a mile and a quarter of the enemy, he suddenly wheeled, 
and, bringing his head in shore, in-esented his starboard battery to me. 
By this time, we were distant about one mile from each other, when I 
opened on him with soHdshot, to which he replied in a few minutes, and 
the action became active on both sides. The enemy now pressed his ship 
under a full head of steam, and to jjrevent our passing each other too 
speedily, and to keep our respective broadsides beai'ing, it became neces- 
sary to fight in cs, circle ; the two ships steaming around in a common cen- 
tre, and preserving a distance from each other of from three-quarters to 
half a mile. When we got within good shell range, we opened upon him 
with shell. Some ten or fifteen minutes after the commencement of the 
action, our spanker-gaff was shot away, and our ensign came down by the 
run. This was immediately replaced by another at the mizzen-masthead. 
The firing now became very hot, and the enemy's shot and shell soon 
began to tell upon our hull, knocking down, killing and disabling a num- 
ber of men, at the same time, in different parts of the ship. Perceiving 
that our shell, though apparently exploding against the enemy's sides, 



800 THE CONFEDERATE STATES NAVY. 

-were doing him but little damage, I i-eturned to solid-shot firing, and from 
this time onwaixl alternated with shot and shell. 

"After the lapse of about one hour and ten minutes, our ship was as- 
certained to be in a sinking condition, the enemy's shell having exploded 
in our side and between decks, opening large apertures through which 
the water rushed with great rapidity. For some few minutes I had hopes 
of being able to i-each the Fi-ench coast, for which purpose I gave the ship 
all steam, and set such of the fore-and-aft sails as were available. The ship 
filled so rapidly, however, that before we had made much progress, the fires 
were extinguished in the furnaces, and we were evidently on the point of 
sinking. I now hauled down my colors, to prevent the further destruc- 
tion of life, and dispatched a boat to inform the enemy of our condition. 
Although we were now bnt 400 yards from each other, the enemy fired 
upon me five times after my colors had been struck. It is charitable to sup- 
pose that a ship of war of a Christian nation could not have done this inten- 
tionally. We now directed all our exertions toward saving the wounded, 
and such of the boys of the ship as were unable to swim. These were dis- 
patched in my quarter-boats, the only boats remaining to me ; the waist- 
boats having been torn to pieces. Some twenty minutes after my fur- 
nace fires had been extinguished, and when the ship was on the point of 
settling, every man, in obedience to a previous order which had been 
given the crew, jumped overboard, and endeavored to save himself. There 
was no appearance of any boat coming to me from the enemy, until after 
my ship went down. Fortunately, however, tlie steam yacht Deerhound, 
owned by a gentleman of Lancashire, England— Mr. John Lancaster — who 
was himself on board, steamed up in the midst of my drowning men, and 
rescued a number of both officers and men from the water. I was fortunate 
enough myself thus to escape to the shelter of the neutral flag, together 
with about forty others, all told. About this time the Kearsarge sent one, 
and then, tardily, another boat. Accompanying, you will find lists of the 
killed and wounded, and of those who were picked up hy the Deerhourid ; 
the remainder, there is reason to hope, were picked up by the enemy, and 
by a couple of French pilot boats, which were also fortunately near the 
scene of action. At the end of the engagement, it was discovered by those 
of our officers who went alongside of the enemy's ship, with the wounded, 
that her midship section, on both sides, was thoroughly iron-coated ; this 
having been done with chains, constructed for the purpose, placed per- 
pendicularly, from the rail to the water's edge, the whole covered over by 
a thin outer planking, which gave no indication of the armor beneath. 
This planking had been ripped off, in every direction, by our shot and 
shell, the chain broken and indented in many places, and forced partly 
into the ships side. She was effectually guarded, however, in this section, 
from penetration. The enemy was much damaged in other parts, but to 
what extent it is now impossible to say. It is believed he is badly crip- 
pled. My officers and men behaved steadily and gallantly, and though 
they have lost their ship, they have not lost honor. Where all behaved so 
well, it would be invidious to particularize, but I cannot deny myself the 
pleasure of saying that Mr. Kell, my first lieutenant, deserves great credit 
for the fine condition in which the ship went into action, with regard to 
her battery, magazine and shell-rooms, and that he rendered me great as- 
sistance, by his coolness and .iudgment, as the fight proceeded. The 
enemy was heavier than myself, both in ship, battery, and crew ; but I 
did not know until the action was over, that she was also iron-elad. Our 
total loss in killed and wounded, is 30, to wit : 9 killed and 21 wounded." 

It was subsequently discovered that ten of the Alabama's 
people were drowned/ including Surgeon D. H. Llewelyn. 
She fired 370 shot and shell, of which only fourteen hulled 
the Kearsar-ge, while twice as many inflicted damage on her 
spars and rigging. There were two reasons for this compara- 
tive ineffectiveness of the Confederate fire. The ammunition 



^ 




V 



/ 



THE CONFEDERATE STATES NAVY. 801 

had been on board two years and had much deteriorated by 
cruising' in a variety of climates, and shells failed to explode. 
But for this the Alabama might have won the fight, for in the 
first half hour she drove an 8-inch percussion shell into the 
enemy's hull near the stern-post, where its explosion would 
perhaps have sunk her, but the cap was bad and the shell did 
not burst. In the second place, Semmes had only a few good 
gunners. The assertions that among the crew of the Alabama 
were a great number of skilled artillerists from the British 
navy were nonsense. He did have a few such men, but they 
were a very small fraction to the mass, who had had no prac- 
tice against an enemy except in the engagement with the 
Hatteras, and whom the little schooling they had in test fir- 
ing upon some of the hulks at sea did not fit to cope with the 
excellent crew that Winslow commanded. 

The Tuscaloosa. — When Capt. Semmes converted the 
captured bark Conrad, of Philadelphia, into the C. S. vessel-of- 
war Tuscaloosa, near the Brazil coast, June 20th, 1863, he 
placed Lieut. John Low in command, with Midshipman 
Oeorge T. Sinclair as his first officer, and the ships parted 
company. They met again at the Cape of Good Hope in Au- 
gust, where the U. S. consul demanded from the British gov- 
ernor of the colou}^ the surrender of the Tuscaloosa, on the 
ground that she had not been condemned as a prize by any 
admiralty court of any recognized nation. The Governor re- 
plied that on his understanding she was entitled to be regarded 
as a vessel-of-war, and on Aug. 14th she went to sea for a 
ninety days' cruise in the South Atlantic, during which, of 100 
vessels spoken, only one was under the American flag, and 
she having an English cargo on board was bonded and re- 
leased. On Dec. 26th, the Tuscaloosa returned to the Cape of 
Good Hope and was seized by order of the British Foreign 
Office, on the charge made by the American consul of viola- 
tion of the neutrality laws in the sale of a part of her captured 
cargo of wool, which he alleged took place at the island of 
Ichaboe within British jurisdiction. When Semmes arrived, 
shortly afterward, he contended that the transactions in ques- 
tion were conducted at Angra Pequena, outside of British ter- 
ritory, and after the interchange of much correspondence the 
upshot of the whole business was the following announcement 
in Parliament by Lord Palmerston: 

" The Tuscaloosa was seized, in the first instance, in consequence of 
instructions sent out to the Cape, founded 07i a fo7'?ner supposed condition 
of things. The Tuscaloosa was not in port when those instructions ar- 
rived; but when she returned the governor, acting upon those instruc- 
tions, seized her. Upon further representations, however, and a full con- 
sideration of the case, it has been determined that there are no proper 
grounds internationally for seizing her, and orders have been sent out to 
set her at liberty." 

What it all amounted to was a recognition by Great Brit- 
ain of the legal right of Semmes to commission as a vessel-of- 
war a prize captured on the high seas, and the name of the 



802 THE CONFEDERATE STATES NAVY. 

Tuscaloosa is more remembered for this diplomatic skirmish 
than for any service as a commerce-destroyer that she per- 
formed, as her prizes were but two in number. 

The Rappahannock. — This ship was originally the dis- 
patch boat Victor, of the British navy, and although a hand- 
somely modelled screw-steamer of some 500 tons burden. proved 
so defective that in 1863 the Admiralty ordered her to be sold at 
auction, and she was bought by a representative of Capt. M. F. 
Maury, C. S. naval agent in England, under the pretence 
that she was to be engaged in the China trade. The intention 
was to fit her out as a cruiser at an appointed rendezvous, and 
Capt. Campbell, C. S. N., was designated to command her. 
Suspecting that she was destined for the Confederate service, 
the British Foi;eign Office ordered her to be detained ; but on 
Nov. -^ith, 1863, a young Scotchman named Ramsey succeeded 
in running her out from Sheerness, expecting to meet the 
Georgia off the French coast, and receive the battery and am- 
munition of the latter. Passing down the Thames, the brasses 
of the Rappahannock blew out, and she drifted across the 
Channel, and anchored off Calais. There she Avas docked for 
repairs, and Lieut. Chas. M. Fauntleroy, C. S. N., was ordered 
to take command of her by Com. Barron, the naval agent of 
the Confederacy at Paris. A board of survey found her ut- 
terly unsuited for a cruiser, as she was slow under steam or 
sail, could only carry eleven days' coal, and but six weeks' 
provisions. The utmost use she ever was to the Confederacy 
was to keep one or two Federal vessels off Calais, watching 
her, to see that she did not go to sea. When the news of the 
surrender of Gen. Lee was received, Lieut. Fauntleroy was 
ordered to pay off the officers and crew, and turn the vessel 
over to Capt. Bulloch. Fauntlerov appropriately called her 
'•The Confederate White Elephant?' 

The Georgiana. — In 1862-63 Messrs. Laird & Co. built 
at Birkenhead for the Confederate States a fast and powerful 
steamer called the Georgiana. She escaped from British juris- 
diction under the pretence of being destined for the Chinese 
service, and left Liverpool for Nassau Jan. 22d, 1863; the inten- 
tion being to run the blockade into Charleston, where the ship 
was to be armed and fitted out as a cruiser. After being de- 
tained some time at Nassau she started for Charleston, but was 
discovered by the blockaders off tlie port and her captain ran 
her ashore, about March 20th, on Long Island beach, on the 
South Carolina coast, to avoid capture. Strenuous efforts were 
made by the enemy to get at her cargo, which was partly of 
military stores and known to be very valuable, but the Con- 
federates kept off their landing parties by bringing field bat- 
teries to bear upon them. The Georgiana, however, was 
knocked to pieces by their shells. Apart from her cargo, the 
loss was a serious one to the Confederacy, as she was a much 
faster and stronger ship than any one of its cruisers afloat and 
Avould have made a superb man-of-war. 



THE CONFEDERATE STATES NAVY. 803 

The Georgia. — Capt. M. F. Maury, C. S. naval agent, 
bought at Dumbarton, Scotland, March, 18G3, a new iron screw- 
steamer of 600 tons burden and 200 horse-power, named the 
Japan, built for commercial service. April 1st she cleared from 
Greenock in ballast for the East Indies, her crew of 50 men, 
shipped at Liverpool, signing articles for a voyage to Singapore 
and intermediate ports. Although she left Greenock in the con- 
dition of an ordinary ship of commerce, her departure was 
accelerated by a suspicion that the British authorities had re- 
ceived knowledge of the uses for which she was designed, and 
orders to detain her reached Greenock the day after she had 
passed out of the Clyde. On the French coast, off Ushant, she 
met by appointment the steamer Alar, from which she re- 
ceived her guns, ordnance stores and supplies. The Confed- 
erate flag was hoisted, the officers took charge, and the ship was 
formally put in commission as the C. S. man-of-war Georgia. 
Her officers, who had come out in the Alar, were Com. W. L. 
Maury, First Lieut. Chapman, Second Lieut. Evans, Third 
Lieut. Smith, Fourth Lieut. Ingraham, Passed Midshipman 
Walker, Midshipman Morgan, Paymaster Curtis, Surgeon 
Wheedon, Chief. Eng. Pearson. The Georgia was a swift and 
powerful ship of her class, her battery consisting of five Whit- 
worth guns, two 100-pdrs., two 34-pdrs. and one 33-pdr. Of the 
seamen who had come out from Greenock and signed for a trad- 
ing voyage, only thirteen consented to ship as man-of-wars- 
men, and the remainder were sent back to England by the Alar, 
and the crew of the Georgiawas filled up by men brought out in 
that vessel. The cruiser's field of operations was the Atlantic 
Ocean, but it had been already so well reaped of the enemy's 
commerce by other Confederate ships that only the gleanings 
were left to her; but in her short career she made prizes aggre- 
gating in value $406,000. The first was the ship Dictator, taken 
on April 25th and burned, and the Georgia ran across to Bahia, 
Brazil, where she coaled and continued on to the Cape of Good 
Hope, capturing on the way the ships George Grisivold and Con- 
stitution and the barks Good Hope and J. W. Seaver. She ar- 
rived in St. Simon's Bay on Aug. 16th, and on the 29th set out 
for a return to Europe. During this run she made prizes of the 
ships City of Bath, Prince of Wales, John Watts and Bold Hun- 
ter. She put into Cherbourg, France, on Oct. 28th, where Com. 
Maury was detached on account of ill-health, and Lieut. Evans 
was promoted to the command. Because of her insufficient sail 
power, which necessitated frequent coaling, it was not deemed 
worth while to continue her as a cruiser, and she was taken to 
Liverpool, where she arrived on May 2d, 1864. There she was 
dismantled and offered for sale, Edward Bates, a Liverpool 
merchant, becoming her purchaser for the sum of £15,000. 
This was done against the protest of Mr. Adams, the U. S. 
Minister, who gave notice that his government would not rec- 
ognize the transfer and requested Com. Craven, then in com- 
mand of the U. S. frigate Niagara, lying in the port of Ant- 



804 THE CONFEDERATE STATES NAVY. 

werp, that he must endeavor to intercept and capture the con- 
verted Confederate. Mr. Bates removed every vestige of war 
fittings, effected a charter of the ship to the Portuguese govern- 
ment; and on Aug. 8th, 18G4, with a British register and under 
a British flag, she sailed from Liverpool for Lisbon. Off the 
mouth of the Tagus River she was captured by the Niagara and 
sent to Boston with a prize-crew, where she was condemned 
and sold as a lawful prize of the United States. Mr. Bates ap- 
pealed to the British Foreign Office for redress, but was in- 
formed that the case of the Georgia must go before the prize 
court in the United States, and that he must be'prepared to de- 
fend his interests therein. He was fortunate enough, how- 
ever, to recover £6,000 insurance money in the British courts. 
The Ram Stonewall. — In 1862, Mr. Slidell, representative 
of the Confederate States in France, received an intimation 
from persons in the confidence of Emperor Napoleon III. that 
the government would not interfere with the building of cruis- 
ers in French ship-yards for the Confederacy; and when, in 
March 1863, funds were provided by the negotiation of the 
£3,000,000 loan, Capt. Bulloch, Mr. Slidell and M. Arman, a 
member of the Corps Legislatif and proprietor of a large ship- 
yard at Bordeaux, held consultations in Paris, at which M. 
Arman renewed the assurances that such vessels-of -war could 
be constructed and sent to sea with the connivance of his 
government. Contracts were entered into with him for the 
construction of four steam corvettes, two of which, as his own 
yard was crowded with work, he turned over to M. J. Voruz, 
of Nantes. ^ On June 30th, Capt. Bulloch received information 
of the passage by the Confederate Congress of an appropria- 
tion of £2,000,000 for the construction of iron-clad ships-of-war, 
and in accordance with the instructions of Secretary Mallory 
entered into a contract with M. Arman to build a ship 172 feet 
long, 33 feet breadth of beam, to steam 12 knots an hour, to be 
plated amidships with 4| inches of iron, tapering to 3^ inches at 
the extremities, to carry a 300-pdr. Armstrong rifle in a forward 
turret and two 70-pdr. Armstrongs in an after-turret. The vessel 
had a ram, and was so designed that she miglit enter the Missis- 
sippi River, and a second ship was ordered on the same general 
plan. In Nov. the corvettes and the iron-clads were more than 
half finished, and the attention of the U. S. Minister at Paris, Mr. 
Dayton, was attracted to them. He laid before the Emperor 
proof that they were intended for the Confederate government; 
and Napoleon, induced undoubtedly by considerations relative 
to the war he was then waging in Mexico, and the probability 
of the fall of the Confederacy, completely revoked the guaran- 
tees that had been given Slidell and Bulloch. The builders were 
notified that the iron-clads would not be permitted to sail, and 
that the corvettes must not be armed in France, but might be 
nominally sold to some foreign merchant, and dispatched as 

' When the French government chanfred its to sea, M. Voruz sold these two corvettes to 
policy, and forbade the Confederate ships to go European powers. 



THE CONFEDERATE STATES NAVY. 805 

ordinary trading vessels. On July 9th, 1804, M. Arman an- 
nounced that in obedience to the orders of the government he 
had sold all six of the vessels. 

The only one with which we have anything to do. as the 
others never came into the possession of the Confederacy, 
was the iron-clad ram Sphynx, one of the two armored ships 
contracted for. M. Arman sold her to Denmark, then at war 
with Prussia, but when she arrived at Copenhagen hostilities 
had ceased, and the Danish government was anxious to part 
with the ship. Arrangements were made to transfer her to 
the Confederate flag, and on Jan. 6th, 1865, she sailed from 
Copenhagen, in charge of Capt. T. J. Page, C. S. N. , who had 
been appointed to the command. On the 2'ith she met at 
the appointed rendezvous, off Quiberon, on the French coast, 
the steamer City of Richmond, in command of Lieut. H. 
Davidson, C. S. N., which had been dispatched from London 
with the remainder of her officers, crew and supplies. The 
Confederate flag was hoisted on the ram, and she was chris- 
tened the Stonewall. This is the full list of her officers: 

Captain, T. J. Page; Lieuts., R. R. Carter, Geo. S. Shryock, Geo. 
A. Borchet, E. G. Read, Sam'l Barron, Jr.; Surgeon, B. W. Green ; As- 
sistant Surg., J. W. Herty ; Paymaster, R. W. Curtiers ; Chief Eng., 
W. P. Brooks ; Assistant Engs., W. H. .Faekson and J. C. Klosh: Master, 
W. W. Wilkinson ; Boatswain, J. M. Dukehart ; Gunner, J. B. King ; 
Masters Mate, W. H. Savage ; Paymasters Clerk, Wm. Boynton ; Ser- 
geant of Marines, J. M. Prior. 

The Stonewall was found to have sprung a leak immedi- 
ately after leaving Quiberon, and Capt. Page ran into Corunna. 
and thence to Ferrol, Spain, where he was at first granted all 
the dock-yard facilities, but was subsequently hurried off by 
the Spanish authorities, on account of the protest of the 
American Minister. In the first week of Feb. the Federal fri- 
gate Niagara and sloop-of-war Sacramento, under command 
of Com. T. T. Craven, ' anchored at Corunna, nine miles dis- 
tant, from whence they could watch the Stonewall. The Ni- 
agara was one of the fastest ships of the U. S. navy, and 
carried a battery of ten 150-pounder Parrott rifles, while the 
Sacramento mounted two 11-inch guns, two 9-inch guns and 
one 60-pounder rifle. On March 24th, the Stonewall steamed 
out of Ferrol, and cleared for action, in full sight of the en- 
emy ; but to the surprise of Capt. Page, who fully expected an 
engagement, they declined his challenge by remaining at an- 
chor. He did everything he could to provoke an encounter, 
standing on and off all day, and " flaunting her flags in his 
face," as Craven wrote ; but the latter feared to attack, with 
his superior force of two ships to one, and fifteen guns to three. 

Finding that the enemy would not fight, the Stonewall bore 

1 Com. Craven was brought to trial by court- not sufficiently severe for the offense. On a 

martial, on the charge of " failing to do his ut- revision of the proceedings, the court-martial 

most to overtake and capture or destroy a ves- made the same finding, which the Secretary 

sel, which it was his duty to encounter." He again set aside, for the same reason and the ac- 

was found guilty, and sentenced to two years' cused was restored to duty. His defence was, 

8uspeusi(vn; but the Secretary of the Navy an- thatit would have been imiirudent for him to risk 

nulled the sentence, on the ground that it was bis wooden vessels against the iron-clad ram. 



806 THE CONFEDERATE STATES NAVY. 

away for Lisbon, Capt. Page's intention being to cross the 
Atlantic, and attempt to strike a blow at Port Royal, which 
was then supposed to be the base of Gen. Sherman's ad- 
vance through South Carolina. He reached Nassau on May 
Gth, and proceeded to Havana, where he learned of the end of 
the war. The ship was surrendered to the Captain General of 
Cuba, on the payment of $16,000, about the amount of wages 
due the crew. That official offered Lieut. Carter, who con- 
ducted the negotiations, $100,000, and then $50,000, but the 
larger amounts were refused. The crew were paid off and 
discharged, and the Spanish officials took charge of the ship. 
In July, Spain voluntarily delivered her to the U. S. govern- 
ment, by vv hich she was subsequently sold to Japan. 

The Tallahassee (Atlanta). — This vessel was a splendid 
twin-screw, 14-knot blockade-runner, built on the Thames, 
and after making several trips into and out of Wilmington 
her name was changed from the Atlanta to the Tallahassee, 
and she was commissioned as a C. S. ship-of-war under com- 
mand of Com. J. T. Wood. ' The other officers were Lieuts. 
W. H. Ward, M. M. Benton, J. M. Gardner; Acting Master, 
Alex. Curtis; Engineers: Chief, J. W. Tyman; Assistants, 
C. H. Leroy, E. G. Hall, J. F. Green, J. J. Lyell, H. H. 
Roberta, R. M. Ross; Assist. Paymaster, C. L. Jones; Assist. 
Surgeon, W. L. Sheppardson; Boatswain, J. Cassidy; Gunner, 

Stewart; Master's Mate, C. Russell; Lieut, of Marines, 

Crenshaw, with a crew of about 110 men. The battery con- 
sisted of a32-pounderrifle, a lighter rifle and a brass howitzer. 
On Aug. 6th, 1864, the Tallahassee went to sea from Wilming- 
ton under the fire of the blockaders, whom the speedy ship 
soon left behind. Her cruising ground was the Atlantic coast, 
and when within 80 miles of Sandy Hook, on Aug. 11th, she 
took her first prize, the schooner Sarah A. Boyce, of Egg Har- 
bor, N. J., which she scuttled. In two days in these waters, 

1 John Taylor Wood is a son of the late Sur- Vicksburg, on the Mississippi. He commanded 
geon Gen. Robert C. Wood, of the U. S. army. the boat expeditions that captured the U. S. 
His mother was a daughter of President Zach- gunboats Salellile and Reliance in the Rappahan- 
ary Taylor, and sister of the first wife of nocls Rivei-, and the Undervn-iler at Newberne, 
Hon. Jefferson Davis. He was born in N. C. He was promoted to post-captain for 
Louisiana, and entered the U. S. navy as mid- gallantry, and in Aug., 1864, took command of 
shipmau in Aijril, 1847, serving during the the Tallahassee for her cruise. He took part in 
Mexican war in the Ohio and Brandywine. In the capture of Plymouth, N. C, and in the 
1861 he was assistant professor of seam nship winter of 1864-65 was offered the command of 
and gunnery at the U. S. naval academy. Re- the James River squadron, but declined it. On 
signing his commission, he entered the service April 2d, 1865, he delivered to President Davis, 
of Virginia, and was at the Evansport batteries in St. Paul's church, Richmond, Gen. Lee's 
during the blockade of the Potomac. He was disjiatch announcing his withdrawal from 
commissioned lieut. in tlie C. S. navy Oct. 4th, Petei'sburg, and the last Confederate cabinet 
1S61, and about the beginning of Jan., 1862, was meeting or council was held in a house occupied 
ordered to the Virginia at Norfolk, and partici- by Col. Wood's family at Greensboro', N. C. He 
pated in the Hampton Roads battles. In the was with Pres. Davis when the latter was cap- 
engagements at Drewry's Bhiff he commanded a tared at Irvvinsville, Ga., May 10th, 1865, and 
company of sharp-shooters that picked off many made his own escape by bribing the Federal 
men on the Federal shijjs, and after the repulse guard. He joined Gen. Breckeuridge the next 
of the latter he was assigned to duty on the stall" day, and they, with Col. Wilson, an aide to 
of Pre.sideut Davis, with the rank of Col. of Mr. Davis, crossed Georgia into Florida, de- 
<;avalry. He organized numerous boat expedi- scending St. John's River to Jupiter Inlet in a 
tiims against the enemy on the Chesapeake Bay boat. At the inlet they obtained a second boat 
and tributary waters, and inspected the water do- from some Federal deserters, with which they 
fences of all points held by the Confederacy crossed to Cuba, making a landing at Cardenas, 
upon the seaboard, as well as Port Hudson anil Since the war. Col. Wood has resided at Halifax. 



THE CONFEDERATE STATES NAVY. 807 

the pilot-boat James Funk, brig Carrie Estelle, pilot-boat Wm. 
Bell and schooner Atlantic were captured. The Funk was con- 
verted into a tender under command of Acting Master Davis 
and captured the bark Bay State, brig A. Richards and schooner 
Carroll. All but the tender and Carroll were burned, and the 
latter was bonded and sent to N. Y. with the paroled prisoners. 
Her captain broke his oath by landing on Fire Island and tele- 
graphing information to the Federal authorities that a Confed- 
erate cruiser was within 60 miles of New York. Six or seven 
gunboats were sent in pursuit and New York passed through 
the throes of alarm and excitement. Com. Wood had formed 
a project to dash upon the Brooklyn navy-yard and escape to 
sea by way of Hell Gate after doing all the destruction possi- 
ble; but this scheme was abandoned and the Tallahassee ran 
to the eastward with the tender in tow. Off the eastern end of 
Long Island the ship Adriatic was taken and burned, on Aug. 
12th, and the bark Suliote was ransomed to land the prisoners. 
The tender, being of no further use, was destroyed, and the 
Tallahassee wound up this eventful day by capturing the 
schooner Spokane, the brig Billoiv and the schooner Robert E. 
Packer, which latter was sent off with prisoners. Within the 
next few days the captures were the Mercy A. Hoives, Glen- 
avon. Lamont Dupont, Howard, Floral Wreath. Restless, Sarah 
B. Harris, Etta Caroline, P. C. Alexander, Leopard, Pearl, 
Sarah Louisa and Magnolia. In taking these prizes Wood had 
made his way well up along the coast of Maine and played the 
mischief with the N. E. fishing trade, and fully a dozen gun- 
boats were added to the fleet already in pursuit of him. Going 
toward Halifax for coal he captured the North America, Neva, 
Josiah Achorne, Ellis and Diadem. All were destroyed ex- 
cept those by which prisoners were sent to the nearest ports. 
On Aug. 18th the Tallahassee arrived at Halifax and was 
ordered away, after getting only enough coal to take her back 
to Wilmington. She left Halifax on the 19th, and between 
tnere and the Cape Fear River captured the brig Rowan and 
was fruitlessh^ chased by Federal cruisers. On the 3oth she 
boldly ran into that river, fighting the blockaders as she 
pushed through their midst until she dropped anchor under 
the guns of Fort Fisher. She had burned 16 vessels, scuttled 
10, bonded 5 and released 2. 

Com. Wood was detached from the ship and was succeeded 
in command by Lieut. Ward. Her name was changed to the 
Olustee, and on Oct. 29th, 1861. she ran through the block- 
ading fleet to sea, but not without sustaining some damage 
from their shells. Off the capes of the Delaware she captured 
and destroyed the bark Empress Theresa, schooner A. J. 
Bird, schooner E. F. Lewis and schooner Goodspeed. Near 
Sandy Hook the ship Areole. brig T. D. Wagner and schooner 
Vapor were made prizes and destroyed. Coal being nearly 
exhausted, the Olustee went southward again, but halted on 
Nov. 6th off Cape Charles in the hope of attacking some of 



808 THE CONFEDERATE STATES NAVY. 

the U. S. transports hove to in the prevailing gale. Here she 
was detected by the gunboat Sassacus, which chased her until 
she was lost in the darkness. On the 6th the Sassacus again 
saw her and kept up an unsuccessful pursuit all day. The next 
day the Olustee was GO miles off Wilmington bar and steam 
was allowed to go down for repairs to the engines. Three ves- 
sels looking like blockade-runners hove in sight. They were 
the captured blockade-runners Margaret and Jessie, the Lil- 
lian and the Banshee, converted into Federal cruisers, and 
were soon joined by the gunboat Montgomery. Ward first 
headed the Olustee out to sea and then wore short round and 
steered for Wilmington bar. All the vessels opened fire upon 
her, but the Montgomerij was the only one close enough to be 
feared. She replied with her after gun, distanced her pur- 
suers and got into Wilmington unharmed. Her battery was 
taken out and she was renamed the Chameleon. Under the 
command of Capt. John Wilkinson, C. S. N. , she ran the block- 
ade of the Cape Fear River, Dec. 34th, while the Federal fleet 
was bombarding Fort Fisher, and started for Bermuda to pro- 
cure a cargo of provisions for Lee's anny. On her arrival at 
St. George's on the 30th, she was seized by the British authori- 
ties on the demand of the U. S. consul, but she had been so 
thoroughly " whitewashed " by an ostensible sale at Wilming- 
ton that she was to all intents and purposes a merchant ship. 
Laden with previsions, she sailed from St, George's Jan. 19th, 
1865. but on arriving off New Inlet Wilkinson found it closed 
by the fall of Fort Fisher and put back to Nassau. On Jan. 
30th the Chameleon left Nassau for Charleston, but the block- 
aders were too thick for her off that port, and to Nassau siie 
returned. When he learned of the evacuation of Charleston, 
Wilkinson resolved to take the ship to England and arrived at 
Liverpool, April 9th. She was seized and sold by the British gov- 
ernment and was about to enter the merchant service under the 
name of the Amelia when the United States entered suit for pos- 
session. The court aAvarded the vessel to that government, and 
she was handed over to the consul at Liverpool, April 36th, 1866. 
The Chickamauga. — In the autumn of 1864, the Confed- 
erate Navy Department found, at Wilmington, the small 
twin-screw blockade-runner Edith, which was commissioned 
as a cruiser under the name of the Chickamauga, and with 
Capt. John Wilkinson, C. S, N., in command, was equipped 
to follow the example of the Tallahassee in a raid ur.on the 
enemy's commerce along the coast. She carried a light spar- 
deck battery of three rifled guns, and started : -^ sea on the 
night of Oct. 29th. She got out safely, and although pur- 
sued by a gunboat the next day, outfooted her without trouble. 
Twenty-four hours afterwards she opened her cord as a 
commerce destroyer by capturing the bark ^[ark L. Potter, 
and within two days she made prizes within fifty miles of 
N. Y., of the bark Emma L. Hall, ship Shooting Star, and 
bark Albion Lincoln. All but the Lincoln were burned, and 



THE CONFEDERATE STATES NAVY. 809 

she was bonded to land the paroled prisoners, her captain 
promising to put into no nearer port than Fortress Monroe, 
but he steered directly for N. Y. and gave the alarm. The 
Chickamauga ran up to the entrance of L. I, Sound, and off 
Block Island took and scuttled the schooners Ottei^ Rock and 
Good Speed. A gale frustrated Capt. Wilkinson's intention 
of making an incursion upon the ports of the Sound, and 
going out to sea he captured the bark Speedwell. He put 
into St. George's, Bermuda, and by having the condenser con- 
veniently disabled obtained permission from the authorities to 
remain a week for repair. Under the neutrality laws, tlien 
being strictly enforced, he was allowed only enough coal to 
take the ship to the nearest Confederate port; but by offering 
the British customs officer all the alcoholic load that his hold 
could contain, he was made oblivious to the fact that the 
Chickamauga' s bunkers were being pretty well filled up with 
coal. The supply was still too short to admit of further cruis- 
ing, and the ship ran the blockade back into Wilmington, thus 
closing her history as a belligerent upon the high seas. In the 
defence of Fort Fisher her officers and crew took a very prom- 
inent and distinguished part. After that disaster the Chicka 
mauga was taken up the river, and burnt and sunk. 

The Shenandoah. — The last of the Confederate cruisers, 
and the one that, with the exception of the Alabama, inflicted 
the largest total of injury upon the commerce of the United 
States, was the Shenandoah, which was ■•^urchased by Capt. 
Bulloch to supply the place of the vess€ ^unk by the Kear- 
sarge. She was originally the British n -chant steamer Sea 
King, equipped with a lifting screw so as > be used under sail 
alone and was fully rigged as a ship, and vas very fast under 
nther sail or steam. The whaling fleets of the United States 
vere the largest portion of its commerce remaining, and this 
:'i./uiser was especially fltted out to swoop down upon them. 
Bulloch paid £45,000 for the ship, buying her through the me- 
dium of an English merchant captain named Corbett, who 
was to transfer her upon the high seas. At the same time he 
purchased the blockade-runner Laurel and loaded her at Liv- 
erpool with the guns, stores, etc., for the cruiser, and the 
Laurel also carried out to the rendezvous all the officers ex- 
cept Lieut. Whittle, who went in the Sea King to make him- 
self acquainted with her. She sailed from London and the 
Laurel from Liverpool on Oct. 8th, 1864. The Sea King was 
cleared for Bombay or any port in the East Indies, and the 
Laurel for Nassau. On the 18th they rendezvoused off Fun- 
chal, Madeira, and proceeded to Las Desertas, an uninhabited 
island near by, and in two days the armament and war mate- 
rial were transferred to the Sea King; Capt. James I. Waddeli 
hoisted her new colors and took command of her as the Con- 
federate States man-of-war Shenandoah. The battery placed 
on board consisted <f four 8-inch smooth-bore guns, two Whit- 
worth 32-pounder rides and tH'o 12-pound. ^rs. The most seri- 



810 THE CONFEDERATE STATES NAVY. 

oLis obstacle that met the ship at the outset of her career was 
the paucity of lier crew. Eighty seamen had shipped for the 
pretended voyage to the East Indies, and but twenty-three 
consented to remain under the Confederate flag; so that, in- 
ckiding her nineteen commissioned and warrant officers, the 
ship had but forty -two men on board ; but the crew was soon 
brought up to the requisite number by enlistments from the 
prizes she took. The roster of officers was as follows: 

"Lieut. Commanding James Iredell Waddell;^ First Lieuts., "Wm. C. 
Whittle, John Grimball, S. Smith Lee, Jr., Francis T. Chew; Second 
Lieut., Dabney M. Scales; Acting Master, J. S. Bulloch; Acting Chief Eng., 
Mat. O'Brien; Passed Assist. Surgeon, C. E. Lining; Acting Assist. Pay- 
master, W. Breedlove Smith; Passed Midshipmen, O. A. Browne; John T. 
Mason; Acting Assist. Surgeon, P. J. McJNulty; Engineers -First Assist., 
W. H. Codd; Second Assist., John Hutchinson; Third Assist., Ernest Mug- 
gaffeney; Acting Master's Mates, C. E. Hunt, J. T. Minor, Lodge Colton; 
Acting Boatswain, Geo. Harwood; Acting Carpenter, J. O'Shea; Acting 
Gunner, J. L. Guy; Sailmaker, Henry Alcott; Second Carpenter, J. Lynch. 

Capt. Waddell steered for Australia, and before arriving 
at Melbourne, Jan. 25th, I860, made prizes of the barks Alina, 
Godfrey, Edward, and Delphine ; schooners Charter Oak and 
Lizzie M. Stacey, and brig Susan, all of which were burned. 
The steamer Kate Prince was ransomed, to take home the 
prisoners, and the bark Adelaide was bonded. At Melbourne, 
the Shenandoah was permitted to go into a private dock for 
repairs, and then trouble with the colonial authorities arose, 
on an allegation that Capt. Waddell had shipped a British sub- 
ject in the port, in violation of the Foreign Enlistment Act. 
He refused to allow his ship to be searched, and his assur- 
ances that he had committed no breach of neutrality were 
accepted. The Shenandoah left Melbourne Feb. 8th, 1865, in 
excellent condition, and in three months passed from that far 
southern latitude to the beginning of her destructive work 
among the whalers in the Okhotsk Sea, Behring's Sea, and 
the Arctic Ocean. Between June 22d and the 28th she cap- 
tured, and either destroyed or ransomed, 24 ships. They were 
taken in couplets, triplets and quartets, and it was necessary 
to release and bond four of them, in order to get rid of the 
numerous prisoners. The earliest prizes were the Edward 

■ 1 Capt. Waddell was bom in Pittsboro', N. C. . States, that he was not hostile to the Constitution 

in 1824, and was appointed midshipman in the of the United States; that he venerated the flag 

U. S. naval service on Sept. 10th, 1841. He was and wished that he nuKht hazard life and limlj 

assigned to duty on the U S. ship Pennsylvania, in its defence against some foreign foe. It has 

at Portsmouth, Va. A few months after he been said that one of tae causes of his resigna- 

ei»tered upon the discharge of his duties he was tion was that he was engaged to be married to 

shot in tlie hip in a duel \v th anotiier midship- Miss Iglehart. the daughter of James Iglehart, 

man. which caused him t limp to the day of of Annapolis.whose family was strongly inclined 

his death. After several /ears of sea service, to the South. He married this lady in Dec. 1861. 

during which he was promoted to lieutenant, he His resignation at the breaking out of the war 

was, in 1858, made assistant professor of naviga- was not accepted, and he stands on the U. S. 

tion at the naval academy at Annapolis. In navy register of 1862 as "dismissed." In Feb., 

1859 he was ordered to the East India squadron, 1862, he ran the blockade to Richmond and en- 

and in 1861, when the war broke out, mailed his tered the Confederate navy. His commission as 

resignation from St. Helena. His reason for re- first lieut. bears date Mi-.rch 27th, 1862. He was 

sinning was given by him in a letter published assigned to duty at Ltrewry's Bluff defences, 

by him in Jan. 186'i, as owing to his " imwill- Subsequently he had a command in Charleston 

in^ness to bear arms against his father's home harbor, from wbich he was assigned to "special 

and relatives in the seceded States." He declared service," and i:i 1864 ran the blockade to take 

explicit IV that iiehad no prop 'ty iu thesec i1,jd command of the C. S. privateer Shenandoah. 



THE CONFEDERATE STATES NAVY, 811 

Casey, Hector, Abigail, Euphrates, Wm. TJiompson, Sophia 
Thornton, Jireh Swift, Susan and Ahigail, and Milo, the lat- 
ter being sent to San Francisco, with the prisoners. In the 
next batch were the Nassau, Brunsivick, Hillman, Waverly, 
Martha 2d, Congress 2d, Favorite, Covington, James Maury 
and Nile. The two last-named were converted into cartels, 
and took the prisoners to San Francisco, and the others 
were burned. On one occasion eight prizes were taken 
in a lump, as they had gathered around the disabled ship 
Brunswick, and when the octette was fired, that hyperbo- 
rean sea was lit up with a wondrous mass of fire. This oc- 
curred on June 28th, near the mouth of Behring's Straits, and 
comprised the last war exploit of the Shenandoah. She cap- 
tured in all 38 ships, S-t of which were destroyed, and four ran- 
somed ; their total value was stated by the masters at $1,361,- 
983. Waddell had faithfully executed the programme of ob- 
literating the American whaling industry in those regions. 
It will be seen that many of his captures were effected 
after tlie close of the war. and in consequence, Secretary 
Welles accused him of continuing his belligerent operations 
when he knew that the armies of the South had surrendered. 
That malicious charge has been easily and completely re- 
futed. From prizes taken on June 23d, he received papers 
containing the correspondence of the preceding April, between 
Grant and Lee, relative to the surrender of the latter ; but 
they also informed him that the seat of the Confederate gov- 
ernment had been removed from Richmond to Danville, and 
that Pres. Davis had issued a proclamation giving assurances 
of the continuation of the struggle by the Confederacy. With 
his knowledge of the condition of things in America thus 
limited, Capt. Waddell had no right to supj^ose that the war 
had ended, or to cease his hostile endeavors. The Shenandoah 
came out of the Straits on June 29th, and while running towards 
the California coast spoke, on Aug. 2d, the British bark Bara- 
couta, 14 days out from San Francisco, from whose captain 
Waddell learned of the capture of Pres. Davis, and the capitu- 
lation of the remaining military forces of the Confederacy. 
The Shenandoah s guns were at once dismounted, ports closed, 
funnels whitewashed, and the ship transformed, so far as 
external appearance went, into an ordinary merchantman. 
Waddell decided to give the ship up to the British authorities, 
and brought her into Liverpool on Nov. Gth. not a vessel hav- 
ing been spoken during the long voyage from the North Pacific. 
He turned her over to Capt. Paynter, commanding her Maj- 
est3''s ship Donegal, who placed a prize-crew on board, and 
Waddell communicated with Lord Russell, Britisli Secretary 
for Foreign Afifairs. In this letter he stated his opinion that 
the vessel should revert, with other property of the Confeder- 
acy, to the U. S. government* and that point was quickly set- 
tled ; but Mr. Adams raised the usual question of "piracy" 
against the officers and men of the ship, and there was also a 



812 THE CONFEDERATE STATES NAVY. 

liability to proceeding's under the Foreign Enlistment Act, if 
British subjects could be found on board. Mr. Adams wanted 
the officers and crew held, he said, until he could procure evi- 
dence from San Francisco, that Capt. Waddell knew of the 
downfall of the Confederacy before his latest seizures of 
American vessels ; but the law officers of the crown decided 
that there was no evidence to justify their detention. On 
Nov. 8th, Capt. Paynter had the roll of the Shenandoah called 
upon her deck, and as not a member of the ship's company 
acknowledged to being a subject of Great Britain, they were 
discharged, and allowed to depart. Mr. Adams, however, con- 
tinued to urge the arrest of Capt. Waddell, on charges of piracy; 
and when rebuffed by the British government, he brought for- 
ward an affidavit made by one Temple, who purported to have 
sailed in the Shenandoah. He alleged that the crew were chiefly 
British subjects, and Mr. Adams claimed that they should have 
been held for violation of the Foreign Enlistment Act, but noth- 
ing came of his efforts; and he was, indeed, chiefly prompted by 
a motive to makeup the record that was subsequently presented 
to the Geneva tribunal. Capt. Waddell and his officers were 
never molested. The Shenandoah was sold by the U. S. to the 
Sultan of Zanzibar, and in 1879 was lost in the Indian Ocean. 

Braine's Capture of the Chesapeake and Roanoke. — 
Before daylight on the morning of Dec. 7th, 1863, while the 
steamship Chesapeake, Capt. Willetts. was off Cape Cod on 
her regular trip between N. Y. and Portland, Me., she was 
seized by John C. Braine, purporting to be a lieutenant of the 

C. S. navy, and fifteen men; who had come on board the ship 
at N. Y. as passengers. In the struggle the second engineer 
was shot dead, and the first mate wounded. To Capt. Wil- 
letts Braine exhibited an order from John Parker, captain of 
the C. S. steamer Retribution (whose true name was V. G. 
Locke), instructing him to capture the vessel, and naming as 
his assisting officers First Lieut. H. A. Parr, Second Lieut. 

D. Collins, and Sailing Master Geo. Rowson. Braine headed 
the vessel for the island of Grand Menan, off the coast of 
Maine, where he expected to meet Parker. The latter, how- 
ever, who had left the Retribution at Nassau, some months 
previously, was encountered on a pilot-boat in the Bay of 
Fundy, and assumed command of the Chesapeake, sending 
Capt. Willetts and the passengers and crew of the steamer to 
St. Johns by the pilot-boat. The Chesapeake made for Shel- 
burne, N. S., to coal, and from thence went to La Havre River, 
where Parker sold her cargo of provisions and liquors to the 
people on shore. A half-dozen Federal cruisers had been sent 
after the Chesapeake, and one of them, the Ella and Annie, 
came up with her in Sambro harbor, near Halifax. Parker and 
his party escaped to the shore, leaving on the steamer only her 
former engineer, whom they had impressed into their service, 
and a couple of her hands. Lying near her was the British 
schooner Investigator, on board of which the commander of 



THE CONFEDERATE STATES NAVY. 818 

the gunboat found and arrested a man named Wade, one of 
Parker's party. He took the Chesapeake into Halifax to turn her 
over to the British authorities for adjudication, and there Wade 
was aided to escape by a number of citizens who sympathized 
with the Southern confederacy. The affair gave rise to in- 
tense excitement, and several of Braine's men were arrested*on 
warrants issued by a local magistrate, who committed them 
for extradition on a charge of piracy. Their names were 
Collins, McKinnon and Seeh\ An appeal was taken to the 
Supreme Court of the province; and on March 10th, 18G4, 
Judge Ritchie ordered their release on the grounds that no 
proper requisition had been made for their extradition; that 
piracy was not an extraditable offence; that a magistrate had 
no jurisdiction over questions of piracy, and that the warrant 
was bad on its face. In these legal proceedings the Confede- 
rate States had been represented by Hon. J. P. Holcomb, who 
made an inquiry into all the circumstances of the capture 
of the Chesapeake, and reported to Mr. Benjamin, Confede- 
rate Secretary of State, who disavowed the responsibility of 
of his government for the acts of Parker and Braine. His de- 
cision was founded on the facts that Parker (Locke) was a 
Britis^ ubject who had organized the expedition in a British 
colonj , and had assumed to issue commissions in the Confed- 
erate service to British subjects without being himself in that 
service; that it was doubtful whether either Braine or Parr 
was a Confederate citizen, and that Braine had, in any event, 
divested himself of the chg^racter of an officer engaged in le- 
gitimate warfare by selling portions of the cargo of the Ches- 
apeake instead of navigating her to a Confederate port. Mr. 
Benjamin also distinctly disclaimed "all attempts to organize 
within neutral jurisdictions expeditions composed of neutral 
subjects for the purpose of carrying on hostilities against the 
United States." In his view the captors of the Chesapeake 
were men "who, sympathizing with us in a righteous cause, 
erroneously believed themselves authorized to act as bellig- 
erents against the U. S. by virtue of Parker's possession of 
the letter-of -marque issued to the privateer Retribution.'' 
Although the Confederate government would not demand 
the surrender to it of the men arrested by the provincial 
authorities, as their actual offence was " disobedience to her 
majesty's proclamation, and to the foreign enlistment law of 
Great Britain," Mr. Benjamin stated that Pres. Davis was 
" much gratified that the superior judicial authorities of New 
Brunswick have rejected the pretensions of the consul of the 
United States that the parties engaged in this capture should be 
surrendered under the Ashburton treaty for trial by the courts 
of the U. S. on charges of murder and piracy." The temptation 
to the Confederate government to claim the Chesapeake as a 
prize was avoided by the frank avowal of Mr. Holcomb, that 

"It is morally certain that the home government would not, under 
the circumstances, allow a claim for compensation for the surrender of 



814 



THE CONFEDERATE STATES NAVY. 



.'l.iCh de 
lers. 
Dec. 1863, 



the vessel by the judicial authorities, and I cannot but think that the 
presentation of such a claim by our government, and its rejection — the 
case being one, as all must admit, very doubtful both in law and morals- 
would impair its public prestige and weaken the moral weight which might 
attach to its interposition upon future and more important occasions." 

As the offence of piracy would have been just as triable in 
the British provinces as in the U. S., new warrants were issued 
by the provincial courts for the arrest of the implicated men; 
but they had been warned, and had placed themselves outside 
the jurisdiction of those tribunals. In Jan. 1864, proceedings 
were taken in the admiralty court at Halifax upon tixe disposi- 
tion to be made of the Chesajjeake. Judge Stuart refused to 
consider the suggestion that the Confederate govern > v t might 
make an application for the vessel, the seizure ot ' " 
clared to be piracy, and ordered her return to her .r:" 

After escaping from the British provinces 
Braine and Parr were next heard of in the captur of the 
steamship Boanoke, of the Havana line. She left Havana on 
Sept. 29th, 1864, and in passing out of the harbor received on 
board a party of passengers provided with regular cickets and 
passports properly vised. These were disguised Confederates 
under command of Braine and Parr, and that night, when well 
out at sea. they made prisoners of the officers, and took posses- 
sion of the vessel. The ship's carpenter made a resistance and 
was killed, and the second engineer was wounded. Braine took 
$21,000 in money contained in the ship's safe and headed for 
Bermuda, arriving at St. George's on Feb. 4th. Without enter- 
ing the harbor he obtained coal and provisions from a brig that 
came out to meet him, and going to sea again encountered the 
British hrigMathikle. to which he transferred the crew and pas- 
sengers of the Roanoke, who were landed at Bermuda. He 
then set the steamer on fire, and went ashore on Bermuda with 
his men. They were arrested by the British authorities, but 
were released after a brief detention. 

At the close of the war, Braine came into the United States 
trusting to be protected by Pres. Johnson's amnesty proclama- 
tion. In 1866 he was arrested in N. Y. on the old charges of 
piracy and murder. He was subsequently released from the 
custody of the U. S. government. 



UxiTED States Vessels Destroyed by Confederate Cruisers. 

BY the NASHVILLE. 



When destroyed. 


Name of Vessel. 


Character. Property destroyed. 


Value. 


Nov. 19, 1861 . . 


Harvey Birch 

Robert Gilfillan 


Ship Vessel, etc 


66,000.00 


Feb. 26,1862.. 


Schooner ; Personal property. . . . 




BY THE OLUSTEE. 



When destroyed. 



Xante of Vessel. 



Nov. 
Nov. 
Nov. 
Nov. 
Nov. 
Nov. 



3, 1864.. 
3. 1864.. 
3, 1864.. 
1, 1864.. 
3, 1864. . 
3, 1864.. 



A. J. Bird 

Arcole 

E. F Lewis 

Empress Theresa 

T. D. Wagner 

Vapor . 



Properly destroyed. 



Sihoouer. 
Ship... . 
Schooner. 

Bark 

Brig 

Schooner. 



Vessel, etc. 

Cargo 

Vessel, etc 



Cargo . 



$24,809.00 
IS.OOC : 



30,000.0(1 



THE CONFEDERATE STATES NAVY. 



815 



BY THE ALABAMA. 



When destroyed. 



Sept. 9, 

Sept. 13. 

Nov. 6, 

June 2, 

July 2, 

Dec. 7, 

Oct. 29, 

Sept. 14, 
March 1, 

Oct. 3, 
March 25, 

Jail. 27, 

Nov. 21 

June 1! 

Nov. 11 

Sept. 16 

Oct. 26, 

April 26, 

Oct. 7, 

Sept. 18, 

Oct. 3, 



186'2. 
18G2. 
1863. 
1863. 
1863. 
1862 

1 
1 
18 

ISt 



Name of Vessel. 



Jan. 
Julv 
Feb. 
Jan. 



Nov. 18, 

Jan. 11, 

Dec. 26, 

May 29, 
March 2, 

May 25, 

.\pril 15, 
March 26, 

Oct. 23, 

Oct. 15. 

Oct. 28, 

Nov. 2, 

\pril 4, 

Oct. 11. 

Aug. 9, 

Dec. 24, 
March 23, 

Dec. 5, 
March 25, 

Vpril 24, 

!>ei)t. 8, 

Sept. 5, 

jFeb. 21, 

Feb. 3. 

Nov. 30, 
March 15, 

April 23, 

Aiig 5, 

May 3, 

May 25, 

Oec. 26, 

Sept. 7, 

•Tune 5, 

Nov. 8, 

Oct. 9, 

.\pril 27, 

Dec. 5, 

I'lay 3, 

bept. 17, 

I'eb. 27, 

Oc*. 7, 

^t. 9, 
10, 



Ibc 

1863 

186; 

186; 

180;, 

1863. 

1863. 

1863. 

1863. 

1803. 

1862. 

1862. 
1862. 
1862. 
1863. 
1862. 
1863. 
1863. 
1863. 
1862. 
1863 
1862. 
1862. 
1862. 
1863. 
1863. 
1862 
1863. 
1864. 
1863. 
1863 
1863. 
1863. 
1862. 
1863. 
1862. 
1862 
1864. 
1862. 
1863. 
1862 
1863 
1862. 
1862. 
1863 



Alert 

AUamaha 

Amanda 

Amazonian 

Anna F. Schmidt ... . 

Ariel (bonded) 

I Baron de Castine 

Ben j. Tucker 

Bethia Thayer 

Brilliant 

Charles Hill 

Chastelaine 

Clara L. Sparks 

Conrad 

Contest 

Courser 

'^renshaw 

"orcas Prince 

uukirk 

Eli.sha Dunbar 

Emily Farnum 

ICmma Jane 

Express 

Goldeu Eattle 

I Golden Knle 

1 Harriet Spalding 

I Hatteras 

Highlander . . 

Jabez Snow 

John A. Parks 

Justiiia 

Kate Cory 

Kingfisher 

Lafayette (1) 

Lafayette (2) 

Lampli.sjhter 

Lauretta 

Levi Starbuck 

Louisa Hatch 

Manchester 

Martha Wenzell. 

Martabau 

Morning Star 

Nina 

Nora 

Nye 

Ocean Rover 

Ocmulgee 

Olive Jane 

Palmetto 

Parker Cook 

Punjab 

Rockingham 

Sea Bride 

Sea Lark 

S. Gildersleeve 

Sonora 

Starlight 

Talisman 

Thomas B. Wales. ... 

Touawauda 

Tycoon 

Union 

Union Jack 

Virginia 

Washington 

Wave Crest 

Weather Gage 

Winged Racer 



Character. 



Ship 

Brig 

Bark 

Bark , 

Ship ... . , 
Steamer... 

Brig 

Ship 

Ship 

Ship 

Ship ... .. 

Brig 

Schooner. 

Bark 

Ship 

Schooner. 
Schooner. 

Ship 

Brig 

Bark , 

Ship 

Ship 

Ship . . . . , 

Ship 

Bark 

Bark... ., 
Gunboat . 

Ship 

Ship 

Ship 

Bark , 

Brig .... 
Schooner. 

Ship 

Bark ... . 

Bark 

Bark 

Ship 

Ship 



Bark 

Ship 

Ship 

Schooner. 

Ship 

Bark 

Bark 

Ship 

Bark 

Schooner. 

Bark 

Ship 

Ship 

Bark 

Ship. 

Ship 

Ship 

Schooner 

Ship 

Ship 

Ship 

Bark .. , 
Schooner 

Bark 

Ship 

Ship 

Bark . 

Schooner 
Ship .... 



Property destroyed. 

Vessel and outfits. 

Brig, outfits, etc 

Vessel and freight. 

Bark and charter 

Dif. val. and ins 

U. S. Treasury notes , 

Bonded 

Vessel, Outfit, etc.... 

Bonded 

Bonded 

Bonded -...., 

Vessel and C3,rgo ... 




Released 

Vessel and charter. 
Vessel and freight. 



Vessel and freight. 



Released . . . 
Vessel, etc. 

Bonded 

Bonded.... 
Vessel, etc. 



Merchandise . 



Vessel, etc 
Bonded . . . 

Vessel, etc. 



Bonded . . . . 
Vessel, etc. 
Bonded ... 
Vessel, etc. 



Bonded.... 
Vessel, etc 



Vessel, etc. . 



69,000.00 
122,815.00 
7,000.00 
33,869 00 
44,108.00 
25,000.00 
27,000 00 

"46,000.06 
121,300.00 
61,000.00 
112,000.00 



160,000.00 
75,965.00 
72,881.00 
70,000.00 
7,000.00 
28,268.25 
24,000.00 

110,.337.00 
36,025.50 

117,600.00 
32,800.00 

203,962.50 
82.250.00 

164,000 00 



97,628.00 
61,750 00 



80,000.00 

31,127.00 

98,820.00 

131,712.00 

43,208.00 

18,434.00 

25,399.86 

52,000.00 

105.000.00 

100,000.00 

550,000.00 

62,783.00 

46,545.00 

4,000.00 

139,135.00 

245,625.00 

80,000.00 

88,559.78 

1,500.00 

77,000.00 

30,074.00 

50,000.00 

44,000.00 

10,000.00 

150,000.00 



BY THE CALHOUN (A STEAMER FITTED OUT AT NEW ORLEANS). 



•n destroyed. 


Name of Vessel. 


Character. 


Property destroyed. 


.. 1861.. 


John Adams 






.. 1861.. 








29.1861.. 


Panama ^ 


Brig 





Value. 



■■816 



THE CONFEDERATE STATES NAVY. 



BY THE PLOKIDA. 



When destroyed. 



March 13. 1863., 
Aug. 20,1863.. 
Jan. 12. 18(53. 
March 29, 1864 



Name of Vessel. 



Character. 



Property destroyed. 



May G, 1863. 

April 17, 1863. 

Jan. 22,1863. 

Mav 13, 1863 



July 
Jan. 
Aug. 
May 
July 
July 



10, 1864. 
19, 1863. 

6, 1863 
18, 1864. 
10, 1863. 

8, 1864. 



July 1, 1864. 
April 23, 1863. 
Feb. 12, 1863. 
June 17. 1863. 
March 9, 1863. 
July 9,1864. 
March 13, 1863 
Sept, 2r>, 1864. 
April 24, 1863. 



July 8, 
June 6, 
Aug. 22, 
March 6. 
July 7, 
June 
July 
Jan. 
June 
June 



26, 



1863. 
1863 . 
1863. 
1863. 
1863. 
1863. 
1863. 
1863. 
1864. 
1864. 



Aldebaran 

Anglo Saxon 

Arabella 

Avon 

B. F. Hoxie 

Clarence 

Oommonwealth 

Corris Ann 

Crown Point ... . . . 

David I.apsley 

Electric Spark 

Estelle 

Francis B. Cutting , 

Geo. Latimer 

Gen. Berry 

Golconda 

Greenland 

Harriet Stevens 

Henrietta , 

Jacob Bell , 

Kate Bye , 

Laj)\ving 

Margaret Y Davis. , 

M. J. Colcord 

Mondamin 

Oneida , 

Red Gauntlet 

Rienzi 

Sontliern Cross , . . . , 

Southern Rights 

Star of Peace 

Sunrise 

Varnum H. Hill. .. 

Wni. B. Nash 

Windward.. . .. 

AVm. C. Clark 

Zelinda 



Schooner. 
Ship... . 
Brig. 



Ship 

Ship 

Brig 

Ship 

Brig 

Ship 

Bark 

Steamer. . 

Brig 

Ship 

Schooner. 

Bark 

Bark 

Bark 

Bark 

Bark... . 
Ship 



Ship 

Bark 

Schooner. 

Bark 

Bark 

Ship. . . . 

Ship 

Schooner. 

Ship 

Ship 

Ship 

Ship 

Schooner. 

Brig 

Brig 

Brig 

Bark 



Vessel, etc. 



Value. 



Vessel, etc. 



Vessel, etc 

Cargo 1 

Personal property, etc. 



Cargo, etc . , 
Vessel, etc. 



Bonded . 



Vessel, etc 

Personal property, etc. 
Vessel, etc 



Vessel and cargo. 
Vessel and cargo . 



Bonded 

Vessel, etc 

Bonded 

Bonded 

Vessel and cargo. 



$22,998.00 

70,000.66 
352,6o6'.66 



166.000.00 
12,000.00 



10.50:X00 

57,049 60 

1 10,000.00 

7,000.00 



760,000.00 



60,000.00 
70,000.00 



BY THE TALLAHASSEE. 



When destroyed. 



Aug. 
Aug. 



12. 1864 . 
11,1864. 



Name of Vessel. 



Aug. 
Aug. 
Aug. 



11, 1864. 

10, 1864. 

11, 1864. 



Aug. 
Aug. 
Aug. 

Aug. 
Aug. 
Aug. 
Aug. 
Aug. 
Aug. 
Aug. 
Aug. 
Aug. 
Aug. 



11. 1364. 

10, 1864. 
15, 1864 . 

12, isei! 

12, 1864. 

11, 1864. 
14, 1864. 

14, 1864. 
17, 1864. 
13,1864. 

15, 1864. 
15, 3864. 
17, 18S4 . 



Aug. 
Aug. 
Aug. 
Aug. 



16, 18r4. 
23, 1864. 
20, 1864 
11,1864. 



Aug. 
Aug. 



12,1864. 
11,1864. 



Adriatic 

A. Richards 

Atlantic 

Bav State 

I Billow 

I Carrie Estelle .... 

Castine 

I Coral Wreath 

I Etta Caroline 

j Floral Wreath .... 

Glenavon 

Goodspeed 

Howard , 

James Funk 

, James Littlefleld. 

J. H. Howen 

Josiah Achorne... 

Lamout Dupont.. 

Magnolia 

Mercy A. Howes. . 

North America . . . 

P. C. Alexander. . 

Pearl 

Restless 

Rowan 

Parah A. Boyce.. . 

Sarah Louisa 

Spokane 

William Bell 



Character. 



Ship 

Brig 

Schooner. . 

Bark 

Brig 

Brig 

Ship 

Brig 

Steamer. . . 
Schooner.. 

Bark 

Schooner.. 

Bark 

Pilot-boat.. 

Ship 

Schooner.". 
Schooner. , 
Schooner . , 
Schooner. . 
Schooner. . 
Schooner.. 

Bark 

Schooner.. 

Schooner. 

Schooner. . 

Schooner. 

Schooner. 

Schooner. . 

Pilot-boat. 



Property destroyed. 



Vessel, etc. 



$24,000.00 
'" 8,000.00 



Vessel, etc. 



24,000.00 



BY THE YORK. 



When destroyed. 



Name of Vessel. 



Character. 



Property destroyed. 



Aug. 9,1861..] George V. Baker j Schooner I Recaptured. 



'/<i 




COMMANDER JAMES I. WADDELL, C. S. N., 

COMMANDING THE " SHENANDOAH." 



/ 



THE CONFEDERATE STATES NAVY. 



817 



BY THE SHENANDOAH. 



Wken destroyed. 



May 27, 1865. 



Dec. 

Oct. 

Juno 

Nov. 

June 

June 

Dec. 

Nov. 

Dec. 

April 

June 

June 

June 

June 

April 

April 

June 

June 

June 

June 

June 

Nov. 

Nov. 

June 

June 

June 

June 

April 

June 

Nov. 

.lune 

June 

June 

June 



4, 18G4. 

30 

26, 1865 

5, 1864. 
.28, 1865 , 

28, 1865. 

29, 1864. 
8. 1864. 
4, 1864. 
1, 1865. 

21, 1865. 
28, 1865. 
26. 1865. 
26, 1865. 

1. 1865. 

1, 1865. 
28, 1865. 
28. 1865. 
26, 1865. 
28, 1865 . 
24. 1865. 

12, 1864. 

13. 1864. 
28. 1865. 
28, 1865. 
28. 1865. 
26, 1865. 

1, 1865. 
24, 1865. 
10, 1865. 
25,1865. 
28, 1865. 

22. 1865. 
26. 1865. 



Name of Vessel. 



Abigail 

Adelaide 

Alina . 

Brunswick 

Catliarine ...:... . 

Charter Oak 

Congress 

Covington 

Belpliiiie 

I). Godfrey 

Edward 

Edward Casey 

Euphrates 

Favorite 

Gen. Pike 

Gipsey 

Harvest 

Hector 

Fillmore 

Isaac Howland 

Isabella 

James Maury 

Jireh Swift 

Kate Prince 

Lizzie M. Stacey. . . 

Martha 

Nassau 

Nile 

Ninirod 

Pearl 

Sophia Thorntou.. 

Susan 

Susan aTid AV)i<i;ail . 

Waverly 

Wm. Thompson. .. 
Wm. C. Nye 



Character. 



Property destroyed. 



Ransomed. 
Vessel, etc. 



Bark I Vessel, etc. 

Bark j Bonded , . . . 

Bark Vessel, etc. 

.Ship I 

Bark , 

Schooner.. 
Schooner . . 

Bark 

Bark 

Bark 

Bark 

Ship 

Ship 

Bark 

Bark .... 

Bark 

Bark , 

Ship , 

Ship 

Ship 

Bark 

Bark 

Bark 

Ship 

Schooner. 

Bark 

Ship 

Bark 

Bark 

Bark 

Ship 

Bark .... 

Bris 

Bark 

Ship 

Bark ... 



Ransomed. . 
Vessel, etc. . 

Bonded 

Vessel, etc.. 



Bonded 

Vessel, etc 



Vessel, etc. 



Value. 



BY THE TACONY (A TENDER OP THE FLORIDA). 



$74,659.00 
24,000.00 
95.000.00 
16,272.00 
26.174.00 
15.000.00 
90,827.00 
43,764.00 
76.000.00 
36.000.00 
20.000.00 
109. .582.70 
168.688.50 
130,000.00 



80.000.00 
34.7.59.00 
75.000.00 
71,451.75 
115,000.00 
87,765.00 

' '61,960.00 

'3o",ooo.6o 

65.000.00 
89.424.50 
25.5(X).00 
29.260.00 
10.000,00 
70,000.00 
5.436.00 

225.848.37 
84.655.00 

105.093.75 
62.087.50 





BY 


THE SUMTER. 




When destroyed. 


Name of Vessel. 


Character. 


Property destroyed. 


Value. 


July 25.1861.. 
July 5,1861.. 
Nov. 26, 1861 . . 


Abbie Bradford 


Schooner 

Brig 






Released 




Arcade 






Julv 5, 1861 . . 








July 4.1861.. 
Oct. 27. 1861 . . 


Cuba 


Brig 






Daniel Trowbridge . . . 

Ebeuezer Dodge 

Golden Rocket 

lnvestigat(U- 








Dec. 8,1861.. 


Bark 






July 3. 1861 . . 
Jan. 18, 1862.. 


Ship 




$40,000.00 
15,000 00 


July 27,1861.. 


.losepli Maxwell 

.Jose))h Parkes 

Louis Kilham 


Bark 

Brig 


Released 




Sept. 25, 1861 . . 




Julv 6.1861.. 


Bark 






July 4, 1861.. 


Machias 


Brig 


Releasi-d 




Nov. 25. 1861.. 




20,000.00 


July 6. 1861 . . 
Jan. 18. 1862.. 


Naiad 


Brig 

Bark 


Relea.sed 


Neapolitan 




Dec. 3. 1861.. 


Vigilance. 


Ship 




40 000.00 


July 6, 1861 . . 


West Wind 

















When destroyed 


Name of Vessel. 
Ada 


Character. 


Property destroyed. 


Value. 


June 2.3. 1863.. 


Schooner, 






June 12.1863.. 


Arabella 


Brig 

Schooner 

Ship 


Bonded 

Recaptured 




June 24, 1863.. 


Archer 

Bvzantium 




June 16,1863.. 




June 22,1863.. 


Elizabeth .\nn , 


Schooner 






June 22, 1863 . . 


Bonded 




June 23, 1863 . 


Goodspeed 


Bark 






June 20. 1863.. 


Ship 






June 20. 1863.. 


L. .\. Macomber 

Marengo 

Ripple 

Rut us Choate 








June 22. 1863 


Schooner 

Schoouer 






June 22. 1863.. 
June 22. 1863.. 




June 24,1863.. 


Shattemuc 


Ship 






June 14,1863.. 


Umpire 


Brig 


Vessel, etc 




June 22. 1863 . . 


Wanderer 




52 











818 



THE CONFEDERATE STATES NAVY. 





BY 


THE GEORGIA. 




When destroyed. 


Name of Vessel. 


Character , 


Properly destroyed. 
Vessel, etc 


ralue. 


Oct. 9, 186;} . . 


Bokl Hunter 


Ship 

Sliip 




June 2«, 1803.. 


City of Bath 




June 25, 1SG:{. . 


Constitution 

Dictator . . 

Geo. tTi'i.swold 


Ship 


Vessel, etc 

Vessel, etc 

Bonded 

Vessel, etc 




April 2",, 1803.. 
June 8, 1863.. 


Ship 




Ship 




June 13, 1863.. 




Bark 




Oct. —,1803.. 




Ship 

Bark 

Ship 




June 22, 1803.. 


J. W. Seaver 






July 16,1803.. 


Prince of Wales 









BY THE CLARENCE (A TENDER OF THE FLORIDA). 



W7te« destroyed. 


Name of Vessel. 


Character. 


Property destroyed. 


Value. 


June 7,1803.. 


Alfred H. Partridge.... 
Caleb C'ushi'.ig 


Schooner 

Cutter 


Bonded 




June 24, 1803.. 






Jiine 12, 1863 . 


Schooner, 

Brig 

Schooner 


Vessel, etc 




June 9 1863. 




$11,3(W.(I0 


June 12,1863.. 


Mary Schindler 

Tiiconv 

Whistling Wind 

Conrad (s. Tuscaloosa) 


June 12 1803.. 


Bark 






June C, 1863.. 


Bark 





















BY THE JEFF DAVIS (FITTED OUT AT CHARLESTON, JUNE, 28, 1861). 



When destroyed. 



June 

July 
Aug. 
July 
June 
July 
July 



.. 1861.. 
.. 1861.. 
16. 1861.. 
.. 1861.. 
16, 1861 . . 
.. 1861.. 
16, 1801.. 
.. 1801.. 



Name of Vessel. 



D.C.Pierce Bark 

Ella Schooner. 

Enchantress 

John (Jrawford... 

John Welsh 

Rovvena I Bark . 

S. J, Waring Schooner. 

W. McGilvery i Brig 



Schooner. 

Ship 

Brig. 



Property destroyed. 



Recaptured. 



BY THE WINSLOW 


(FITTED OUT AT WILMINGTON IN 1861). 


Whin destroyed. 


Name of Vessel. 


Cliaracter. 


Property destroyed. 


Value. 


July 18,1801.. 
Aug. 4, 1861 . . 










Itasca 


Brig 






July - . 1801 . . 








July .. 1801.. 
July 15, 1861 . . 


Priscilla 

Transit 




























BY THE CHICKAMAUGA. 



When destroyed. 


Name of Vessel. 


Cliaracter. 


Property destroyed. 


Value. 


Oct. 29.1804.. 


Albion Lincoln 

Emma L. Hall 

M. L. Potter 

Shooting Star 


Bark. 






Oct. 31, 1864 


Bark 






Oct. 30 18C4. 


Bark . . 


Merchandise 

Vessel, etc 






Bark '.. 





BY THE RETRIBUTION (A SCHOONER FITTED OUT IN C VPK FEAR RIVER). 



When destroyed. 



Feb. 19, 1863. 
Jan. 31, 1803. 
Jan. 10, 1863. 



Name of Vessel. 



Emily Fisher. 

Hanover 

J. P. Ellicott. 



Character. 



Brig 

Schooner . 
Brig 



Property destroyed. 



Cargo 

Vessel, etc.. 



$9,3.'>2.26 
11,6:^0.00 



BY THE BOSTON (A STEAMER CAPTURED IN JUNE, 1863). 


IK/ien destroyed. Name of Vessel. 


Character. 


Property destroyed. 
Cargo 


Value. 


June 12,1803.. Lennox 


Bark 

Bark 




Jvme 12,1863.. Texana 




BY THE ECHO. 


Wlien destroyed. Name of Vessel. 


Character. 


Properly destroyed. 


Value. 


July 9,1862.. Mary E. Thompson.... 


Brig 




July 9,1862.. Mary Goodell 


Schooner 






BY THE TUSCALOOSA (A TENDER OF THE ALABAMA). 



When destroyed. 



Name of Vessel. 



Character. 



Sept. 13,1803.. Living Age Ship. 

July 31, 18G3..I Santee I Ship. 



Property destroyed. 



$150,000.00 



THE CONFEDERATE STATES NAVY. 



810 



APPENDIX. 



REGISTER OF THE COMMISSIONED AND WAKUANT OFFICERS OF THE PROVISIONAL 
NAVY OF THE CONFEDERATE STATES TO JUNE 1, 1804, FROM THE NAVY REGISTER. 



Socnaary, S. R. Mallory ; Chief Clerk, E. M. 
Tidball; Clerks, Z. P. Moses, T. E. Buchanan. 
T. J. Rapier, C. E. L. Stnart; Messenger, T. J. J. 
Murray. Office of Orders and Detail : Chief of 
Bureau, J. K. Mitchell; Re-^ister. etc., J. S. Jones; 
Chief Clerk, G. Lee Breut. Office of Ordnance 
and Hydrography : Chief of Bureau. John M. 
Brooke; Chief Clerk, J. P. MeCorkle : Clerk. 
A. B. Up.shur. Office of Provisions and Cloth- 
ing : Chief of Bureau, John De Bree ; Chief 
Clerk, T. C. De Leon. Office of Medicine and 
Surgery: Chief of Bureau, W. A. \V. Spots wood; 
Chief Clerk, C. N Fenuell. 

-Vdmiral : Franklin Buchanan. 

Captains : Samuel Barron, Ra^jhael Senimes, 
W. W. Hunter, E. Farlaud, J. K. Mitchell, J. R. 
Tucker, T. J. Page, R. F. Pinckney, J. W. Cooke. 

Commanders: T. R. Rootes, T. T. Hunter, I. N. 
Browne. R. B. Pegram, W. L. Maury, J. N. Maf- 
ntt. J. N. Barney, W. A. Webl>. G. T. Sinclair, 
G.W. Harrison, J. D. Johnston, John Kell, W. T. 
Glassell, H. Davidson. 

FiBST LiEUTEN.\NTs : Washington Gwathmey, 
John Rutledge, Joel S. Keuuard, Charles M. 
Morris, John S. Maury, Charles W. Hays, 
Charles C. Simins, J. Mvers, A F. Warlev, John 
W. Beunett, J. H. Carter. W. H. Parker, J. 
Pembroke Jones, Wni. H. Murdaugh, James H. 
Rochelle, Robert D. Minor, James I. Waddell, 
Joseph Fry, Charles P. McGary, Robert R. Car- 
ter, John B. Hamilton, Oscar F. Johnston. John 
R. Egglosten, R. T. Chapman Wm. P. Camp- 
bell, B. P. Loyall, Wm. H. Ward, John W. Dun- 
uiugton, Francis E. bheppard, Wm. G. Dozier, 
Wm. L. Bradford, Hamilton H. Daltou, Wm. E. 
Evans, George E. Shryock, Thomas K. Porter, 
Joseph W. ^Uexauder, Charles J. Graves, Thos. 
B.Mills, Wm. C. Whittle, Jr. ; Wm. A. Kerr, 
John Grimball, Wm. K. Hall, Samuel W. Aver- 
ett, H. B. Claiborne, George A. Borchert, Hilery 
Cenas, Walter A. Butt, Wm. Winder Pollock, 
A. D. Wharton, Thomas L. Dornin, Thomas L. 
Harrison, James L. Hoole, Francis L. Hoge, 
Edmund G. Reed. Charl. s W. Read, S. G. 
Stone, Alphouso Barbot 'lobert J. Bo wen. 
W. Gift, Thomas W. W 
Carrick. Wm. F. Carte; 
Carnes, John H. Ingra. 
stocic, Richard F. Arnu 
gins, Charles K. King 



Jauies D. Wilson, Juli; 
Lee Samuel Barron J 
McOaleb Baker, 'olii- 
M. Benton, Ch: -les 
McAdam, Fran, s \ ■ ■ ' 
Ma.soii, Thomas j. Mo. 
ter O'Crain, Jo 'ph Pi ice, 



-.ies, Patrick Mc- 
11. H Wall. W. W. 
, Wm. Van Com- 
ig, Albert G. Hud- 
ues H. Comstock, 
Spencer, Sidney S. 
Jauty Stockton. J. 
I'daugh, Jilortimer 

.'.Ison, Sidney H. 
Alexander M. 

ey Foreman, Wal- 

Alcxauder Grai\t, 



(.;iiarles E. Yeatn an, Charles B. Oliver, Charles 
W. Hasker. Frai.cis Watliugtou, Jolm L. Phil- 
lips, tieorge H. Arledge, M. T. Clarice, John A. 
Payne, Henry W. Ray, Wm. E. Hudgins, John 
F. Ramsay. H. B. Littlepage, Lewis R. Hill. Ed- 
ward J. Means, Henry Roberts, Richard H. 
(Vale, Richard C. Fimte. Francis M. Roby, 
Henry H Marmaduke, John Lowe, Arthur Sin- 
clair, Jr. ; AVm. W. Roberts, Edgar A. Lambert, 
Oley Bradford. Josepli M.Gardner, Matthew P. 
Goodwyu, Americvis V. Wiatt. Thos. L. Skinner, 
Charles Borum, J. V. Johnson. C. L. Stanton. 

Second Lieutenants : J. P. Claybrook, R. S. 
Floyd, W. P. Mascm.W. F. Robinson, J. R. Price, 
D. A. T'elfair, Daniel Trigg, I. C. Holcome, 
W. R. Dalton, A. S. Worth R. A. Caium, D. M. 
Scales, J. T. Walker. 8. S. Gregory, W. W. Read, 
H. H. Bacot. E. J. M:Dermott, IJ. B. Larmour, 
T. P. Bell, J. W. BiM ips. 

SUBUEONS : J. W 3. Greenhow, W. D. Har- 



rison, Wm. F. Carrington, Charles H.William.son, 
Arthur M. Lyuah, Daniel B. Conrad, F. L. Gait, 
W. M. Page, H. W. M. Washington, A. G. Garnett. 

PA.SSED Assi.sTANX SuROEONs 1 Frederick Gar- 
retson, J. W. .Sanford, T. J. Charlton, C. E. Lin- 
ing, M. P. Christian, R. J. Freeman. B. W. Green, 
J. W. Herty, J. E. Lindsay, O. S. Iglehart. 

Assistant Surgeons: C. M. Mortitt, T. B. Ford, 
R. R. Gibbs, E. G. Booth, Thos. Emory, W. M. 
Turner, John De Bree, Marcellus Ford, W. W. 
Graves, W. J. Addison, N. C. Edwards, S. S. Her- 
rick, N. M. Read, John Leyburn, R. C. Powell, 
R. C. Bowles, J. P. Lipscomb, W. C. Jones, W. 
Shepisardson, C. M. Parker, C. W. Thomas, 
H. B. Melvin, W. S. Stoakly.W.W. Griggs, J. F. 
Tipton. G. B. Weston, G. N. Halstead, J. V. Cook, 
J. O. Grant, Pike Brown. H. G. Land, G. W. Clai- 
borne, J. M. Hicks, J. G. King, D. E. Ewart, Ed. 
Claire, J. V. Harris, L. R. Dickinson, J. B. Ruth- 
erlord. G. A. Foote, N. K. Henderson, J. W. Bel- 
inc, W. L. Warner, Robert Kuykendall, J. G. 
Thomas, W. E. Bondurant. J. E. Moyler, Fred. 
Peck, H. S. Paisy, J. E. Duffel, J. G. Bigley, 
K. Goldborough. 

Paymasters: Felix Senac, James O. Moore. 
Richard Taylor, James E. Armour. 

ASSIST.4.NT P.\YMASTEiis: D. F. Forrcst, \ 
Micon, L.E.Brooks, J. S. Banks, J. J. McPhji 
son, M. M. Seay, G. H. O'Neal. W. J. Richardson, 
P. M. DeLeon, Adam Tred well. Edw. McKean, D. 

C. Seymour, L. B. Reardon, W. H. Cha.sc, H. E. 
McDuffie, W. M. Ladd, S. S. Barksdale, S. S. 
Nicholas, Chas. W. Keim. W. E. Deacon, T. G. 
Ridgely, J. M. Pearl, L. M. Tucker, C. L. Jones. 
W. B. Cobb, J. F. Wheliss, M. L. Southron, 
Mar'sden Bellamy, B. M Herriot, N. K. Adams, 
W. A. Hearne, C. G. Pearson. 

Masters in Line of Promotion: S. P. Blanc, 
G. D. Brvan, Wyndam R. Mayo, D. D. C^olcock, 
W. P. Hamilton, J. C. Long. H. L.Vaughan, J. M. 
Peai-son, H. S. Cooke, G. W. Sparks, W. J. Craig. 

Masters Not in Line of Promotion: — Joliii 
Pearson, Lewis Parrish, A. Pacetty, Richard 
Evans, F. M. Harris, John C. Minor, C. W. Julni- 
son, W. B. Whitehead, H. W. Perriu, B. W. 
Guthrie, Charles A. McEvoy, William D. Porter, 
James W. McCarrick, Lewis Musgrave, Peter W. 
Smith, G. Andrews, A. L. Myers, J. Y. Beall,, 

D. W. Nash, Thomas L.Wragg, George M. Peek, 
Henry Wilkinson, Julian Fairfax, G. A. Peple, 
Levi G. White, Edward McC'.iire, John Maxwell, 
Bennett G. Burley, S Millikeu, S"*^'! Foster, 
John L. Ahern, John Webb, B. J. Siige, Cbarles 
Beck, Lewis N. Huck, G. W. Armistead. jd. J. 
Sherley, George W. Smith, John A. Curtis, Wil- 
liam Collins, C. M. Hite, A. Robinson, C. Linn, 
John M. Gibbs, Henry Yeatman, C. E. Girardj, 
W. Frank Shippey, Louis Gonnart, James Ca- 
hoon, Charles E. Little. John E. Hogg, Joseph 
R. DcMahy, H. D. Edinborough, Wm. A. Hiues, 
John C. Braiue, W. B. Cox, Lemuel Laugley. 

Midshipmen — Third Class, Senior: P. H 
Gibbs, W. N. Shaw, F. C. Morehead, George A. 
Joiner, Roger Pinckney, C. Gary, R. J. Deas, B. 
Carter, C. F. Sevier, W. F. Clayton, W. K. Hale, 
F. M. Berrien, Thomas C. Pinckney, A. O. 
Wright, H. H. Scott, H. H.Tvsou, F. B. Doonin, 
P. H. McCarrick, F. M. Thomas, F. S. Hunter, 
W. T. Carroll, D. M. Lee, J. B. Ratclifle, <;. 
Meyer, James R. Norris, W. D. Goodc, L. M. 
Rootes. R. J. Crawford, L. D. Hanincr, Thomas 
Wherritt, E. M. Jones, D. B. Talbott, R. E. 
Pinckney, H. J. EUett. Raphael Scmmes, Jr., 
A. M. Harrison, O. 8. Mansou. E. B. Prcscott. 

Midshipmen— Third Class, Junior: D. A. 
Dixon, John T. Lomax, Joliu .\.. Lee, George B. 
Cloud, John H. luglis, H. T. Minor, W. S. Hogue, 



H^y^J^ 






820 



THE CONFEH5eRATE STATES NAVY. 



J. D. Howell, John Johnson, Le\^^Levy, J. G. 
Minnegerode, A. S. Doak. G. AV^\'ilkms, JohVJ 
D. Trimble, J. V>e B. Noj-tbi'op. Ki.-'havd Sliiugli. 
ter. EuReue Phillips,^!. 1. W.cr'U. J'liuT. 
echarf, W. A. Lee, A. T.Tfnnt, T'l-.-st.-n 11. .Muore. 

Midshipmen — Fottkth Class: \Vm. M. Snead, 
W. J. Claiborue, W. S. Davidsou,W D. Haldnian, 
J. C. Wright, M. J. MtRae. W. H. Payne, B. S. 
Johnson, F. S. Kennett, F. L. Place, C. K. Breck- 
euridge, C. G. Uandridge, T. D. Stone. 

Midshipmen : R. 8. Floyd, R. J. Moses, W. W. 
Wilkinson, O. A. Browne, John T. Mason, Wm. 
B. Sinclair, James W. Pegram, J. H. Hamilton, 
J. H. Dyke, V. Newton, G D. Bryan, G. T. Sin- 
clair, W. H. Sinclair. I. D. Bulloch, Eugene Maff- 
itt, E. M. Anderson, J. A. Wilson, J. M. Morgan. 

Chief Engineers : Michael Quinn, Charles 
Schroeder, Henry X. Wright, James H. Toombs. 

FiKST Assistant Engineers : G. W. City, C. H. 
Levy, Loiidon Campbell, G. D. Lining.W. J. Free- 
man, H. B.Willy, Hugh Clark, M. P. Jordan, J. H. 
Loper, W. T. Morrell, G. W. Tennant, Benj. Her- 
ring, J. T. Tucker. W. Aheni, J. R. Jordan, J. J. 
Darcy, W. Youngblood, C. W. Jordan, E. A. JacK, 
W. P. Brooks. 

Second Assistant Engineers: E. G. Hall, 
Lsaac Bowman, J. F. Green, Junius Hanks, J. M. 
Freeman, Jr., C. H. Collier, N. O'Brien, W. M. 
Fauntleroy, Leslie King, J. L. Foster, R. J. Kil- 
"atrick, W. B. Brockett, J. C. Johnson, D. H. 

■*';h!-.rd, J. C. O Connell, E. H. Brown, J. H. 
„, John Langdon, L. A. McCarthy, J. S. West, 
o. J. Lvell, John Haves. Jos. Cardy, G. W. Cald- 
well, Richard Fiim, E. L. Dick. J. H. Baily. 

Thiud Assistant Engineers: J. T. Dolaiid, 
R.J. Caswell,W. F. Harding, J. H Parker, F. G. 
Miller, S. B. Jordan, J. K. Laughorue, J. W. 
Tomlinson. H. H. Roberts, E. F. Gill, R J. Hack- 
ley. J. B. Brown, G. A. Bowe, A. De Blanc, C. C. 
Leavett. C. S. Peek, A. J. Schwarzman. M. P. 
Young, M. A. Newberry, B. F. Drago, Oscar Ben- 
son. J. C. Phillip.s, W. A. Luddiugti n. Wm. 
Rogers, W. R. Doury, Peter Faithful, Donald 
McDonald. W. B. Patterson, E. P. Weaver, M. J. 
Cohen, J. T. Reams, R. S. Herring, J. W. Mc- 
Gx'ath. H. B. Goodrich, G. Wainwright, J. J. 
Kerrish, John Applegate, J. N. Ramsey. J. B. 
Weaver, R.E. Edwards, J. J McGrath, Wm. C. 
Purse, T. O. McClosky, C. B. Thompson, R. J. 
O'Neal. J. F. Robinett, Achilles Lombard, J. P. 
Miller. W. 0. Tilton, A. P. Wright. C. W. Ridle, 
W. H. Handy, G. H. Wellington, J. L. McDonald, 
S. K. Mooers. R. J. Smith, J. J. Lacklison, B. H. 
Bates, E. J. Deunigan, J. E. Viornelson, E. T. 
ITomaii, Holmes Ahem, Henry Discher, James 
Carlon, J. H. Haly. 

BoATswATNK . LestCT Seymour, Thos. Ganley, 
A. J, Wilson, Andrew Blakie, J. C. Cronin, John 
K.iv.Uaugh. Jas. Smith. W. J. Smith, H. J. Wil- 
son, J. J. Ingraham. John McCredie, Robt. Mc- 
Calla, Peter Taff, John Cassidy, John Brown. 

Gunners : John Owens, John X. Lovett, Wm. 
Cuddy, J. G. McCluskey, Z. A. Oftutt, Wm. H. 
Haynes, T. B. Travers, W. A. Flemming, G. M. 
Thompson, E. R. Johnson, S. P. Schisano, E. G. 
Williams. B. F. Hughes, Wm. Shelly, T. Baker, 
W. F. Brittingham. C. Gormly.B. A.' Barrow. W. 
J. Ballentvne, John Raabe, J. I. Mavberrv, .lolin 
Waters. Hugh McDonald, C. E. Porter", H. L. 
Smith, R. J. Webb, Ira W. Porter. 

C.^RE'ENTERS : R. M. Baiue, J. T. Rustic, J. M. 
Burroughs, G. D. Fentress, Wm. E. Jarvis, R. J. 
Meads. 

Sail-m.\kers : William Bennett, E. A. Maho- 
ney, S. V. Turner, M. P. Beaufort. Geo. Newton. 

Acting Masters' Mates : J. L. Ahern, Wm 
McBlair, J.T. Mavberry, J. A. Riley,T T. Hunter, 
Jr., J. C. Young. W. G. Porter, T. B. Boville. T. 
L. Wragg, G. Waterman, W. W. Skinner, J. Y. 
Benson. J. T. Lavton. T. J. Hudgins, W. Smith, 
R. Benthall,A. E. Alberton. T. E. Gibbs. S. S. 
Foster, C. Buseell, T. M. Hazlehurst, B. M. Fogar- 



tie, J. C. Turner, C. B. Bohanuon, G. Atchison, 
.S. A. Brockeuton, J. A. Rosier, E. M. Skiimer, 
H. C. Barr, E. C. Parsons, J. A. Paschall, R. 
.Battle, E. P. Winder, J H. Turner, J. H. Hart, W. 
E- Fitzgerald, F. B. Green. C. N. Golder, L. S. 
Seymour, W. M. Snead, W. D. Oliveira, W. N. 
Brown, Edward W. Jordan. O. L. Jenkins, C. 
Hunter, C. M. Selden, C. E. Bragden, P. M. Baker, 
W. B. Littlepage, S. L. Simpson, L. L. Foster, B. 
N. Spraggius, E. T. Havuie, J. J. Bronson, E. C. 
Skinner. W. S. Forrest^ W. R Howie, C. R. Mc- 
Blair, A. Campbell,]-:. W. C. Mavliiu, A. G.Hall, 
J. R. Murray, W. R. Rowe. H. GilUlaud, J. R. 
Chisnian. C. Neil. W. A. Lamkin. R M. Carter, 
A. McMillan, J. C. Graves, J. E. Ferral, R. Free- 
man, P. Power. A. G Corran, J. C. Hill. W. E. 
Le.ster, T. S. Ciray. M. J. Beebe. L. Pitts, J. J. 
Whitehead, W. A. Marschalk, R.Webb, T. Mason, 
G. 0. Lyon, J. M. Hazlehurst, C. F. Curtis, A. 
W. Johnson, F. MarschiUk. C. J. Yonge, P. G. 
Webb, H. Hermier, L. Bowdoiu, E. Smith, W. A. 
Collier, C. Frazec, C. K. Floyd. 

The following names of regular officers in the 
Navy Register of Januai-y 1st, 1S64, are not 
among those of the Provisional Navy in the 
Register of June Ist, 1804: Captains — Lawrence 
Rosseau, French Forrest. Josiah Tatuall, V. M. 
Randolph, Geo. N. HoUins, D. N. Ingraham, Wm. 
i\ Lynch, Isaac S. Sterrett, S. S. Lee, Wm. C. 
Whittle. Commanders — Robert D. Thorburn, 
Robt. G. Robb, Murray Mason. C. H. McBlair. 
A. B. Fairfax, Richard L. Page, Fred'k Chatard, 
Arthur Sinclair, C. H. Kennedy, Thos.W. Brent, 
Matthew F. Maury. Geo Minor, U. J. Hartstene, 
J. L. Henderson, W. T. Mu.se. C. F. M. Spotswood, 
C. Ap. R. Jones. J. Taylor Wood. Commani>eks 
FOB THE War: Jas. D. Bulloch, James H. North, 
John M. Brooke. Fihst Lieutenants — F. B. Ren- 
Shaw, C. B. Poiiide.vter. H. II. Lewis, P. W. Mur- 
phy, John J. Guthrie, Van B.MVrgan, Edward L. 
Winder, John H. Parker. John Wilkinson, C. M 
Fauutlerov, A. MiLaughlin, A M. De Bree, N. H. 
Van Zant." D. P. McCorkle, Wm. Sharp. Jos. I). 
Blake. Thos. P. Pelot. Philip Porchcr. Lieuten- 
ANrsFORTHE War— Josluui Humphreys. S. W. 
Corbin. Jas. I,. Johnson, Thos.W. Beuthall. John 
<T. Blackwood. Win. H. Odenlieimer, Edwanl E. 
Stiles. Suroeons— Jas. Corniik.Wni. F. Patton, 
W. A. W. Spotswood. Lewis \V. Minor. W F. Mc- 
Clenahau. John T. Mason, William B. Sinclair, 
Richard Jeftery, Jas. F. Harrison, I). D. Phillips, 
Chas. F. Fahs,Wm. E. Wysham. Paymasters — 
John De Bree, Thos. R.Ware, Jas. A. Semple, John 
Johnston, W. W. J. Kelly, Jas. K. Harvvood, Geo. 
H. Ritchie, Henry Myers. John W. Nixon. Ma.s- 
ters in Line of Promotion— Richard H. Bacot. 
Masters not in Line of Promotion — Wm. H. 
Carlon. Passed Midshipman^A. P. Beinie. 
Engineer-in-Chief— Win. P. Williamson. Chief 
Engineers— .Jas. II. Warner, Thos. A. Jackson. 
Virginius Frceiiiau. E.W.Manning, H. .\. Ramsey. 
Wm. Frick, J. W. Tynan. First Assistant 
Engineers— W. S. Thomiisou, AV. P. Riddle. 
Naval Conbtructoes- John L. Porter, cliief; 
and J, Pearce, W. A. Graves, acting constructors. 

The C. S Navy Register for January. 1804. 
gives the following roster of the Marine Coips: 
Colonel Commandant — L. J. Beall. Lieutenan r 
Colonel— II. B. Tyler. Ma.joh— G. H. Ten-ette. 
Paymaster with rank of Major — R. T. Allison. 
Adjutant with rank of Major — Israel Greene. 
Quarterm.\ster with rank of Major — .\. S. 
'Taylor. Captains— J. D. Simins, J. R. F. Tatnall, 
A. "j. Hayes, G. Holmes, R. T. Thom, A. C. Van 
Benthuysen, J. E. Meiere and T. S.Wilson. First 
Lieutenants— C. L. Sayre. B. K. Howell, R. H. 
Hendersim, D. G. Baney. J R. Y. Feudal], T. P. 
Gwynn, J. "Thurston, F. H. Camenm, F. Mao Ree. 
Second Lieutenants— D Bradford, N. E. Vena- 
ble, H. L. Graves, H. M. Doak. Albert S. Berrv. 
E. F. Neuville. D. G. Breut,J. C. Murdoch, S. M. 
Roberts, John L. Kapler. 




COMMANDER JOHN NEWLAND M. 

CONFEDEKATE STATES NAVY. 



INDEX 



PAGE. 

Allegiance to TJ. S ^12 

Alabama, Commission 'JH2 

Anns in tho South 15. IG, 24, 36, 132 

Auction sales •*"". ■^81 

Aflmiralty courts 11". l^a 

AlexauJer, Col 115 

Aciiwia Creek batteries 95 

Alexander, J. AV 157, 164, 187, 210. 377, 

383, 389, 395, i\U, 708 

Arkansas Post ^1". ■^ff 

Alabama... 533 

.\rms in 1*5 

Secession of -1 

Organizing a Navy 534 

>Uison. R. T 771 

.r- Albemarle, Ram - . 402, 4(13, 409, 765 

/Appalachicola, Expedition to 619 

/-Arkansas, Ram 303, 314, 333 

f' Arledge, a. H 644 

Alabama, Cruiser 1G4, 782, 785, 789, 796 

Vessels Captured by 797, 798, 815 

Averett, S. W 245, 791 

Atlanta, Ram 037,638, 644 

Anhcr, Cruiser 792 

Arsenals in the South 16,18, 24 

Arkansas, Secession of 24 

Aiken, Privateer 80 

Armstrong, R. F 421, 786, 797 

Blanc, S. P •'iSO, 619, 621 

Baker, Page M...533, 540, 541, 513, 545, 549, 597 

Bermuda 466 

Battery Buchanan 418 

Baton Rouge, Attemot to Capture 332 

Barbot, A '. . 308. 311, 5.50. 644, 669 

Beaufort, Gunboat. .. .157, 162, 164, 369, 3'.»2, 708 

Baltic, Ram .5.50,592 

Barnev. J. N 158, 187, 209, 215, 510, 708, 792 

Brooke,J. M 138, 145, 238 

Borchett, G. A 550 

Baker. J. M'C 539, 542, .545, 547, 618 

Butt, W 154,208,744 

Bulloch, J. D 43, 639, 783, 797, 802, 804 

Benjamin. J. P ... 682 

Bennett, J. W. 550, 555, 565, ,575, 576, 579, .597, 795 

Berrien 421,425 

Baltimore and Ohio Railroad ... 105 

Bradford, W. L 555, 576, 745, 790 

Brent, W.T ..651,653 

Bowen. R. J 674,706 

Blockade of Southern Ports 55, 433, 436, 498 

of the Potomac 94, 493 

of the Mississippi River 240, 274 

Atlantic Coast 434 

Key West 611,612 

Breaking at Charleston 677 

.James River 733 

Bond of Privateer 69 

Bier. G. H 675, 693 

Beauregard, Privateer 86 

Bacot, R. H 675 

Barron. S 96, 109, 295, 371, 375, 773, 802 

Benton, M. M ...74.5,807 

Buchanan. F..109. 1.54. 1.57. 165, 191, 228,421, 

540, 549, 5.50, 551, .557, .560, 569, 583, 687, 772 
Blockade Running. ...428, 471, 472, 481, 488, 491 

Beall, L J.. 770 

Brittingham, W. F 774 

Brown, N. J 308, 311, 321. 322. 323, 333, 

337, 340, 341. 693, 702 

Beall, J. Y 719, 720, 721 

Brain, J. C 723, 813 



PAGE. 

Bells for Cannon 727 

Breckenridge. C. R 777, 780 

vBuoyaut Tori)edo 764 

Boston, Vessels captured by 818 

Billups. J. W 774 

Borchert, G. A 806 

..^hicora. Ram . . . . 670, 671,678,691,698,701, 706 

Cenas, H 5.50 

Cook, H. S 398 

/Carr, John F., Gunboat 107, 405 531 
Charlotte, N. C 373 

Cowley, C 475 

Chatard, F 90,708 

Cusbiug, W.B 413,421. 765 

Congress. Fri^'ate 1 .50, 165 

Cotton, Gunboat 5(l0, .5(13 

Campbell, W. P. A 5,50, 6,36, 802 

Carter, R. R U3. 481, 806 

Chapnuiu, R. T 263, 418, 42o, '86, 804 

Chameleon, Blockade-nunu^' 4'ji'' 808 

Charleston. .37, 48, 50, 66, 438,441,468,487,657, X^ 

Siege of 697 

Defences of (■>85 

Stone fleet 43.5, 6()2 

Mason and Sli<lell left. 661, 684 

Breaking blockade 674.083,684,685 

.X«.Attemi)t to capture monitors 687 

Evacuation of 707 

Cary, Clarence.... 421, 422, 675, 693, 766, 781, 795 

Cotton seizures 446 

Cundierland, Frigate 1.59, 165 

^ Chattahoochee, Gunboat 48, 617, 622 

Calhoun, privateer, Vessels captun^d by. ... 90 

Coal 466 

Cooke, J. W 140, 389, 391, 392, 39.5, lot, 408 

Consuls at Charleston 082, <;83 

Cocke, H. F 140 

.Carter,J. H -530 

-/^-Charleston, Ironclad . .671, 706 

' Chickamauga, Cruiser..422, 463, 688, 766, 782, 809 

Vessels captured by 818 

/Columbia, Ironclad 672, 706 

' Coal tori)edo 762 

Cnshing Caleb, Capture of 794 

Confederate States 

Organization of navy 27, 28, 33, 47 

. Want of preparation for war 16 

Navy omcers. . 11, 33, 33, 47. 91. 481, 819, 820 

Providing munitions of war .'J,li. 3'.', ol 

Expenditures of 32 

Blockade of jjorts 55 

Recognized as belligerents 57 

Foreign affairs 428 

Admiralty courts 432 

Blockade running 483 

!Marinc Corps 769 

Naval Academy 772 

Torpedo Corps 7.53 

Cruisers • 782 

Commissioned and Warrant Officers C. S. N. 

819, 820 

Clarence, Cruiser, vessels captured by 794 

Clock-work foniedo 763 

Comstock, W. Van 774 

Chew, F. T 811 

- bruisers. History of 282 

Courts of Admiralty. 432 

Comstock, J. H 573,575, .579 

Chesaijeake, Capture of 813 

Davis, Jefferson 28, 53, 69. 68, 7.5, 

303, 487, 511, 545, 777, 778, 779, 807 



S'Z'Z 



INDEX. 



PAGE. 

Jefferson Davis, Continued. 

Inauguration as President 28 

Sending out privateers 53 

Commission for privateer 68 

Ketaliatiou threatened 75 

Davis, Miss W 775 

llav IS. Mrs. J 777 

^^avids. Torpedo boats 759 

4^')rift torpedo 756 

'! Uavies, T. W. W 774 

Dawson, F.W .. 712 

Diewry, Gunboat. 729. 741 

Drowry, A 712, 713 

J>rv laud "Merrimac" 7'28 

111' Kail), Ram 3,19,347 

'uuuiugton 248, 341,344,346,350, 744 

Doruiu. T. L 421, 425 

Davis, Jefferson, Privateer 78 

Diana, Capt\ire of . ,504 

Davidson, Hunter. .154, 208, 708, 728,730, 738. 762 

Dozier, W. (i 65H, CS8, 691, 693. 703, 745 

Dixie, Privateer 84 

Drewry's Bluff 198, 688, 709, 713, 715, 

717, 724, 738, 745, 771, 776 

Dai Ching, Gunboat 704, 705 

lAcrglade, Gunboat 89 

I His, Gunboat ... ... 369,374, 384,391, 414 

I Aauspoi I Batteries 99 

i:-!<le- m. J. K 154,208,550 

l.ri sson, J 185 

; n-oi)ean Kaius 784 

I'.vans, W. E 786,804 

I- i;bo, Vessels captured by 818 

1 orts : Sumter 19, 35, 496, 656, 659. 699 

Morgan 21, .536, 541, .551, 554, 

556, 559, 572, 586. 687, 590, 591 

Hiiidman 347, .348 

tiritfin, Defence of 522 

Pickens 544, 545, 599,606, 608, 615 

Gaiiu-s 553, 556, 559, 583, 584, 585 

Powell 553,556,583, 585 

McUac 600 

Pulaski 633 

J'arraud, E 228, 263, 544. 646, 550, 

592, 595, 602, 710, 715, 717 

Fairfax, A. B 228 > 

J'annv C'apl.a'e of 379 1 

iox.G.V.... 182,183,184 ' 

I'a -as^ut and the SoutU 301 

I'orel-u .\ffairs 56, 428 

! itzliugli, W. K. .'529 

I'redcritksburg, Vessels burnt at 117 

I ive Brothers, Privateer 89 

I'rederieksburg. Ironclad 731,735,741 ' 

.I'auntleroy, C. M 105, 109. 713, 795, 802 

I'loating battery 657 

!orrest, F 137,293,373,383, 7;jl 

I'ry. J 248, 342. 343. 1597 

1 .'rd.U. S .. 791 

Florida 599, 617 

Setres.siou of 21, 599 

Navy-yard in 25 

Powder in 48 

Florida, CUniiser 536, 782, 790 

Vessels captured by 810 

tieorgia 16, 88 

^ Secession of 22, 87 

Ic'orgia, Kani 637, 651 f,-, 

.arducr,J.M 377,398,745, 807 

< ■ raves, C. J 550, 774, 776 

'.aincs, Gunboat 550, 655 

iirimball. J 308.311. ,550, 8U 

liitt. G. W 307,308.311,324, 

330, 334, 337. 398, 618, 620, 621 

' luthrio, J. J . . 617 

(iovenior Mooro, Gunboat 279,285 

'iill, K.F 3<)8 

<;osport Navy-yard 39 

(i wathmey. W.. 605, 606, 745 

Gloucester Point Batteries 108, 110 



Gordon, Privateer. 
Glassell, W. T.. 



PAGE. 

.. 83 
..675, 692,693.744, 758 



J'.-Gunboats Building in the South .. ..... 45 

Georgiana, Cruiser 803 

Galveston 496, 499, 504, 506, 512. 515 

Georgia, Cruiser 782, 803 

Vessels captured by 818 

Hamilton, W. P , . 675, 781, 795 

Hobart, 482 

Hall, W. B 87, 774 

Harrison. Thos. L 550,582,' f97 

Hunter, T. T..384, 385, 389, 395.550, 693, 702, 745 

Huntress, Steamer 88,088, 792 

Hudgins. A. G 550 

Hogue, V7. S 398 

Harriet Lane 298, 299, 370. 385, 504, 506, 

508. 512, 519, 531, 561, 616. 745 

Hasker, 0. H 693, 698, 713 

Hays, C. W 596 

Huttor, Midshipman .. 163 

Hartstene, H.J 99. O.W, 670 

Habersham, E., Steamer 645 

JHarmouy. Tug 139, 373 

.yHarvest Moon. Gunboat 705 

Harrison, G. W 143, 555, 575, 581, .583 

Harriet Def ord. Captured 723 

Hamilton, J. R 658, 660 

Hollins, George N.. . . 112, 115, 141, 228, 243; 

244. 247, 265, 274, 30O. 305, 415 

Housatonic blown uj) .... 760 

'fiampton. Gunboat 709 

^untsville. Gunboat .546, 592, .594. 595 

■■' Huger. Thos. B 279. 287, 301, 6,58, 660 

Hoge, F. L 122. 193, 398 

Howeil, J. D 779 

Hunter. W. W 497, 646. 651 

Hudgins, W. E 123 

Holdeu, Midshipman 786 

vHampton P.oads 128 

\ Naval Battle in 1.57 

Howell, B. K 786.797 

Hoole, J. L 389, 395, 791 

Hatteras, Sinking of 898 

lugraham, D. N 36, 89, 670, 674, 676, 678, 689 

Indianola, Iron-dad 3-57, 358, 362 

^ Indian Chief, Receiving ship... 674, 688, 692, 760 
Iron-clads in the South 43, 141. 145. 1,57 

1 I vey , V. H., Privateer 90, 275 

Judith, Privateer 89 

Jones, C. Ap. R 130. 140, 141, 154, 167. 

182. 191, 208, 716 
Jamestown, Steamer 141, 158, 167, 708 

/Jackson, Gunboat 279, 299 

' Juno. Steamer 693, tHtS 

Johnston, J. D 550.565.671,576.597,744 

Jones, J. Pembroke 414, 636, 641, 6(i4 

Joiner, G. A 597 

Johnston, O. F 636. 774 

Jones, C. L 307 

Jeff' Davis, vessels captured by . . . 818 

Kennon, Beverley 279,281, 299 

Kerr, W. A 398 

King Cotton 440 

Kenard. J. S •. 633, 6S6. 664, 666 

Kell, J. M ...740,786, 797 

Kearsarge and Alabama 799 

Louisiana % 

Arms in 10 

Secession of 22, 89 

Bullion found 32 

Lee, S. S., .Ir 811 

Losses by Confederate cruisci's 782, 783 

Ladies' Defence Association 727 

Lee, R. E., Blockade-runner 462,463, 481 

Lamar, G. B 492 

Littlepago, H . B 201 

Lewis Cass, Gunboat 5:J5 

Louisiana. Gunboat.266. 283, 289, 292, 29.8,301, 539 
Lincoln, Abraham... .17. 19, 38, 59, 128, 136, 604 
Low, J 801 



INDEX. 



823 



PAGE. 

Lfifi. .S. S 228, 293, 710, 717, 74K, 773 

LiUKl BattPiies 40, 95, 143 

Luval, li. P 14:t, 398, 401, 407 

Lewis, H. H 95,105. Ill 

Lpttei-H of Miirnup .... .53 

Cijii*)!, W. P.. 95. 192. 307. .S27. 333. 377, 385. 391 

fjovalt V of Coufederato Oftlcera 18 

t,i(,'ht-housea 20,21.27, 718 

/iady Davis. Privateer C7. 658, 66G, 088. 781 

>^Morgan. Gunboat ...550, 555. 592 

" McBlair. C. H 550. C41 

Mississippi, Ordinance of Seces-sion 21 

MinnoKcrode. J. G 781 

Mallitt, John N.. .392, 404, 409,489, 536, 6G4, 790 

Maiilc Ijoaf , Capture of 721 

MurdauKli. W. H 373, 375, 376. 607, 745 

, MiBlair 305 

Monitor 167.172,197,212.687 

Mit(!liell, J. K ... 243, 252, 279. 289. 293, 297, 

301, 539. 731, 738, 776 

Mason, M i 228 

Myers, A. L 273 

Maury. M. F ' Ill, 228, 306. 802. 803 

Mississippi, Gunboat 267,292, 295 

Vliioliinery 51 

Matthias Point Batteries 96 

Musi<;, Privateer 90 

Minor, R. D 113. l.'')4, 210, 407 

Mallory, S. R.29. 41, 43, 147, 211. 242. 247, 295, 

300, 322. 546, ,581. 608, 687, 717, 773 

Morehnad, F. C 781 

McG.ary. C. P , 596 

MvfO'S. Julius 596 

Wlliitosh. C. F 143, 279, 291, 297 

Minor, G 228 

Maury. W. L 143, 22S, 804 

Worgan, V. R .'5.50, 609 

MobiUi 66, 437, 442. 537, 550, 557, 593 

Boats built at 48 

Defences of 535, 552 

Daring Exploit from . . .'538 

Surrender of 595 

MeK.ae. Gunboat 263. 272. 286, 299, 300 

Murpjiv, P. U. 5.50. 555, 575, .578. 596 

VTai lassas. Gunboat 264, 275, 279. 292. 

295, 296, 301, 303 

MeDermott, E. G 555 

Mallory, Midshipman 618 

MorKan.Fort 21 

Memphis 

Building Gunboats at 45, 242, 302. .305 

Naval Fight at 258, 561 

Maury. J. M 709 

Mayo.W. R ...418. 745, 779 

Marmaduke 745 

.vlarines 208. 273, 399, 420, 693, 716. 745, 769 

\Iaury. J. S 726 

\tason and Slidell 661 

VTound Battery 465 

vlissi.ssippi RiVer 239, 274, 299 

Defence 250, 278, 303 

Morris, C. M 792 

Mason. .T.T 811 

Maury, R. H 726. 727 

Ma(!on. Gunboat 637, 651 

■lilledgeville 637. 651 

New Orleans 66. 89, 241. 245, 247. 445 

Seizure by Confederates , 22 

Soizin-eof Mint 23 

Building Gunboats 36. 46, 263 

Privateers DO 

Pri/.i-s in.. 1 4 .. 91 

Defences of 265. 290 

Federal Attack on 278 

Cap»\ire of by Federals 299 

Burning of the Gunboat Webb 365 

Vaval Academy, History of 773 

New Iron.sides blown up 758 

^Javal Brigade 745, 748, 749 

.S'in.a, Gunboat 89. 669 



PAGE. 

- "Neuse, Ram 414 

--'North Carolina. Iron-dad 415 

Norfolk navy -yard 129. 132, 383 

"Nashville, Gunboat 5.57. .592. .594 

Nassau 473, 474, 478. 479. 480. 491 

"Nansemoud, Gunboat 709 

Navigation of Mississipi^i Obstructed 24 

Nashville. Cruiser.. <;6. 637, 638. 781. 782, 795, 814 

Navy-yards in the South 25, 47 

North Carolina 367 

Powder in 48 

Blockade Business 491 

Norfolk Navy -yard 25 

Oath of Officers resigned froiu U. S. N 11 

Organization of C. S. N 27, 33 

Ordnance Stores 49, 51. 373 

Officers C. S. N 819, 820 

Old Dominion Trading Co 92 

Olustee. vessels captured by 814 

Port regulations 468 

Preparation for War 15, 132 

Port Royal, attack on 664 

Patrick Henry, Steamer. . . .141, 1,58. 167, 194, 

702, 708. 715, 731, 773, 774 

Police on Sea-coast 67 

Payne, J ,565, 693,695, 760 

Pilots 466 

Page. R. L. .110, 143,553. 503. 572.r,8(;. .591,637. 664 

Page, T. J 108, 708,710.718,805. 806 

Pensacola 25, 36, 37, .544, 699, 603, 612 

Porter, T. K....- 792 

Planter, Steamer 61)8 

Pelot, T. P 646, 649 

Porcher. P 398, 636, 666, 674, 693, 694 

Porter,J.L 145,147,671 

Powell, W. L 141. 151 

Parker, W. H ...139, 157, 173. 187. 202. 210. 
218, 220, 384, 389, 391, 395, 414. 674, 688. 

689, 692, 731, 732, 749. 773, 778 

Prizes .57, 91. 93. 449 

Pegram. R. B 130, 228, 712. 731, 732, 795 

Pinckney. R 675, 093 

Pay of Navy Officers 34 

Philips, E 565 

Prize Courts 449 

Pinkney, R. F 143, 248, 307, 406. 407, 420 

Page, George, Gunboat 95,101. loC 

Powder 48. .50 

Price, J 646 

Percussion caps 49 

Potomac blockade 94 

Privateers 5^7. 58,62. 63. 64 , 661 

Palmetto State. Ram 670, 689. 698, 701. VOC. 

Patapsco, Monitor, blown up 705 

Queen of the West, Gunboat. ..310, 314, 329, 

351, 352, 357, 360 

Resignation of Officers 11, 14, 32 

Richmond 711 , 713. 746 

Destruction of Fleet 747 

Evacuation of 746, 747, 748 

Renshaw, B 602 

Baleigh, Ram... . 414 

Red River 520,529 

Roanoke Island .388 

-Richmond, Iron-clad. .725. 731, 73.5, 737, 738, 741 

Regulations of Port 467 

Resohite, Gunboat.. 98, 103, 634 

Reliance, Gunboat 98. 103. 122 

Raleigh. Gunboat 157, 162, V7, .369, 392, 708 

Ray, H. W 693 

Republican Party and the War 20 

Roby, F. M 343, 345. 350, 398, 420. 422. 745 

Register of C . S. N. Officers 819, 820 

Robb, R. G 136, 228, 293 

Read, E. G : 550, 806 

Read, C. W..99, 243, 246, 287, 301, 307, 308, 
313, 327, 333, 337, 364, 366, 740, 741, 

742, 791, 792, 794 

Rolling Mills 31 

Raft-torpedo 757 



824 



INDEX. 



PAOF,. 

Ronshaw. ... 251 

KosBwiu, Lawrence 89, 228, 244, 2G3, 596 

Rope 51 

Rams in England 784 

Rofhelle. J. H. . . .192. 198, 672, 093, 701. 702, 774 

River Defence 250 

Riitledge, J G36, 000, 604, 674, 070. 093 

Rootes. T. R 731, 737 

Rappahannock, Cruiser 802 

Retribution, Cruiser .782, 818 

Suead,C 377 

Scales, D.M... 308,311, 811 

Secession 11, 15 

St. Charles, Ark 342 

Stevens. H. K 308,311,320. 337 

Shryock, G. 8 ...291,674, 806 

Stonewall Jackson 279, 280, 299 

Stephens, A. H 191 

Sinclair. Arthur 270 

; Star of the West 35, 494, 657 

Satellite 122 

St. Nicholas, capture of Ill 

•Spott-swood, C. F. M 133 

Seluia Ordnance Works 49, 50 

Sharp. W 193, 372, 375 

Sininis, C. C 113,154,208,389 

,. Savannah. Gunboat.. ..89, .554, 633, 637, 651. 6.53 

Selma, Gunboat 550, 555 

Southern Confederacy, Anus in... 10, 36, 51, 132 

Ships in 17, 1.32 

Preparation for War 15, 48, 49 

Meeting of Delegates of 25 

Organizati- )U of navy 27 

Providing Munitions of War 28, 49, 51 

Blockade of Ports 55 

Foreign Affairs 56 

Recognized as Belligerents 56 

Sinclair. W.B 791 

Stonewall, Cruiser Ram 283, 804 

Stone. S. G 791 

Schulty., Steamer 767 

Shippey, W.F : 742 

Stono, Steamer 703 

Signals, Federal, cJJseovered 699 

Sparks. G. W 619 

Sampson, Gunboat 633, 634, 652. 664 

Stockton, E. C 093 

Stanton, (XL 693, 698, 699, 745, 749 

South Carolina 35, 128,495.0.55, 009 

Armsin. 16 

Secession of 20, 050 

Seizure of Wm. Aiken . 21, 050 

Assault on Fort Sumter. .19. 35, 128, 656. 6,59 

Powder in 48 

Seacoast Police 07 

Stone Fleet 435. 602 

Shenandoah, Cruiser 782, 810 

Vessels capturiat by 817 

Slidell, J ." 804 

Stnbling. J.M 786,790 

Sumter, Steamer 697 

Spanish Fort 593 

Springbok Ca.se 458 

Saunders, P 398, 399, 675, 693 

Smith, Leon 405, 512, 520 

Sabine Pass 498, 518, 521, .526 

Savannah 66, 492, 5.54 

Vessels built at 48 

Defences of 635 

Capture of 653 

Stone Fleet 435 

Shreveport, La 365 

Smith, Isaac P.. Gunboat 670 

Scharf, J. T 398, 619. 620. 652, 693 

Sheppard, Lieut 740 

Sinclair, G. T 040 

Seward's Diplomacy 428 

Svimter, Assault on 19 

Savannah', Privateer 68 

Semmes. R....28. 164. 504, 744.746. 785. 797, 801 
Semvues, O. J 504 



Sumter, Cruiser 36, 263, 274, 782, 78.5 

Vessels captured by 817 

Sheppardsou, W. L ". 807 

Texas 494 

Secession of 24 

Torpedoes.. 545, 556. 559. 561, 634, 688, 696,730, 

731,732,738,756; Vessels destroyed bv 768 

Torpedo Boats 622, 687, 691^ 696, 759 

Trans-Mississippi 494 

. Tuscaloosa, Gunboat 539, 592 

Trade in Blockade-running 488,491 

Tennessee, Ram 303, .553, 555, 564, 573. 574 

Tansill. R 769 

Tombs 759 

Tucker.J.R. 136.142,158.187,192. 195,209,675, ' ^ 

676, 080, 694, 700, 706, 708, 725. 744, 748, 772 
Teaser, Gunboat.. .. 142, 160. 167, 702, 708, 728 

Tredegar Iron Works 31, 153 

Tuscaloosa, Cruiser, 801; vessels captured by 818 

Theodora 661 

Thorburn 116 

Taylor.A.S 770 

Tatnall, J 38. 190. 197. 210. 212, 220, 221, 

224 228. 034. 653, 664, 708 

Thom.as,Col. K 113 

Taeony, Cruiser.. 792; vessels captured b v.. 817 

Treaty of Paris 58, 454, 456, 663 

Tyler, N 137, 138 

Tallahassee. Ci-uiser 463, 782. 807 

Vessels captured by . ■ • 816 

United States. Seizure of N. O. Mint. 23 

Vessels seized in the Sonth 24 

Naval force 41, 42 

Privateers 60, 62 

Foreign Dijilomacy 428 

Stone Fleet 435 ' 

Vessels destroyed by torpedoes 768 

TTnderwritei', Gunboat 390, 393. 395, 398, 619 

essel seized in the South 24, 41 . 47 

irginia..7(l8; Secession of. 25, 38,94, 130 
Vobinteer Navy Co , 91; Norfolk navy- 

vard, 132; Surrender of 749 

Virginia No. 2, Iron-clad 731, 73.5. 739. 741 

Vessels destroved by torjjedoes 768 

Van Zandt, N.'K...". 675 

Virginia, Iron-clad . .43, 129, 140. 145, 148, 152. 

154,1.57, 103,167,172,177,197,212,221.307, 727 

Vaughan, H. L 651 

Volunteer uavv 91 

Vance, Z " 491 

Vicksburg 239, 321. .328,'353, 364 

Waddell, J. I., 810, 811 

Wall, W H 675,693 

Wilson. T.S 399 

Whittle, Lieut. Wm.C.280. 28:J, 297. 299. 795, 811 

Wartl, W. H 693, 698. 742, 745, 807, 808 

Wharton, A. D 308. 311, 5.55, .500. 562, 576 

Wh ittle, Capt. W. C . 107, 108, 109, 244. 247, 270, 300 

Winslow 8H. :H09, 370. 383 

-Webb, W. H.. Gnnboat 90, 357, 364, 500, 745 

Wilkinson, John 95, 398. 462, 480, 490, 809 

Warley, A. F 273, 27,5, 291, 205, 301. 409. 

412. 660, 693, 695. 765 

Wilmington 50,383,418,441,464, 467, 

475, 477,487; capture of, 427 
-W'ebb, W. A. .1.58. 187, 209, 614, 643, 64.J, 687. 689 

Winder, E. L 596 

. Worden, Admiral 174 

"Wilson, J. D 797 

Williamson, W. P 145, 1^7 

Watluigton, F 596 

Welles, Gideon 175, 180 

Watson. P. H 175 

Water Witch.. 274: capture of 645 

Wood, Col. J. T. . .122, 145, 154, 103, 208, 219. 

236, 395, 401, 463, 713, 715, 719, 722, 723, 807 

Yorktown Batteries 108. 110 

Yorktown, Steamer • 1*1 

Yeatman, C. E 596 

Yacht America "9" 

York, vessels captured by 



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